RiverbendPoolSupply.com - Todd's Blog - Episode 73

I haven't been able to do a blog post in a while because my camera died about three weeks ago and then Truckload happened. Despite this, my pool has remained absolutely beautiful. Even with all the rain we've had my pool has not seen a speck of algae growth.
This week, however, my filter pressure has shot up and I need to have the filter cleaned. Because of this, the water is not circulating properly and has become somewhat cloudy. I have a filter clean scheduled and everything should be back to normal soon. CLEAN YOUR FILTER EVERY 6 MONTHS! I can not stress the importance of that enough!
Other than the cloudiness, the pool seems in pretty good shape;
Free Chlorine - .4 PPM
Total Chlorine - .4 PPM
This is pretty well all the chlorine that I need. Once my filter is cleaned and the circulation returns to normal the cloudiness will go away.
PH - 7.2
My PH has been hovering between 7.2 and 7.4 for several weeks now. Borates are very powerful PH buffers and with a Borate level of 80 PPM it's no wonder that my PH is holding properly.
Total Alkalinity - 60 PPM
This is fine for now. My CSI (Calcium Saturation Index - a measurement of the waters tendency to be corrosive or scale) is -.3 which is the lowest recommended range for plaster pools. I want to maintain this for a while to help the pool water eat calcium back off from the plaster and tile. Probably in a couple of months I will spike the Alkalinity back to 90 or so to keep the CSI reading at -0.1
Calcium Hardness - 225 PPM
Perfect.
Cyanuric Acid - 15 PPM
Given that the pool hasn't been circulating I am not sure if this reading is accurate, but I would like to get it back to about 30 PPM.
Phosphates - 500 PPB
This is no surprise given all the rain we have had. I will use PR-10,000 next week to bring it back down.
Borate - 80 PPM
Perfect.
Even though the pool has not been circulating properly there is NO ALGAE growth and I STILL have some chlorine in there.
This just goes to show you the power of combining Borates, Minerals, PolyQuat, Enzymes and low levels of chlorine. It's better for you, your pool and our environment.
See you next week.