Hello world

[Treeherder]

I'm a recent pool owner (as of last summer). On my second pool store, and becoming disenfranchised that any pool guy/girl actually knows what they are talking about in my area. I have a 18' x 36', approx. 24,000 gallon pool that receives full sun. I have pretty heavy debris from surrounding trees and a large Japanese maple that hangs over the pool. Vinyl liner that has some decent sized wrinkles throughout and unknown age, but appears in good condition otherwise. I have an old Hayward sand filter and pump and run the pump 24 hours a day. Light bather load. I live in Pennsylvania.


I have had issues keeping chlorine levels high enough on tablets alone, and have had algae outbreaks from time to time. With CYA at 74 (according to the pool store) my chlorine is sometimes below 1 ppm. PH is around 7.4. I have a small tablet feed that hangs next to the skimmer. My current pool store has given the response that "some pools just have low chlorine". I am looking to change my setup to a better chlorine feed - after reading though this forum I obviously want to move away from tablets.

I would like to upgrade my equipment to reduce the need for maintenance/shocking. I am toying with the idea of a SWCG (installing it myself) but need to know more about the cons involved, if any. Capital cost of the unit isn't a concern, but I want to keep my total cost down if possible. Looking forward to your help!

[Watermom]

First of all, I would suggest getting yourself a good kit so you don't have to depend on the pool stores for testing. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C and you can get it through the test kit link in my signature below. It is only available online so in the meantime, see if your local Walmart has an HTH 6-Way kit (NOT test strips.) If they don't, the next option is an OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops). Test your water and post your readings.

Also, while you are at Walmart, pick up a bunch of jugs of plain, unscented 6% bleach (generic is fine). With a CYA of 74 (assuming that is right), you need to be keeping your chlorine levels between 5-10 ALL the time. If you drop below that, you'll get algae. I'd go ahead and suggest that you shock the pool up to 20ppm. (Shock levels and needed chlorine levels are based on the Best Guess Chlorine Chart which you can read in my sig.) In a 24K gallon pool, each gallon (4 quarts) of 6% bleach will add about 2.5 ppm of chlorine. Use that as a reference to help you figure out doses of bleach to add.

Each time you test, add enough bleach to get back to 20ppm. Continue to try and hold the chlorine at this level until you can go from sundown one evening to within 2 hours of sunrise the next day without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine and your water is clear. Then, hold it high for one more day and then you can let it drift down at that point and keep it between 5-10ppm.

The K-2006 kit will be able to test high chlorine readings which you'll need to run with that high CYA so you really do need to order it. The other two kits I suggested for use until your good kit comes will only read chlorine readings up to 5. You can force it to go higher with a dilution method described here: Testing Without a Good Kit

You also need to stop using any forms of stabilized chlorine since they contain CYA in them and yours is already high enough. So, no more trichlor tabs not dichlor shock powder. Just stick with bleach for your source of chlorination.

Keep your pH between 7.2-7.8. If it drops below that, you can use some 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart) to raise it. If it goes to 8.0, use some muriatic acid to lower it. (Read the muriatic acid link in my sig as well.)

Stay out of that pool store. Any pool store that tells you that "some pools just have low chlorine" doesn't know what the heck they are doing.

I'll let someone else talk to you about SWCGs.

Please put your pool's information into our pool chart as it helps us to better be able to advise you.

Pool Chart Entry Form

I'd like to encourage you to do a lot of reading here on the forum and on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. Lots of good info there as well. Until your registration is completed, you will need to log out first to be able to see the rest of the forum, however.

Hope this helps. Repost if you have further questions. Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[PoolDoc]

membership upgraded.

Two other comments:

Trees look nice around pools, but they dramatically increase the work load. 'Crap-myrtles' are especially bad -- there doesn't seem to be a season when they are depositing some sort of droppings into the pool! Auto-cleaners for AG pools are not something I have any real knowledge of, but they do exist, and some seem to work well. You might want to investigate.

Also, do NOT assume that replacing old working equipment with new equipment will improve ANYTHING. When you filled out the pool chart, you didn't include equipment info, so I can't offer an opinion whether new equipment might benefit you.