Need honest help-don't know what else to do

[sidetrackmary1]

Good Afternoon fellow posters and experts. My name is Mary and I'm stumped on what I should do next.
We've had our pool replastered ,twice(re-do) two years ago. At that time, we installed a new Jandy Stealth pump and a Trio pure salt water generator/ozinator. First few months, fantastic! Main reason we did this was to eliminate as many chemicals as possible(I have a auto immune disease).

After a couple of months, scale began forming. Used Scaletec, it worked really well but then algae has been in our pool sice then. First guy that installed all equipment and began as pool man was a fraud, rip off. Second guy never admitted he knew nothing about our system. At this point our salt cell is turned off. Worked like crap, waited several months for a call back from manufacturer. I will not empty that pool again, water cost alot and is limited in our neck of the woods. Pool is 25,000 gallons, similar to a kidney shape. Our pool guy is back to using just chlorine and algaecide.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do ? Replace equipment w/what system? At this point funds are limited.

Thank for letting me vent...so frustrating.

[chem geek]

1) Get a good test kit -- read this for good ones.

2) Read and follow Water Balance for SWGs.

Have you been checking your pH regularly? I suspect it rose since that frequently occurs with SWG pools. There are ways of reducing this effect, but you will have to add acid regularly with an SWG pool.

ScaleTec might contain phosphonates to reduce scaling and for metal sequestration. These can break down over time to add phosphates to the water and that provides algae with food. The algae will grow if your Free Chlorine (FC) level is too low relative to your Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level. You probably let your FC get below 4.5% of your CYA level -- roughly speaking, your FC may have been below 4 ppm if your CYA was 80 ppm.

Are you unable to use your Trio salt system anymore? I didn't understand why it's now shut off. It's true you will need to shock with unstabilized chlorine (bleach or chlorinating liquid) to get rid of the algae as per Defeating Algae, but after that you should be able to use your SWG system if you keep your water more in balance. If not, then you can manually dose with chlorine -- up to you.

[Pooltech32]

what are you chemical readings?
Chlorine:
PH:
Alkalinity:
Calcium:
Stabilizer?

My bet is your stabilizer is high, preventing the chlorine from working correctly which has caused algea, as far as the scaling goes, salt systems generate chlorine at a PH level of 7.8, combine that with no chlorine pucks to keep the PH down in your pool, and it will rise very fast creating a scaling situation. As far as the salt cell goes, I am willing to bet that it is totally plugged with scale preventing it from working, I had one last year that took me an hour to clean, after that it worked perfectly?

[sidetrackmary1]

Thank You both for responding. I really appreciate your kindness. I have printed and will give to both my husband and pool man. I know they test each week.

I will post when I have results.
Again, thanks for taking the time.
Mary

[sidetrackmary1]

Hi Everyone...Hope everyone is well this Monday afternoon. Ok, my pool man gave me the following readings:
cl.0.0
PH-7.8
Conditioner- 40ppm
calcium-330 pm
Alkalinity-90ppm

Not sure if this enough info.

What do you think?
Thanks...Mary

[Me...]

If this was my pool i would grab a gallon of chlorine and walk around the pool pouring it in. Won't be near enough but you need some in there right away. Wait a half hour or so then put a few cups of Muriatic into a 5 gallon pail and walk around the pool pouring that in. Again, might not be enough but in another few hours you can test and see what happened.

Try and get all the tests INCLUDING both Total AND Combined Chlorine. The Calcium, Alk and Stabilizer are ok for now. You will end up dropping the Alkalinity as you correct the pH down but thats also ok for now.

[chem geek]

I agree with Me... except that I would add 3 gallons of 12.5% chlorinating liquid since that would raise the FC to 15 ppm and you'll need it that high to combat algae quickly. I would also lower the pH as he suggests, but would use 8 cups of full-strength Muriatic Acid (31.45% Hydrochloric Acid) since that would lower the pH from 7.8 to 7.2 and with the amount of chlorine you'll be adding, this will help keep the pH from rising too much (the chlorine will have the pH rise from 7.2 to around 7.8 though this will come back down when the chlorine gets used up). I'd add the acid first, wait 10 minutes or so (assuming your pool has decent circulation) and then add the chlorine. If your pool doesn't have a floor drain or good circulation, then walking around the pool slowly pouring as Me... suggested is a good alternative. You just don't want the acid or the chlorine to settle to the bottom of the pool instead of getting thoroughly mixed.

Don't forget to always add these chemicals very slowly over a return flow at the deep end with the pump running. If it's a vinyl pool, then for extra safety, lightly brush the side and bottom of the pool where you add the chemicals to ensure thorough mixing.

Did you read the article on Defeating Algae?

[Me...]

"We've had our pool replastered ,twice(re-do) two years ago."

HaHA! Caught ya there Chem geek! Anyways, I have seen too many nasty results from shocking a pool when the pH is out there in left field somewhere so I tend to try and get it settled in between 7.2 and 7.6 before shocking it.

[chem geek]

"We've had our pool replastered ,twice(re-do) two years ago."

HaHA! Caught ya there Chem geek! Anyways, I have seen too many nasty results from shocking a pool when the pH is out there in left field somewhere so I tend to try and get it settled in between 7.2 and 7.6 before shocking it.

I'm missing something. I thought we were in agreement on what to do, including lowering the pH before shocking (though you said add chlorine first and then add the acid). I was just calculating to add more of both, but you already noted that the amounts you suggested "won't be near enough" and "might not be enough".

As for the replastering, that would lead to very rapid rising pH and a lot of acid that needs to be added to keep it lower. That combined with an SWG that tends to rise in pH anyway (especially if the TA isn't lowered significantly) is most likely what led to the scaling since it sounds like the pH wasn't monitored and acid wasn't regularly added. However, that was 2 years ago so I assume that the plaster curing is mostly over with.

[Me...]

Chem geek, just your reply here and it looked like you missed where they had plastered the pool. Was just buggin ya for missing that since you usually miss nothing

"If it's a vinyl pool, then for extra safety"

[chem geek]

Thanks...I think.