Thread: pool water calculations

Originally Posted by adm333

I don't know what set up the pool haters have had in the past, but like Weeds, I have almost no trouble with my in ground pool.

It is salt water, has a big sand filter, auto timer, auto chlorination, auto pool cleaner, auto solar heating.

It is possibly about 2 hours a month if that to keep it up to scratch, and not a lot of money.

To put it in perspective, its about one one hundredth of the effort and expense of our Land Rovers

Same here. I fought and lost the battle against getting the pool but it is no effort to look after. The kreepy does most of the work (although it remains a mystery to me how the thing works).

I would spend 15 minutes a fortnight on it if that, cleaning the cell, empty the filter basket, add a litre of acid. Half a dozen bags of salt once a year.

Originally Posted by taff

hey all, i've just bought an above ground pool which will be here this weekend.

Recollections of childhood in Melbourne northern suburbs...........Above ground pool, Dad taking a deep breath and going to the bottom, me standing on his back while he patches holes, tap on the ankle to get off when required

Originally Posted by loanrangie

That was me, no word of a lie, last weekend of October i bought 1 x 15 litre drum of liquid chlorine and a 1ltr bottle of liquid dropout (flocking agent ). After removing all the leaves and branches that had fallen in the pool over the previous 6 months and as much other chunky algae etc i ran the filter overnight about 12 hours or so, poured in the flocking liquid and ran the filter for 6 hours. Let the pool sit for 48 hours and then vacuumed the pool to waste, poured in about 5-6 litres of chlorine and within 3 hours it was crystal clear. Now the reason i let my pool go over winter is we are surrounded by tall trees and it is pointless trying to keep it clean during winter when storms are constantly dropping debri in the pool. Over the last 5 years this system works well for me and costs me bugger all - 1x drum of chlorine $13.50, 2 of 10x 200g chlorine tablets @ $19.95 each and 1 x 1 litre bottle of dropout.

What is this Flocking Agent. I have not heard of this and I can only guess this is why you get your pool clean in six hours.

I use liquid chlorine and when my pool is green I add about four litres of chlorine (20,000 litre pool) and then about two litres a day after that until clean, which is about six to seven days and usually requires a couple of filter back washes which then requires topping up with precious water.

As for winter maintenance I too have a lot of trees. I leave all the crap in the pool but find about one litre of chlorine a week keeps the water clear.

If I can get my water from green to clean in six hours I will revert to no winter maintenance.

Dave.

there are a number of different types green pools , they are all basically treated the same. the only real difference is phosphates or algy food, and you tend to deal with this last any way.

next question is if you have a sand filter or not.

get the big stuff out first, thats simple

get your PH low first, this helps the chlorine work

dump your chlorine in about 1/2 a ltr per 1000ltrs or 1 kg of the cheep cal hypo

now if you have a sand filter just leave it running, and back wash off the pressure gauge, you will know if you have it correct as it will go a milky blue. if not just add more chlorine. if you have a cartridge filter this will block up to fast so add a flocking agent ( coagulant) and leave the pump off, once settled vac to waste.

if your out bush you can sometimes make a suitable donation to the local fire brigade to fill it up

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

What is this Flocking Agent. I have not heard of this and I can only guess this is why you get your pool clean in six hours.

I use liquid chlorine and when my pool is green I add about four litres of chlorine (20,000 litre pool) and then about two litres a day after that until clean, which is about six to seven days and usually requires a couple of filter back washes which then requires topping up with precious water.

As for winter maintenance I too have a lot of trees. I leave all the crap in the pool but find about one litre of chlorine a week keeps the water clear.

If I can get my water from green to clean in six hours I will revert to no winter maintenance.

Dave.

I assume this is what loanrangie is talking about:
Heavy Duty Liquid Flocculant - Clear Cloudy Pool Water - PQ Drop Out

Originally Posted by isuzurover

I assume this is what loanrangie is talking about:
Heavy Duty Liquid Flocculant - Clear Cloudy Pool Water - PQ Drop Out

Over the years I have used products to get the pool crystal clear.

These work by binding the very small particles together to make them larger so the filter will trap them.

The only time I used this is when the water is clean but after lots of filtering just doesn't come up to scratch. eg if there was a 20 cent piece on the bottom I could not tell if it was heads or tails.

I would not have thought this stuff to be suitable for a green pool.

Dave.

I used to use a range of liquid polymer floc agents to settle backwash water from commercial filtration systems. These basically couldnt be drained to open ground and had to be settled and separated then removing the clarified water and re introducing it back to the system.

The polymer was mixed at a rate of 10ml to 1000L and it would be circulated thru a 300m3 pond by 2 120m3/h circ pumps. It took hours min to get full circulation, but 3-4 hours to settle it crystal clear. Amazing stuff but a 1L bottle was something around $250.00 .

Cheers

Andrew.