steve haigh

hi, i'm designing a pool for my house. what do you think about this design? do you see any problems? it's an infinity pool. please check water flow and overall design. the pool is 30,000 litres and the overflow (surge) tank is 2430 litres but would normally be run about half full. thanks, steve

i have a salt water chlorinator but after a couple of weeks i quickly realized i hate the taste and feel of salt in the water and so does the wife, so we took it out and refilled with fresh water and currently use chlorine. but i still have the unit i paid for and just found out a little bit about ionizers. what would happen if i used the salt water chlorinator in a fresh water pool? would it do any good as an ionizer? will it damage the machine? this is probably a stupid question and i'm sure i'm going to get shot down in flames for it but wht the hey! steve

sorry about posting the same thing twice, is there no admin to remove the duplicate? i finally got some test strips from the US and sure enough the CYA and total chlorine is normal but the FC is low because i havn't been adding much. however, the pool looks great so far and since its only me and the wife and occasionally friends using it, i figure it doesn't need the level of disinfecting a public pool would. anyhow, i'll look for a suppler of unstabilized chlorine to supplement what i'm using now. can i use just normal household liquid bleach? presumably the unscented type? thx steve

hi, i'm using a chlorine product call Poolchlor 90, it's 99% trichloroisocyanuric acid powder. i live in Thailand where the average temp is about 30degC and plenty of sun although i have a roof partly shading my pool. the chlorine is working ok, but i'm just curious about the product i'm using. i assume by the name, it has cyanuric acid stabilizer built in to protect against high temperature and UV. do you have any thoughts about using only trichloroisocyanuric acid? steve

hi, i'm using a chlorine product call Poolchlor 90, it's 99% trichloroisocyanuric acid powder. i live in Thailand where the average temp is about 30degC and plenty of sun although i have a roof partly shading my pool. the chlorine is working ok, but i'm just curious about the product i'm using. i assume by the name, it has cyanuric acid stabilizer built in to protect against high temperature and UV. do you have any thoughts about using only trichloroisocyanuric acid? steve

i have the red phenol drops for testing ph and the yellow one for chlorine in the heyward kit. but that's all it tests, ph and chlorine. i just ordered some Aquacheck test strips because they also test TA and a other things, but they havn;t arrived from the US yet. anyhow, my pool looks great now. i kept one of the waterfall spout things in place because i like the sound of the falling water and the water just looks healthier with the bubbles in, don;t know if it really makes a difference at this point. thanks for all the help.

i found this post on another pool forum http://x.havuz.org/viewtopic.php?t=641 the poster said the answer is to airrate the water to get the trapped CO2 out thus reducing TA which was acting as a buffer. (by the way, i can't measure TA, i don't have a test kit for it, i just assume it was high because i was unable to change ph) so i got a couple of pieces of 1 1/4" pvc pipe, bent them about 45degress and flattened the end to make a water spray. then i pushed the pipe into the returns with the ends above the water line and used string to hold them up to create 2 nice waterfalls. i ran the pump for about 8 hours yesterday and let it sit overnight. this morning, the pool is clear and the ph is spot on; i assume all that floating soda ash desolved and raised ph. i wonder if constantly airrateing the pool is generally a good thing or if i so go back to the standard setup? its certainly a cheap and environmentally better solution than adding a ton of chemicals steve

i only have the basic heyward kit that test chlorine and ph. i'm trying to find a test kit that includes TA and CH. however, i read this: http://www.havuz.org/pool_pool/pool_mainte..._alkalinity.htm Total Alkalinity The total alkalinity (TA) is a measure of how much of the alkaline substances there are in the water. In the swimming pool water, we are concerned with bicarbonate alkalinity, which should be between 80 ppm and 120 ppm. When the total alkalinity (TA) is within this range, it prevents rapid pH changes and "stabilises" the pH level. If the TA is too low, Marbelite and plaster walls will become etched, metals corrode, the pool's walls and floor can stain, the water can turn green, eyes burn and we can have pH bounce (pH rapidly going up and down, seemingly at random). If the TA is too high, the pH is difficult to adjust, the water becomes cloudy, the pool constantly needs acid (according to your test kit) and the chlorine loses its efficiency as a disinfectant. $$$$$$$$ are you suggesting my TA may be too high and that's why i can't adjust the ph? is it possible to have TA too high but ph too low? the info above implies its more likely that if TA is high, ph is too high and hard to bring down. thx steve

i took the sand out and everything looks fine. i'm using 1.2mm sand as per manuf. specs but i read that .35-.45 is more normal (http://www.poolcenter.com/filter.htm and http://www.poolandspa.com/page799.htm). perhaps i should half fill with the old sand and use a finer grain sand for the top half. update: i put half the old sand back then added much finer sand, about 25cm deep on top. now when i add DE it stays in the filter and the pressure goes up. however, there is so much s^%t floating in the pool, the filter needs cleaning after about 20mins of use, but i guess that's fine, means its working.

i took the sand out and everything looks fine. i'm using .6mm sand as per manuf. specs but i read that .35-.45 is more normal. perhaps i should half fill with the old sand and use a finer grain sand for the top half. i did use a flocculant and that works find but wasts a lot of water, about 10% of the pool because you have to throw the scummy water away.

i think i just answered my own question on this site http://www.havuz.org/pool_pool/pool_mainte..._testing/ph.htm What happens when the pool is too acidic? (pH is low) If your swimming pool is Marbelite or plaster, the pool water will begin to dissolve the surface, creating a roughness which is ideal for pool algae growth. A similar result occurs in the grouting of tiled swimming pools. Metals corrode - and this includes swimming pool equipment, pipe fittings, pump connections, etc. As the swimming pool walls and metal parts corrode, sulphates are formed. These sulphates are released from the water onto the walls and floor of the swimming pool causing ugly brown and black stains. Chlorine, which is used as a disinfectant in the swimming pool water, is activated and lost to the atmosphere very quickly. The water is not being sanitised, and we are throwing away our money by adding chlorine when the pH is too low. When we swim, our eyes and nose burn. Our swimwear fades and perishes. Our skin gets dry and itchy. ******* so i'm not sure what to do short of emptying the pool and refilling, but my city water is so acid, i think i'll be back at square one of i do that.

hi all i know the holy grail of pool chemistry is ph needs to be 7.0-7.6 but why? is there any problem with it been as lower? i ask because i can't raise my pool ph. i don't know why. i've added about 20kg of soda ash and it will not change ph. it just clouds up white like the soda ash will not desolve. i'm thinking of giving up and leaving it at 6.8 or below. any thoughts? thanks, steve

the kit is new, Hayward, and yes, i suspect the ph may be lower than the lowest reading. i added more soda ash today and now the whole thing turned milky white with white particles floating around, looks like undesolved soda ash, and the filter doesn't remove it! i love pool chemistry! aaarrrrggghhh!!!

hi, can anyone help? i have recently filled my pool (concrete inground, 30,000 liters, tiled) and i've added a lot, perhaps about 15kg of soda ash but i can't get the ph to budge, it sits at 6.8. i should mention that the bag of soda ash got a bit wet a few days ago and turned into a solid block. i have to knock it out with a hammer and desolve it for an hour before use, but i figure it should still work right? any ideas why i can't get the ph up? i know my water supply is acidic, i know i need to add alkali, but how much? also, i live in Thailand in the boonies and don;t have access to fancy pool supplies, just soda ash, acid and chlorine.

is that the plastic tubes at the bottom? wouldn't i need to empty the sand first? i know the filter is working, when i backwash its plenty dirty, i'd just like it to work better.

hi, i've been reading this with great interest because i recently filled my pool and there was a lot of fine (but visible) particles floating in the water. after running the pump for a couple of days, it was obvious that my sand filter was doing nothing to catch the particles. so, after reading this thread, i bought some DE and fed it into the skimmer to try improve the filtration. the DE came flying straight back out into the pool, the filter didn't seem to hold on to any of it! I've checked the filter sand, it's .6mm as per manufacturers specs but the filter is about as useful as a leaky tea strainer! so my question is, how to make the DE stick in the filter or in general, improve the filter performance? one idea i have is; i have easy access to very fine white powered sand on the beach below my house. would it make sense to put a thin layer of fine sand, maybe 1-2cm on top of the .6mm sand then layer some DE on top of that? would that clog the whole thing? any ideas? thanks, steve