Bob’s Blog

We are first time pool owners (it came with the house) who know absolutely nothing about owning a pool.  We opened the pool Memorial Day weekend and have had not any problems at all until we recently had 3 straight days of rain.  Now our pool is completely green.  We know it is algae but can’t seem to get the right combination of chemicals to get rid of it.  Of course this comes on the eve of our first annual pool party.  What can we do to get the pool clear and ready for swimming by this Saturday?  HELP!!!!

Lower ph immediately to 7.4.  Put in a good algaecide. Adjust alkalinity to 80 to 100/120.  Use 99% Chlorine not 33%.  If your using HTH or Kem Tec. throw chemicals it away. Run the pump continuously and clean the cartridge or sane continuously.  Remove by hand net any algae spores.  Scrub the walls and floor of pool with pool brush. Put a skimmer sock on skimmer basket to catch all solids coming through.  For future use one gallon of Algatec per year it will synergize with 99 %  chlorine and not allow algae to grow.  Lower percent for immediate swimming but no inert ingredients.  Don’t to buy chlorine from Coscto, Wal Mart or Grocery Store. You’re now paying the price for poor quality and more money to correct.

Hi
I am hoping you can help me out with this ongoing problem.  I have an above ground 24 foot round pool with 52 inch walls.  I have a sand filter.  I was ok until about 3 weeks ago.  THe pool started to turn green we shocked and it cleared up.  IT happened again this time it took 5 bags of shock.  That was about three days ago.  It cleared up but now when I check with test strips it says low on chlorine.  That makes no sense the pump runs all day there are pucks in it.  What would cause this?  Is it that the pump is not working right?  It is blwoing out the right pressure and seems to be strong.  I went to the pool store I purchased it from and they had no idea.  The pool is only about 5 years old.  This is frustrating they  tell me add more chlorine but there is plenty in there.  WHat causes this?  Any help would be so greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much
Have a great day
 Mike

You may have poured something in to your pool.  You state 5 bags of shock.  Did you read the label.  Some Chlorines contain very little chlorine but high in inert ingredients. Meaning about 33% low chorines and high content of inert ingredients. The weak chlorine was used up in fighting ther chlorine. Usually the brands are HTH and Kem Tec and chlorines found at Costco and other big Discounts stores. Look for 99% per cent chlorines.  The tablets ae slow dissolving and will not help with algae

Bob

If a Squirrel bites my Legacy Pool, is it covered in the warranty?

This pool is a tough polyvinyl with an embeded scrim of cross hatching fibers that make it very puncture resistant and virtually tear proof.

If a squirrel bites it all he’s going to get is a tooth ache.

But lets say you had Arnold Swartzesquirrely actualy penetrate the pool   The answer is no. Warranties only cover manufacturer defects and materials….if you drive a truck through it, if I tree falls on it, or if a body building squirrel damages it, it is not covered under the warranty

We live in the Long Beach area and have a 24 foot round above ground pool – do you know of anyone that does pool liner installation?  We tried doing it ourselves and had too many wrinkles in bottom of pool and vacuum would not work correctly.

Thank you for your assistance.

Remove the liner. Put the ledges on  and fully assemble the pool. Put liner back in pool and drape over the side about half way down. Clip of with clothes pins at each ledge. Only a small area of liner will be touching the center of pool. Put water hose in pool cover the tread with cloth so you don’t cut the liner.As the water inters  pool and pull on liner to pull out wrinkles release the clothes and then re attach again and repeat the process until liner is seated.  Then take off two ledges at time and tuck liner over the wall and put coping bank and re attach the ledges for second time.  repeat until finished.  This process is on our web site under pool encloypedia.

Mr. Songin

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
WE WERE OUT OF TOWN FOR TWO WEEKS AND OUR TIMER STOPPED WORKING THEREFORE THE POOL SAT ANYWHERE FROM 5 TO 14 DAYS WITHOUT RUNNING. ( MY NEIGHBOR THINKS IT RAN FOR 5 DAYS BEFORE IT STOPPED) YESTERDAY I ADDED 3 CUPS MURAIC ACID, RAN TWO HOURS, BOX OF ALKALINITY, RAN TWO HRS. TUB OF CALCIUM FOR HARDNESS OF WATER RAN 2 HRS, AND 2 BAGS OF YELLOW TREAT AND 2 BAGS OF SHOCK AFTER I BRUSHED OFF THE WALLS. I RAN THE POOL ALL NIGHT AND IT IS STILL GREEN. WE HAVE HAD A LOT OF RAIN IN FLORIDA THE LAT TWO WEEKS. MY QUESTION IS  DO I ADD MURATIC ACID BECAUSE OF THE RAIN OR ADD THE COPPER FLO FOR ALGAE.  ALL THE KIDS ARE COMING TO SWIM TODAY , IS IT SAFE TO SWM OR DO I HAVE TO LET THE GREEN DISAPPEAR 1ST? I TESTED THE POOL WITH A STRIP AND EVERTHING IS BALANCED. PLEASE ADVISE.

The Chlorine reading should be 1.4  and the ph 7.4.  What is the alkalinity reading?  If its still green, what is strength of chlorine.? If you’re using Kem Tech or HTH or chemical from the discount store the strength is too low.  Use 99% chlorine and an algae kill.  
 

Hi there,

We turned our above ground pool into a salt water pool with salt water filtration filter and regulator. We love it except we are running into a problem of keeping enough salt in the pool it seems we have had to put in alot of salt for what the pool should call for, but the filter system keeps saying every couple days low salt. The instructions on the filter say that the salt shouldn’t evaporate and you souldn’t need to add that much salt in one season. It says that if you have alot of splash outs you will have to add more, but we don’t. We live in 100+ temperatures if that helps any. Also it seems to be crystal clear and clean for a week then seems to grow algae (brownish green) fast.  We got a pool vac. system and clean it often we just don’t think it should be growning algae can you help?

pool owner

Okay,  The first thing we have to consider is the function of a salwater generator. What this machine does is change the Sodium Chloride (salt) into Hypo Sodium Chloride (chlorine). Once the chlorine is in the pool it acts like any other chlorine product.

The hot 100+ degree heat you mention will leech chlorine from your water unless it has treated with stabilizer/conditioner (cyanuric acid). This product is required to “hold” the chlorine in the water, otherwise the chlorine will evaporate in about an hour, causing the chlorinator to use up the salt in the pool.

If you have used stabilizer/conditioner  and you are still getting this problem, then you have to look at the settings of the saltwater generator and perhaps contact the maker.

Algae only forms in the absence of chlorine.  Once it forms it must be treated with Algeacide

I have and above ground pool, 18′ round, 7500 gallons, and a DE filter. My pool had white algea when we first opened it and we treated it and my pool will not hold chlorine and it now has a greenish tint. I have brought samples of the water to the pool store and we have done everything that they have told us and it still will not hold chlorine and I’m at a loss can you help?

 J

Have you treated your pool with quality Stabilzer and Conditioner (cyanuric acid). This product is required to hold the chlorine in the pool. Chlorine’s natural condtion is as a gas, which the sun naturally pulls out mof the water easily. The CA is used to retain it, in it’s liquid state. Now that your pool is green, you have to treat it with Algaecide. Chlorine only keeps algae from blooming, once it takes hold, chlorine can’t stop it. You have to make sure that you buy quality pool chemicals from a quality supplier. Cheap chemicals will cause you nothing but heartache.

I have an above ground pool with a sand filter. I opened the pool about a week ago and can’t seem to get the water clear. When doing all my water tests everything tells me its ok to swim but, the water has this turqoise color and it just does not want to budge from there. I can’t see the bottom and I’ve been running the filter constantly. I’ve gone to two pool stores in my locale and it just seems they want to sell me more stuff. If that is the case I want to know what the right stuff is. I feel like I’m being jerked around at the store but, I just want to make sure I am not.