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Old 04-03-2008, 09:43 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,450,111 times
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I add salt and chlorine to my pool for balancing...along with bi-carb and cynuric acid and calcium chloride...chlorine and acid are feed through a automatic system so pH and chlorine are keep within strict limits...will vary with each setup or type of pool for proper maintenance see or talk to your pool company that installed it and see if they can give you information on proper maintenance.

To balance the water you need to know at least 4 things and to get technical 5 but TDS (total dissolved solids) has only a small effect on the CSI or calcium saturation index.

Alkalinity
Calcium Hardness
Temperature
pH
and TDS if you want to get technical

I would check out these sites to get an understanding of pool chemistry and general information myths...
Online Articles (http://www.ppoa.org/articles.htm - broken link)
PoolSpa.com - Your Pool & Spa Webcenter! (use this to figure out what type of system is there)
Langelier Saturation Calculator

here is a general operations guideline and if you were to take a certified pool operator course it would follow this pretty closely.
First Aid Kit


Lot's of stuff to look over....should help you evaluate if it's worth it or not. I have a 19,000 gallon pool including my time to fill it and all water and chemicals needed to balance it....was $578....just my perspective.



Sorry just saw something......having a pool cover does not keep you from having to brush the walls and check your chemicals often....all that aside it sounds great...again make sure the pool is balanced and the cover is a great option...unbalanced and you can see the cover degrade quickly along with other items in the pool like ladders or anything in the pump room.....the pump itself can be eaten away if chlorine is feed straight into the system.....one reason to avoid placing chlorine tabs in the skimmers...
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Old 04-03-2008, 09:50 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,450,111 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948 View Post
property managers i know tell their clients to fillem up with dirt. lawsuit waitin to happen.
A lot of people don't take the time to understand water chemistry.....once you understand it it's only a matter of a few minutes a day usually....I hear it all the time though with hot tubs....those are different story...some nasty things going on in there.




By the way folks if you smell chlorine in the pool....don't swim...the water isn't balanced properly.


Also if you remove the water from the pool lets say a 20,000 gallon pool you removed 83 tons holding it in the ground....would make a very large planter.
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Old 04-03-2008, 11:32 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJon3475 View Post
Sorry just saw something......having a pool cover does not keep you from having to brush the walls and check your chemicals often....
Agree with the checking chemicals part. I check 'em often, especially the pH, which rises every week (maybe you can tell me why.)

I haven't seen much need to brush the sides though since the plaster cured. Still nice and smooth and clean. Should I be brushing more? (Sounds like I'm talking to my dentist....)
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Old 04-04-2008, 08:02 AM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,450,111 times
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LOL....

My pH rises when I add water from the city....it ranges from 8.0-8.2 out of the tap. My controller automatically does this.

My needs are a little different than the average homeowner I guess I should put that out. This is for a business so keeping cost to a minimum and having it last as long as possible is the goal.....I have a high swimmer load so it takes it's toll. I use the calcium saturation index and a Taylor test kit to test my chemicals often so I can calculate the index and see if my water is balanced, scale, or acidic......coming straight out the tap in winter time it's mildly acidic and it changes to a more balanced water in summer time.

Some info about plaster and re-plaster that is useful.
Online Articles (http://www.ppoa.org/article_plaster-fail.htm - broken link)



Superchlorination (http://www.ppoa.org/article_superchlorination.htm - broken link) - (http://www.ppoa.org/article_leaks.htm - broken link) The Basics of Breakpoint Chlorination (http://www.ppoa.org/article_superchlorination.htm - broken link)
Superchlorination follow-up (http://www.ppoa.org/article_superchlorinationfollowup.htm - broken link)

When water is super chlorinated the material that the chlorine attacks practically falls out of the water onto the bottom of the pool...or at least that's the easiest way to explain it.....I'm not a chemist by any means so i don't want to give that impression....I just run a pool and took note in the training and certification classes. I also enjoy learning so I continue to try and educate myself.

My heavy swimmer load leaves lots of things for the chlorine to attack....I get residue built up every few days if I don't brush so that's why I said brushing is a good idea.

Last edited by BigJon3475; 04-04-2008 at 08:12 AM..
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Old 04-04-2008, 10:26 AM
 
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"When water is super chlorinated the material that the chlorine attacks practically falls out of the water onto the bottom of the pool...or at least that's the easiest way to explain it.."

A lot of the powdered shock treatments contain a flocculant, like alum. This binds the small particles together, allowing them to fall to the bottom in a still pool. Sometimes, I'd let my pool go green. To rescue it, I would super-chlorinate, add the shock and mix for a few hours, then let it sit without the pump going for a day or two. The water would be crystal clear, with the algae all clumped on the bottom. I then attached the pool vac hose to a 5 gal plastic pail, in which I had inserted a sump pump.

VERY slowly and gently, I would vac the bottom, removing the algae. The output of the sump pump went to a street drain and not back into the pool. If I had to guess, only about 100 gallons or less of water and algae would be removed. Trying to do the same type of vacuum treatment with the pool pump merely spread the algae throughout the pool again.

In reviewing the way pool pumps and filters clean a pool, it is a hit and miss operation. Filtered water gets mixed back in with the dirty water and while the percentage of water that is cleaned increases, without flocculants it can never get 100% clean.

If I were designing a pool, I'd want to try a design where a plastic sheet or bladder could be inserted that fit against the pool walls. Water from the pump would be pumped into the bladder or clean section, and once all of the water had gone through the filter once, the entire pool would be clean, and the plastic could be removed.

However, I'm done with pools. The stream in my backyard is fine for me.
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Old 04-04-2008, 01:18 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,450,111 times
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Clarifier's usually contain that flocculant...only algae I get is yellow and thats communicable...and is taken care of immediately.

I use clarifier's often for the reason you stated and backwash when my sand filter get's to the correct pressure telling me it's getting clogged.

That's why I brush often and keep it clean......the swimmer load I have keeps the water circulated way more than when unloaded....I also have a system that turns the pool over 6 times a day and it runs constituently.


Great input I always like the chance to learn something new or discuss something I'm not sure about.
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Old 04-04-2008, 03:57 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,708 posts, read 79,764,742 times
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You can make a nearly maintenance free pool if you spend enough. With salt based chlorine generator, top of the line filtering, a dirt devil, shark of dolphin pool cleaning robot and a pool enclosure (like a green house that you can open when you are swimming and want to be outdoors, but close to keep debris out and heat in). You will have almost no maintenance. Of course you will have a wole new morgage to deal with.
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