Employee Cheat Sheet

Contact YOUR supervisor first. If you cannot get in touch with them, and it is an emergency, then call the other numbers. If you have any of the following, please e-mail your supervisor: supply requests, a long amount of information that occurred at your pool, staffing issues, holes that you need fill at your pool, clocking in and out issues, issues with your paycheck etc.

Reasons to call your supervisor:

The Motor: This should ALWAYS be running. If not, call your supervisor.
Glass broken on your pool deck: ANYWHERE, even if it is not close to your pool.
Landline phone is not working: When there is no dial tone for your phone, your pool cannot be open.
No Chlorine in the pool
Anytime that the police/EMS/fire department is called to your facility
When the front gate is not functioning properly
When a patron complains
Basically when anything out of the ordinary happens at your facility.

Chemical Functions and Correct Levels

Chemicals CANNOT BE ADDED to the pool when there are people in it. Wait 25 minutes after you add anything to the pool. A great time to do this is if you have an “adult swim”. Please ask kindly for the adults to get out during this time in order to balance the chemicals and make the water safe for everyone to swim in. If possible, add chemicals AT NIGHT after closing or BEFORE OPENING.
Never add ANY chemicals into the skimmers. This could cause major clogs. Add it near the main drain, and brush the chemical towards the main drain until dissolved.

Chlorine:

Must be between 2-5 PPM at all times.

Forms of chlorine that may be at your pool: liquid, granular (sodium hypochlorite), and chlorine “skimmer” sticks. The skimmer sticks CANNOT go in the skimmers on the side of the pool.
Chlorine is a disinfectant. This kills the vast majority of microorganisms that can cause disease.

pH:

Levels must stay between 7.2 and 7.8 PPM at all times.

to LOWER the pH: add MURATIC ACID
to RAISE the pH: add SODIUM BICARBONATE: there are very few times when you should have to raise the pH in your main pool. Do NOT add soda ash to your pool.
the pH has the most impact on properly balanced water and user comfort.
Muratic Acid comes in gallons, or can be in large barrels at your pool. If you have to add muratic acid to your facility, DO NOT GET IT ON YOUR SKIN. Do not breathe it in. Use extreme caution when using this chemical.

Total Alkalinity:

Levels must stay between 80-120 PPM.

this is the measure of the ability of water to resist changes in pH. It is a buffer.

TO RAISE TOTAL ALKALINITY: add SODIUM BICARBONATE. The amount to add is based on the gallons in your pool and is located on the side of the bag of sodium “bicarb”.

Calcium Hardness:

Levels must be between 200-400 PPM.

Calcium is present in the water naturally. Calcium is best lowered by adding new water (aka turning on the fill line).
Calcium is RAISED by adding CALCIUM FLAKES to your pool.

Cyanuric Acid:

Levels must be between 30-50 PPM.

This protects the chlorine from the effects of UV light in sunlight-also called stabilizer.
It is the chlorine’s “sunscreen”.

OPERATIONS:

How to calculate the TURNOVER RATE:
Turnover rate = pool volume / flow rate / 60 (mins/hour)

So the turnover rate is equal to the POOL VOLUME divided by the FLOW RATE (which you will find on the flow meter in your pump room) and then divided by 60.

Example: You have a 200,000 Gallon pool; the flow rate is 750 GPM. What is the turnover rate? TOR = 200,000/750/60 = 4.4 Hours

The main drain:

Should never ever have any cracks, pieces missing, or anything like that on it. This is one of the most important things on the CPO sheet. Please ACTUALLY check it when you complete the CPO sheet. It would not hurt to swim down to it every once in a while to make sure that what you see from the surface is the same as what it is near the bottom.

Weirs & Skimmers:

All of your skimmers need to have weirs, and they are all different. If you need weirs, please send a picture to your supervisor of what the weir you are requesting looks like. Your skimmers should NEVER be sucking air, and therefore the water level should be at the middle of the tiles at all times. If it is too high, then it will not skim the surface properly. If it is too low, it will do the same.

Vacuuming:

This should NEVER be operated when there are people in the pool. Please come in an hour early, or stay an hour late, but do not use the vacuum when there is anyone in the pool.

Make absolutely SURE that you turn the vacuum off after you are done with it, and that the cap is screwed back on the port on the wall.

The pressure gauges:

The pressure gauges on the filters should ALWAYS be below 30. If you have a non-functioning gauge, let your supervisor know so that they can get it replaced for you. These should be looked at every morning. Your pool may look cloudy if your pressures are too high, because it cannot filter the water properly. You may have to backwash more than once a week. THIS IS OKAY. Make sure that after you backwash, all the valves RETURN to the way that they were before. If they are left open, your pool will lose water.

Stenner and CAT controller issues:

As a quick fix, switch the CAT controller to manual to see if it will feed in that position. If it does, text or e-mail your supervisor that the stenner is not working on automatic. MAKE SURE THAT IF YOU TURN YOUR CAT CONTROLLER TO MANUAL THAT YOU TURN IT OFF IN ˜2 HOURS. Do not leave your CAT controller on Manual or it will drain the entire barrel of either acid or chlorine.

Try the AIR BUBBLE TEST if the stenner is running and there is no chlorine going into your pool. This involves taking the feeder out of the chlorine or acid temporarily and putting it right back into the barrel. There should be an air bubble in the line. Watch and make sure that the bubble makes it all the way through the line.

If your CAT controller is reading “NO FLOW“, no matter what the pressures are, BACKWASH and see if this fixes the problem. Another thing to try is CLEAN THE STRAINER BASKET. To do this, make sure that all of the valves are shut (return, skimmers, main drain etc.). Make sure that the PUMP IS OFF (aka shut off the electricity). This may require a rubber mallet for most strainer baskets. Clean out the basket and put it back, and the lid on tight before you open everything back up and turn the system back on.

Backwash:

If you do not know how to backwash your facility properly, please let me know so that I can show you. Just make sure that the pump is off when you are switching all the levers.

Storing Chemicals:

There should be no liquid chemicals (or any liquid for that matter) stored above dry chemicals, we have a problem. Let’s clean out our guard rooms and chemical rooms to make them safer, cleaner places.