jasontjames

I will try to keep this as succint as possible while still covering everything that has happened. At the beginning of spring I drug out the solar cover and put it on the pool. I went out periodically and tested my water and added acid as needed. Several weeks ago I noticed that my salt level had dropped. We had some rain, so it didn't really shock me as the drop wasn't that dramatic. I added salt and called it good. A few weeks later I noticed that my system was telling me that I had low salt again. Again it had rained, but not enough that it should have caused the salt level to drop that much. I ignorantly scratched my head and added some salt. This Thursday we had a pretty big rain. I went out and checked the system and it said that the generator was off and the salt level was very low. What in the world? In a moment of pure genius I added 40 pounds of salt to the pool. That did absolutely nothing to change what the system was telling me. So this morning I pulled the SWG off and did a cleaning with water and MA. It did it's bubbly bubble thing and I rinsed it out thouroughly. I put it back in and watched the instant salt reading. The SWG kicked on after the delay and gave me an instant reading of 2100 ppm and then the generator shut off due to low salt. I shut the system down, unplugged the SWG and waited for a few minutes. I plugged it back in and waited for the delay to end. Once the delay ended it gave me a reading of 2500 ppm and was operating at 25.32V and 6.11A. In a moment of clarity, I decided to drive to Leslies and buy a salt test kit. I know, I know. I should have had one all along. After returning home and testing the water, I discovered that I had approximately 5500 ppm. Oh boy! My own Dead Sea!!! So my conclusion is that my cell is going out after 5 years. Probably a pretty good run. I have a Goldline Aqua Logic system with an Aqua Rite T-Cell-15 SWG. After doing some searches online, I learned that most of the time when the cell goes out on these systems, the board will not be far behind. So now I am not facing a $500 fix. I am likely facing a $1200+ fix. We have in the past couple of months bought a piece of land just north of where we are now and plan on building a new house on it. We will likely not be in this house for more than another 18 months. I talked to a pool guy that I use from time to time and he suggested that, given our situation, I convert the pool to chlorine with an inline chlorinator. He said he will do it for about $180. What is the opinion of the board on doing this? Have any of you done it? Would you do it again if given the choice? Thank you in advance for your input. JJ

Thanks, I will try the lemon thing. I hope it works. I have white plaster. You can actually feel the grain of the dirt on the surface. On the edge of the steps there is actually a little hump of dirt. It is hard as a rock and won't come off.

It is not black algae. It is reddish dirt. It looks exactly like the dirt that I normally get in the pool and just sweep away to the drains. The water temp is 49 degrees.

For the first time I decided to get a cover to use in the winter to help keep leaves out of the pool. After several weeks of having the cover on the pool, I removed it and noticed a pretty hefty coating of dirt on the tanning ledge, steps, and bench. I attempted to brush them, but the dirt is adhered to the plaster. Even using a metal brush, the dirt will not come off. Any tips on how to remove it from the surface? It is a salt water pool if that makes any difference. Thank you for any help you might be able to offer me. JJ

The power company can't give me an sort of an estimate on when the power will be back on. Should I go out and pull the plugs on my pool equipment? It may be too late at this point anyway.

The pump is 3.5 years old. There is a good chance that the pump did indeed cavitate as AFiremanFirst described. I travel a lot for work and let's just say that my wife is not the most observant person in the world. Not getting an auto-fill on the pool is likely one of my biggest oversights. Nothing like getting a call from your wife when you are 1000 miles away asking why the pool is making a weird noise. Looks like I will be pulling the pump apart next weekend. Any recommendations on where to buy a new motor for a Pentair Booster Pump?

Here is a link to a video so you can hear the sound that it is making. It just started doing this all of a sudden. The pump still works. The cleaner runs normally, but it makes this awful noise. Any ideas on what might be wrong with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df2OFX8ncG4 Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give me.

Thanks Beelzy. It is a Letro. I will replace the PRV and see if that fixes it.

My 3 year old booster pump is making a really weird noise. It is almost like a surging sound. The cleaner is not getting enough pressure to operate. I have shut it off. Could it be possible for the pump to be going out already? I only run it 3 hours a day. Any thoughts?

It is a plaster pool ~11,000 gallons. I have been running the pump for 6 hrs/day, but increased it to 8 hrs today. The FC was fine yesterday, but when I tested a few minutes ago it came back as 0. The water is clear pH 7.8 Free Chlorine (FC) 0 Combine Chlorine (CC) 0 Total Chlorine (TC) Total Alkalinity (TA) 80 Calcium Hardness (CH) 300 Cyanuric Acid (CYA or stabilizer) 40 Salt PPM 3300

I cannot seem to keep algae from growing on my waterline boulders. FC level is fine and the rest of the pool is clear. Should I consider using an algaecide or should I just shock the pool? It is a saltwater pool.

We have a ton of new home construction going on in our neighborhood and therefor we have a ton of dirt being stirred up constantly. It is a never ending battle to keep the pool clean. I have noticed that despite daily vacuuming the plaster has taken on a dingy color. Is there any way to get rid of this without draining the pool and acid washing? My chlorine levels are ok and I don't have a problem with copper or other minerals. Thanks for any help. JJ

I have some "dead spots" in my pool where water doesn't seem to circulate very well if at all. What are the general rules for adjusting returns to maximize circulation. For reference, my pool is free form with 4 returns and 2 skimmers. TIA, JJ

My pool is 9 months old and I am wondering if my drain is clogged. I seem to get little flow from the drain, and when I sweep dirt toward it the dirt just settles around it. Shouldn't it be pulling the dirt into the drain? Today, I shut off both skimmers and when I did there was a huge influx of dirty water and 8-10 big chunks of plaster that shot into the basket. I don't know much, but I don't think I should have huge chunks of plaster in my drain lines. Is there a way to take the cover off the drain and clean it out? Thanks for helping a newbie, Jason

I have a pentair legend pressure side cleaner. It doesn't really seem to do much of anything. I find that I have to vacuum the pool a couple of times a week to keep it clean. My parents pool very rarely needs vacuuming and I am wondering if I have a bad cleaner. Also, the tail just drags behind it rather than sweeping back and forth like every other pool cleaner that I have seen. Is this normal? Last question....the tire on the front wheel that drives the cleaner keeps coming off. Does anyone else have a problem with this happening? TIA, Jason

I did not add any baking soda. The TA was running at 170ppm and it is now at 70. I will monitor the TA over the next week and see if it stays low. Should I try to move it up to about 80-90ppm or should I try to maintain it at the 70ppm level? Thanks for the reply.

After 6 months of head scratching and adding copious amounts of acid, my pH is finally in the ideal range. I have a 10k gallon gunite salt water pool that was built this past summer. How did I finally get the pH to come down? I turned off the waterfall for a week. Don't know if this is just coincidence or not. I read somewhere on the vast expanse of knowledge that is the internet that aeration by a waterfall could cause the acid that I was adding to be ineffectual. Does this theory hold water? I am curious to find out from the experts on here whether or not that is what allowed me to get my pH under control. If it is what allowed me to get in down, how long should have I be running the waterfall at a time? I am new to the pool world and would like to know if I am doing something wrong. Thanks, Jason

Our new pool was started up on July 23rd of this year. The pH has been and still is off the charts high. The pool guy told me that it is normal and that it just takes time for the water to settle down. The TA is 180 ppm. I have been dumping the max amount of acid into the water daily for 2 months and the pH and TA will not come down. I need some serious help fast. What sort of damage am I potentially looking at if I can't get this under control?

This morning(Sunday) the salt is now registering at 2700 ppm, the ph is 8.2, and the alkalinity is 90ppm.

We just had a pool built. The pool company did the startup on Thursday. The pool is approximately 11,000 gallons. The pool guy added 160lbs of salt and 16lbs of stabilizer. He told me to start the chlorine generator on Friday and check the salt level. The control (Aqua Logic) only said that the salt level was "very low". I added another bag of salt on Friday afternoon. Checked the salt level this morning, and it still said "very low", so I added another bag. So that makes a grand total of 240lbs of salt added since startup on Thursday. 2 questions regarding the salt: 1. Have I added enough salt according to general guidelines for the size of the pool? 2. Will the chlorine generator run if the salt level is that low? I am worried that if I don't get this corrected quickly that I will end up with an algae problem. Second issue. At start up, the ph was high. The acid test said that we should add 2 pints of acid, but the pool guy said not to add it. He wanted me to wait until Friday and test again. I did, and the test said that I needed to add 3 pints of acid. I added the acid and then retested Saturday afternoon. This time the test said that I need to add 4.5 pints of acid. Is this normal? Shouldn't having added 3 pints of acid the day before dropped the ph? I am really new to owning a pool, so bear with me if I am asking dumb questions. I really appreciate any help you guys(or gals) can give me. Thanks, JJ