Second Thoughts about In-Ground Pool Installation

Ok Pool God's and Goddesses,

I decided to check off one of my bucket list items and bought myself a pool.. Not any pool, but the biggest SWG pool I could put in my yard. Now I am concerned that I have screwed myself into all types of h3ll.

Here is my current pool specs as far as I know;
20x40 square 4 - 6 in depth. approx 30000 gallons?
4 Water features - 4 pencil Jets, 6 Aerators, 2 scounces, 1 6' water sheer
2 Jandy Stealth 2hp pumps
1 1hp booster pump
Also have an aquapure salt chlorine gen?

Here are some of my first concerns.
1. They have my sconces and water sheer on the same pump as my cleaner and filter? Why? Couldnt all of my features have ran on the other pump with the booster?

2. 30 days of startup before I put the 600 gallons of Salt in is crazy.. I am scrubbing 4 times a day and leaving pumps on for 8 hours a day so far and the pool still looks dirty... "The oak tree in the corner of pool isnt helping"

3. What are the best (most efficient) rpm speeds that my pool can run and still give me a 2x turnover per day while being energy conservative.. I really would like to figure out the lest power use.. (Am i to premature considering there is no salt in yet?)

I guess i will start with these 3 first. I really appreciate these forums being here and look forward to many more posts and interactions.

Regards,

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Congratulations on the new pool--once you get a maintenance routine together, you'll be surprised at how easy it is to keep your pool clean.

I can't answer the questions for you about the water features and the equipment, but we do have several other forum members who I'm sure will be by shortly to answer those for you. My question for you is about the "30 days of startup"....are you using chlorine of any kind in the pool right now to keep it from growing algae? Also, what kind of pool is this--gunite, vinyl, fiberglass, etc? Do you have a drop-based test kit? If so, if you'll post a set of results, we can help you determine what you need to to do keep it clean until time for the SWCG. If not, we very highly recommend the K-2006 test kit, which can be found many places online but the best price seems to be through the Amazon link in my sig below--just make sure Amato Industries is the seller, because some of the other companies substitute the K-2005, which is NOT the same kit.

Sorry it took so long to put your post out where others could see it -- but I've learned the hard way to be wary of new registrations from folks who had some Internet savvy, but were not giving address and name info. It's been so busy, I didn't have time to run a full search on your IP and domain, and make sure you weren't an SEO hired gun. Fortunately, that stuff has dropped way off, since I added geo-blocking to the firewall, and the "nofollow" attribute to the forum links.

Good luck with your pool.

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3. What are the best (most efficient) rpm speeds that my pool can run and still give me a 2x turnover per day while being energy conservative.. I really would like to figure out the lest power use.. (Am i to premature considering there is no salt in yet?)

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What pumps (model #s) do you actually have. Are they two speed or are they actually e-pumps?

From your original post, I can't really tell how the whole pool is plumbed and what goes with what pump so some details would be helpful.

Wow that took longer than expected! Thanks for the replies though.. I will try to answer them in order here.

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aylad aka Janet "My question for you is about the "30 days of startup"....are you using chlorine of any kind in the pool right now to keep it from growing algae? Also, what kind of pool is this--gunite, vinyl, fiberglass, etc? Do you have a drop-based test kit?"

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Yes I am using a crap load of chlorine. Have already went thru 30 lbs of it. We are on our 3rd week and have had 2 big weekend parties. This last weekend was a doozy.. Beer, wine, animals you name it, it was in the pool.. I tried to shock/over chlorinate to help clear out anything else.

My pool is gunite with a pebble finish. No I do not have a test kit at home yet, but do have a friendly store that tests for free and likes to sale me tons of chemicals. hehehe.. I will order the kit and get ready for my BBB approach.

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mas985 aka Mark "hat pumps (model #s) do you actually have. Are they two speed or are they actually e-pumps?"

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I have the stealth e-Pumps.. I am trying to figure out my gpm based on rpm so that i can figure the lowest set speed to let them run. I prefer to leaving the pumps run 24/7 at the lowest RPM's to make sure the life stays longer with them. Might be ill thought but I am old school and believe that a pump lasts longer if it just runs compared to start up shut down..

Currently we are running around 1250 rpm at about 158 watts. I am assuming my turn at around 4 times even with that rpm?

So assuming you have the JEP2.0 pump and typical 2" plumbing, then the flow rate should be around:

Flow Rate (GPM) =RPM / 37

The most efficient setting is around 800 RPM or 22 GPM which also happens to be a 24 hour turnover.

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Flow Rate (GPM) =RPM / 37 The most efficient setting is around 800 RPM or 22 GPM which also happens to be a 24 hour turnover.

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So a turnover of 1 x per day is acceptable while not being used, and when I have the family in it, if we turn it up to the 2250/3450 ranges it should be good?

I use one turnover during the summer when the pool is frequently used and down to a 1/4 turn in the winiter when it isn't used at all and the water is very cold. Turnover is primarily about filtering debris out of the water so if the pool looks clean enough for you, then that is all you need. You will get plenty of circulation with a 24 hr turnover so I wouldn't worry about that.