AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Chat Area The pool at Reef Village

Don and Judy do not know but they will sell you a seminar. Yeek!!! Great business savvy!

Jest keep watchin' over that left shoulder....

to get this thread back on track... we have two pools here, both of which have sand filters now (just switched one over from paper... sand = much easier to clean when vacuuming the pool.) All the chemicals in the world won't help the pool if the PH is off... first thing to do is to test that and get it in line. Then you can put in an algaecide and shock the pool to clarify it. A bit of a chore to get the pool back in shape, but once it's there, it's easily enough maintained if someone does basic things every day.

All the chemicals in the world won't help the pool if the PH is off...

Thats what(one) chemical is for to correct the ph. With proper monitoring -DAILY- ph would not BE off.

The key is to balance your TOTAL Alkalinity first before trying to balance the ph that the standard testers test for. If you total alkalinity is out of whack and then the regular ph test results are false - and during that time the chlorine levels will go haywire and then you will get the algae blooms which turn the pool water murky. Your cyanuric acid levels (stabilizer) must be carefully adjusted. Exercise extreme patience - it is easy to over do this and then you will experience constant ph bounce.
An interesting point is the fact that algicide is only a preventative and will not actually kill algae. You need to scrub the pool and vacuum then over chlorinate it - the algae will die. Clean filter. Scrub pool again, vacuum, clean filter. Do this until you see obvious improvement. You must remove all algae bloom - which can be found within your pool lines, lights, jets etc. If even a little remains you will continue to have algae problems. Once you have removed the algae the regular algaecide treatments will prevent new growth.

When you over chlorinate the pool and begin aggressive treatment the pool needs to be completely closed to bathers.

You are going to have to run the pool pump continually till you get a handle on the problem.

Good luck.

#1 Don and Julie(not Judy) are NOT selling a seminar, we are
going to sponsor one, there's a difference....and it will be FREE to attendees. We thought a "Pool Chemistry Seminar" would be very beneficial to the maintainence people who are interested in becoming more knowledgable about the pools they care for and understand how chemistry works.
We will have a pool chemistry specialist coming from the US to head up the seminar.

#2 We try our best to help people with their pools. We're only human and do not claim to know everything about pools or pool chemistry. It's difficult to diagnosis a problem over the phone.
With the proper information, we've been able to help many customers solve their pool problems.

I want to add that when contacted Island Pool Supply has been most helpful in answering many questions and spending way more time than it was worth TO them in helping me understand some of our pool problems. In Southern California, you have a twice weekly poolman, you pay less than 100 US (including chemicals) and you don't have half the problems with the variety of pools in San Pedro. Island Pool have solved several of our problems and I am very thankful for their business in San Pedro.

Janice

Pool maintanance is a bitch. Pools that gets used a lot need to be checked and balanced daily. First thing I would do if the pool is not responding to cleaning, brushing, shocking and normal balancing of alkalinity, ph and chlorine is to check the cyanuric acid levels (stabilizer). Too much can lead to cloudy water and too little causes the chlorine to be used up too quickly. If you're using chlorine tabs with stabilizer added then it's easy to get high levels of cyanuric acid. Only way to correct this is to drain the pool part way and refill. If you can't find a pool person with a cyanuric acid test kit I know a guy that has one. Use a test kit - the test strips are a joke.