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Seahunt

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Posts posted by Seahunt

  2. Replace Grouting?

    in All Swimming Pools Types

    Posted

    So what should the hardness be at to prevent this from happening? It started happening on my pool and I raised it from 170 to 220.

    Thanks.

    I'll share my woes, which raise two concerns: the seal between coping and deck and the water hardness.

    I did not appreciate the function of the deck/coping seal, but it keeps water off your beam that will later freeze the ground around it and pop off your tiles. I was losing tiles like crazy but was ignorant about the cause. I ponied up $300 for two kits of Deck-O-Seal and got it all taken care of. I removed all the old sealant with a die grinder, then I used a funnel and dry sand to fill the voids up to a half inch from the deck/coping interface. Using a stiff nail brush to whisk the sand away makes the process a lot quicker. It makes the sand smooth and exposes the sidewalls of both structures - a nice, even, square channel ready for the nastiest goop you can imagine. And definitely use a two-part polysulfide sealant. They say nothing else lasts. It's the same stuff they use to seal the rivets in airplanes, but you have to get it online or from a concrete supplier. I used the pourable viscosity. Even xylene won't really clean it up. I ended up grinding off a couple little spills. (dog footprints)

    But I also noticed that my grout was disappearing faster than my grandpa's gumline. Evidently my water hardness was too low, and hungry water will pull calcium out of the masonry - eating it right up. I had to regrout all 125' of my waterline tile. UGH!! That and rebuilding some of the coping bed took over 30 hours.

    I used the polymer-modified (flexible) mortar from Menard's for both cement and grout. I don't use marble dust anymore. They told me it is supposed to keep the mix from shrinking when it cures, but I had a widespread failure. Two sections were just falling off and upon checking, the cement was so weak you could put a screwdriver into it with little effort, like it was sandstone. Maybe it was a bad bag of mortar, maybe the soft water attacked it, or maybe we didn't adequately mix the marble and mortar - but in any event I wanted to reduce a variable so I nixed it. Some of my new bonds survived one winter and all seem good.

  3. New Owner...old Unkept Pool

    in All Swimming Pools Types

    Posted

    Getting rid of the algea is going to take some shocking so you are headed in the right direction. However, to get the most help from this site, you will need to get accurate readings from your pool. For long term, most folks here recommend the Taylor k-2006 test kit. You can order it on line or if you have a pool store, you might be able to get it from them. You can also take a water sample to a pool store and have them test it. Try to get the sample from arms length depth (12-18" deep, not the surface)The only warning I will give you, is most pool stores do not give good information relative to the readings. If you want, you can get the readings from the store, post them here and compare the advice from the pool store.

    Also, we will need to know how you add chloring to the pool (floater, tabs, salt-water-generator).

    What kind of filter system (cartridge, DE)

    Size of pool (dimensions or gallons)

    Water Readings:

    temp

    FC - Free Chlorine

    Cya

    ph

    TA

    Hardness

    Good luck!

    Have just moved into a house with an inground pool. It is currently green. Have shocked it over the weekend, but really not sure if that was the correct thing to do. Have been vaccuming each day to get the thick growth of algea of the bottom and sides of pool.

    Really need some help, I know virtually nothing about pool maintenance. The previous owner suggested that I dump 12-15 pounds of chlorine in the pool. That was the only suggestion I got, and I thought...shouldn't I get all the algea out first...I don't know?

    Please, anyone...HELP!

  9. New Pool Chemicals?

    in Swimming Pool Water Chemistry

    Posted

    You need to get a test kit and test the water. I bought a Taylor k-2006. You need to test for PH, Alalinity, Chlorine, and Cynaruic Acid (CYA or Stabilizer).

    How does the water look? Is it clear?

    Hello,

    We just got our new liner installed and have never owned a pool before. We bought this house last year and it came with a 24' round above ground pool. We filled it and have no idea as to what to do first as far as chemicals are concerned. Everywhere we look there are instructions for opening a pool that has been sitting all fall and might have algae or other issues. This is essentially a new pool. If anyone can help and be as specific as you can, explain it like we are 2 year olds. ^_^ We do have a cartridge for the chlorine, in other words we won't need a floater for that.

    Thank you!

  10. What Now?

    in Swimming Pool Water Chemistry

    Posted

    Your alkalinity sounds good. Go to http://www.poolcalculator.com/ to figure out how much chemical to add to raise the PH to the desired level. Are you sure your pool is 50k gallons? That's a really big pool. Just want to make sure as the calculations from the poolcalculator will be based on the gallons.

    Post your CYA reading also so you can get accruate feedback.

    Are you adding chlorine? How much and what kind?

    I am really struggling with my pool chemistry this year.

    I have a 50,000 gal. in-ground w/liner.

    The pool was very cloudy and ph and akalinity were high. Chlorine was non-existent and CYA was very low.

    I have been using muratic acid trying to get the ph and the alkalinity worked out before adding the CYA.

    Two days ago I added 2 gallons as opposed to the 4 gallons the pool store recommended. I am glad that is all I added as my ph plummeted much more than it should have according to their directions.

    Things have remained static for the last 24 hours and I have the alkalinity at 90 ppm, ph is 6.8.

    So the alkalinity is okay, right?

    What to do at this point to get the ph up? Add borax or aerate? If borax, how much? I have never had to bring ph up before and haven't used borax before.

  12. Cheaper Chemical Alternatives

    in Swimming Pool Water Chemistry

    Posted

    Some call it the BBB method:

    BBB is bleach, baking soda and borax.

    Bleach for sanitizing. You can use the stuff from the supermarket but get the unscented kinds. Less additives.

    Baking soda from the supermarket. Raises total alkalinity.

    Borax from the supermarket. Raises pH.

    Do a search on the Internet to get more information about the BBB method.

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