New pool owner and have MANY questions. Need help!

[Txboynjgirl]

I just moved into a new home that has a salt water pool. The previous owners did not leave any instructions or manuals. I am trying to learn the ins and outs so I don't have to pay someone $$$ for simple upkeep or repair.

I just discovered this website so I haven't had alot of time to read with my job, 5 year old boy bouncing off the wall, and colicky daughter.

I have Goodline controls with a AquaRite Cell. I have a Hayward Sand Filter. My pool is 22,500 gallons (shallow and a deep end w/diving board).

My question is...please be gentle because I really don't know what I'm doing and I don't know all the pool lingo.

I have opened my pool for a week now. I took a water sample to (leslie's) and did what they recommeded. I bought their shock, calcium, and stablizer. I bought baking soda and salt from a nonpool store instead of their stuff.
My water was green with algae and now it's gone. But, my water is cloudy. I would say it not real bad. It's kinda clear in the shallow end but get's cloudy on the deep end.

Should I get another water test? Or are they going to seel me some unecessary product? I put some water balancer in it today.
I leave my pump on for about 10 hours...do I need to leave it on longer?
Also, when I add chemicals to my pool...do I leave it on recirculate or filter? I heard both answers...Also, do I add directly to the water or in the skimmers?

I have some dirt or sand at the bottom of the pool. Will my Polaris pick it up or do I need to vaccum it out? My Polaris was broken so I am trying to fix it and run it.

I'm new so I would take any advice from anyone.

Steve

[PoolDoc]

Hi Steve;

Welcome to the PoolForum!

Pools can be pretty intimidating when you are just starting, or even when you aren't. We can help some, especially with the chemistry.

One of the first ideas you need to get a hold on is that pool stores depend, for their profits, on selling you things you don't need. In the US, the pool chemical biz is over $1,000,000,000 per year. If pool owners did their pools right, and bought only what they needed, that figure would shrink by over $500,000,000 per year -- more than enough to bankrupt most chemical stores and pool chemical brands.

Now, that doesn't mean everyone in the pool store is a crook: they've been TAUGHT that you need the goop they're selling. But you need to understand that, whether they know it or not, they HAVE to sell you stuff you don't need, or their store would go broke!

So, you have to control them; you can't let them control you.

You asked if they would sell you products you didn't need. The answer is, they already have: at a minimum, you didn't need to add the calcium. It's even possible that the cloudiness may be related to that!

Here's stuff for you to do, step by step:


1) Till your pool is clear, run your pump 24/7.
2) Don't backwash your filter too often. (Do you know how to backwash? Do you have a pressure gauge on the filter? What does it read before . . . AND after backwashing?)
3) Get a cheap OTO / phenol red test kit TODAY from Walmart or wherever, and test your pool. Post both those results and the results you got from the pool store here. While you're there, buy 10 gallons of plain 6% household bleach and 4 boxes of 20 mule team borax (both in detergent section).
4) Add 5 gallons of bleach this evening.
5) Do NOT add any (more?) clarifier, algicide, enzyme, phosphate product, metal product, flocculant, sequestrant, or miracle pool goop.
6) Vacuum and brush your pool.
7) Purchase a K2006 test kit (Amazon links below) -- hold off on the salt kit for now, unless you really want one.

If your pool store has a repair or service operation, you may want to hire them to come out and show you how to do all the following:
+ backwash.
+ clean the pump and skimmer strainers.
+ vacuum.
+ vacuum to waste.
+ prime the pump and restart it.

We can tell you, but it's a lot easier for most people to learn by watching than by reading.

About your Polaris -- I haven't kept up with all the models they've released in the past 5 years, but if your Polaris has mesh bag filter, it will pick up big stuff (bugs, leaves, etc.) but not small stuff (dirt, dead algae, etc.).

Ben

[CarlD]

Hi Steve,

What you can also do is have the pool store give you test results and NOT buy anything. You could tell them you're just checking to see how all the garbage, OOPS! I mean "fine products" they sold you are working, or that your friend wants to see the numbers (that's no lie. You'll find we are your friends), whatever. Just don't buy anything.
Then post the test results here--we can help you understand the gibberish.

BTW, is your pool vinyl-lined or a hard pool, like concrete, tile,plaster, etc.? If it's the latter you MAY need to maintain a calcium level in a certain range (not hard to do), but we'll sort that out later. However, if it's vinyl, you absolutely, positively have no need for calcium.

One last thing: When you bought salt was it sea salt, like the kind you use for water softeners? If so, I believe that's the correct kind.

Carl

[Txboynjgirl]

I have a vinyl-lined pool. I guess I wasted $33.00 on calcium hardness flakes. That won't happened again. I bought my pool salt at Wal-Mart. I'm pretty sure that I'm safe on that.
I will be going to the pool store tomorrow to see what they have to say. Trust me, I will not buy anything. Thanks, Carl.



I know how to backwash. My pressure gauge on my filter does not work. A pool man who kinda helped me said that pressure gauges on these (salt) systems usually breaks and that it wasn't necessary to replace it. He said to backwash once a week.

Is it safe to add bleach and/ borax to a salt water pool? I heard you can do that to chlorine pools. I guess the bleach is the Pool "shock". When I add the bleach...should I have the control on recirculate or filter? I always get two different answers on this. Also, if it is recirculate...for how long than switch to filter?

I haven't vaccum yet. I really need too. Is there a difference on vacuum and vacumm to waste?

I will try the things you mention and I really appreciate all the help and making this less stressful. Thanks, Ben.

Steve

[aylad]

I would replace the pressure gauge. They're not that expensive, and pools rarely needto be backwashed weekly. Eventually you'll learn how your pool "acts", and it may not be as necessary, but for now you really need to get a new gauge.

You can safely add bleach and borax to a salt pool. Salt pools are chlorine pools, the only difference is thatthe chlorine is generated from the salt instead of added in the form of bleach. Many people with SWCGs use bleach for their shocking and the SWCG for regular chlorination.

Backwashing to waste means what you vacuum out goes straight out of your waste line, bypassing the filster. "regular" vacuuming directs the stuff into your filter.

Janet

[CarlD]

What Jan is saying is whoever told you that you "must" have your filter set to "recirculate" rather than "filter" when you add bleach is full of it. It has NO negative effect. However, having it set to "Waste" or "Backwash" will dump your new chlorine down the drain.

If you remember your HS chemistry, the formula for salt is NaCl, or Sodium Chloride. Salt-water generators break the salt down for the chlorine ions. BTW, bleach is made from brine.

Carl

[chem geek]

In other words, a "salt water" pool IS a chlorine pool. It uses a saltwater chlorine generator (SWCG) to generate chlorine from the chloride ions from the salt that was dissolved in the pool. When the chlorine gets used by killing a pathogen or oxidizing an organic or getting broken down by sunlight, it gets reverted back to chloride ion. So the SWCG can be thought of as using electricity to boost the energy of chloride to chlorine which then goes on to kill the nasties or oxidize bather waste or interact with sunlight in which cases its energy is given up and it reverts back to chloride salt.

[CarlD]

Thought i said that!

[Txboynjgirl]

I came back from the pool store and their test results were:

FAC 3
TAC 3
pH 7.6
TA 80
CYA 40
CH 200
Salt 3300 (my aqua rite reads 2900)

My own simple test results:

pH 7.5
CL 2 (close but mot quite 3)

Should I still add the 5 gallons of bleach? Would that raise my chlorine too much? Isn't 1.5 gallons of bleach equal to 5 ppm? (22000 gallon pool)

Do you buy your CYA (chlorine stabilizer) at the pool store?

For future references...what are the measurments for the Borax? 1lb of Borax equals how much pH?

Thanks, I will run more filter 24/7 to help clear it up.

Steve

[aylad]

Thought i said that!

Thought I said it too!!

Anyway, back to the questions.... 1.5 gallons of bleach in a 22000 gallon pool actually should raise your chlorine by about 4, and you don't even achieve shock level with a CYA of 60 until you get it up to 20 ppm, so if you're still trying to kill an algae bloom, you definitely need to go ahead and add the bleach per Pooldoc's instructions, and try to maintain the 20 ppm by adding chlorine as often as you can during the day in order to kill off the bloom. The filter running 24/7 will remove the dead algae from the water, but the chlorine is what will actually kill it.

You can get CYA at WalMart, in the pool/spa section, or at the pool store.

How much Borax it takes to raise pH by a certain amount depends on your TA level.. The higher the TA, the more Borax it will take to make the pH move. Somewhere around here there's a calculation for it, but I'll have to search for it and come back to edit this post...



Janet