10 Months In And Pristine Water.

[AllanB]

It is now 10 months since I filled my Infinity pool, with simple bag filter, fast flow infinity edge and chlorine tablets dropped in the trough and I am pleased to report that the water is crystal clear. Most say it is the cleanest pool water they have seen.

Earlier this year I had been experimenting with very low pump run times and low chlorine levels and did get some cloud problems with the water for a while.

But now feel I have the ideal levels.

1. I run my main pump 2 1/2 hours a day (one full water change) which passes through the main 50 micron bag filter and keep one and a bit chlorine pucks upstream of the filter.

2. Every Sunday, my weekly 1 hour morning clean comprises:- I take the main filter out and wash it, then a pool vacuum and finally a general wash around. I drop in a dozen shock tablets and then leave my "water polishing" pump for the rest of the day, which goes through a 1 micron bag filter.

My water temperature is still cool, currently at only 27c, the highest it got was 29c and can swim at any time, all thanks to the simple roof. I would normally still be on my original 2 bags, but........

1. I put too much chlorine in the polishing bag which partially destroyed it and

2. I redesigned my main filter box and had previously modified the bag for the original, by removing the neck ring insert. So rather than try to refit the ring, at only 1,000 baht a go, I merely opted for a new bag.

Interesting I noticed on another topic "Sand Filter - Price Check" some guy was quoted 37,000 baht for a sand filter and a lot of work to fit it. So at 1,000 baht, my bag filter looks very very good news, filters better and cleans better too.

I got a lot of harsh criticism from this forum earlier this year when I started out with these so called radical ideas, feel pretty smug now.

Simple is usually the best.

[TS79]

Here we go again...

[AllanB]

Don't worry sunshine, I know a brick wall when I see one.Someone with an open mind may be interested in not spending 37,000 baht on a huge box of sand, that splits and leaks.

[tollgate]

Hi Allan

Good to hear the pool is going well - seen too many green pools in Thailand. However you say you are using chlorine tablet - I presume these are the 200g Trichlor ones?

The thing to watch out for is a rising cyanuric acid (cya) level. These tabs use cya as the stabiliser and it builds up in the water. You need to aim for 30-50ppm. Once the level goes much over 80 ppm you will get chlorine lock and it won't sanitise the water properly.

You don't say what size your pool is, so as an example I'll give some figure based on my pool which is approx 44000 litre outdoor in-ground.

If I use tabs I need 3 in a floater. Three tabs gives me 12 ppm free chlorine and 7.5 ppm cya total over approx 5 days. so after one month my cya is up to 45ppm already. This doesn't take in to account splash out, backwashing, draining to waste and topping up all of which dilute the cya a little. So I stopped using tabs some time ago and now use liquid chlorine - my pool shop has sodium hydrochloride at 10% chlorine - I add approx 1 litre per day which gives me 2ppm free chlorine but doesn't increase cya.