Looking For Best System After A Refill

[my12by60]

Here are the specs on our pool, refill water and operating history. We live in the Phoenix area. Our pool was built in the year 2000, has a pebble sheen finish, two-speed pump, cartridge filter system and an ozonator. The pool is built into the grade of our backyard and has two water levels. The smaller, upper section (not a spa) spills into the larger, lower section over a 12-foot long dam wall. So we get a lot of aeration. Total gallons are 15K.

Historically, my wife has taken care of the pool and I am now going to take over. The normal procedure for her after a refill would be to add what she called a conditioning agent, get the ph and alkalinity in range, then add chlorine tablets to the in-deck chlorinator and use liquid muriatic acid as needed. She would strive to maintain at least 1 ppm of chlorine. We run the pump year round for 24-hours a day, using low speed for 22 hours and high speed for only 2 hours during the lower power cost time of day as per our electric provider.

The pool always has looked great without the use of shock, algae control products or anything else. We have been using Leslie's, 3", trichlor tabs for years. During the hot months we would normally be adding 1 tab every 2 or 3 days. During the cooler months (starting right about now) we usually add 1 tab per week. We would also add about 1 quart of the liquid muriatic acid per week throughout the year.

I just did a complete drain and refill yesterday. We have been completely draining and refilling every 2 years in the month of November. The TDS of the drained water was 3500 ppm per a Leslie's in-store test. Our fill water goes in with 550 ppm of total dissolved solids (really hard water in Phoenix area) as per a Leslie's in-store test a few days ago using a sample of our hose water. This summer, unlike prior summers, we had more of white line forming at the water line than in prior fill/drain cycles. I refilled to a level an inch or two above the white line and added a bottle of Scale Free by Natural Chemistry. The person at Leslie's (and rep at Natural Chemistry per my phone call to them) say this product will break down the white line and make it much easier for us to remove with minimal scrubbing or pumice stone work. We shall see.

Here are current water specs (using a Taylor K-2005 test kit):

ph - somewhere over 8 (sample is very pink in color)

TA - about 130

TDS - 550

CYA - not tested, but should it not be at zero after a complete refill?

I added 3 Leslie's tabs to get some chlorine in the water along with the bottle of Scale Free I mentioned earlier.

I am intrigued with the idea of using grocery store products to maintain the pool going forward but am not sure I want to move away from my wife's system which has been working well. I am around the house everyday and would not mind adding liquid bleach or chlorine every morning or two, especially if there is some cost savings. I am outside each morning using our portable hot tub anyway.

Any recommendations of where I go from here to get this new water started right and into a good maintenance program? I was hoping we could come up with a system that might let our water last longer than two years before building up such a high level of TDS and a system that would minimize the white line formation. My wife has not been testing for CYA so I can't tell you anything about the historical levels of CYA using the trichlor tabs. The folks at Leslie's have always advised us to do a complete drain and refill every 2 years due to the high level of TDS that builds up in the water. All that I know about any of this is what I have read here and what I have observed my wife do. Thanks for any help or ideas.

[waterbear]

It's not the Total Dissolved Solids that are a problem but specifically how much of certain ones present that cause problems. In your case I can safely say that it is the CYA.

Salt pools that use salt water chlorine generators have TDS readings that are extremely high but since salt is benign it really does not matter, just to give you an example.

However, if a large part of the TDS is from calcium, CYA, bicarbonates, or sulfates then the water can be problematic and would need to be replaced.

I am curious why you need to add muriatic acid when using trichlor? If a pool is being properly run on trichlor (and it is possible if you don't mine the drain and refill cycle) then muratic acid should not be needed BUT regular additions of bicarbonate would be. IF you are having problems of rising pH because of aeration then your TA is too high and you need to lower it. Period!

Remember Leslies and Natural Chemistry make their money by selling you as many chemicals as often as they can insread of teaching you how to maintain your pool like a professional would maintain a commercial pool (testing to determine what is needed and only adding what is needed when it is needed).

Finally, 1 ppm FC is NOT adequate for any pool that contains CYA!

Finally, if you are getting scale deposits then your pool maintenance is NOT working because your water is not balanced. I noticed the absence of calcium hardness test results, which are MUCH more important and give a lot more info on water balance than TDS which is really a pretty much useless measurement.

My suggestion would be to invest in a good test kit (Taylor K-2006 with the FAS-DPD chlorine test and not the K-2005 with the DPD test), start testing your own water, and taking it from there to get it balance.

If you continue to use only trichlor you will have problems. If you have a cartridge filter or a non backwashing DE filter they will happen sooner than with a backwashing filter since there is no water replacement going on.