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It's not too bad, except during Fall. Then it does either become a constant battle with the leaves, or (as in the past) we get lazy, give up, and clean it all out when it gets warm again. This year we're going to try to stay on top of it, but we'll see what happens. One year we actually did...

Update: Pool is now good to go (and has been for a while now). Black algae problem has been resolved. Yay! Latest question: The wife has lately been interested in getting a nice pool robot. I'm curious, what's the general forum consensus on pool robots? Are they worth it? How long do they last...

I thought of another question: When you're doing the various tests, such as the FC test, and you're adding drops one at a time and counting them... obviously you get to the point where you can look at the shade of the color, and know that it's going to be at least X number of drops. Can you just...

Okay, it SEEMS like the SLAM process is now complete! The FC level did not appear to drop overnight. I'll confirm that tonight by doing a more precise overnight test (I didn't actually wait 30 minutes and confirm the chlorine level before I went to bed, I just added the calculated amount that...

Still SLAMing! It's been tough. I think we're pretty close though. There is some persistent black algae on the walls. What's the forum's stance on algicide? Should I put some in, or just stick with the bleach?

Awesome. I just didn't want it to dilute or wash out the chlorine, so great.

Okay. But I assume a CC of .5 or 1 is not too bad either? Another question: We've been having a lot of rain lately. It's been raining off-and-on all day yesterday, all day today, and it's supposed to do the same thing tomorrow. In the past, we've not bothered trying to shock on rainy days...

SLAMing continues. I'm curious, every time I check my FC/CC, CC is only around .5 or 1. Is that normal, for CCs to remain low?

Update: It's been about 8 hours since my last test, FC now reads 8, CC still at 1. Now adding chlorine to bring FC back up to 12.

Actually the pH reading was taken prior to adding more chlorine in, FC was 0. weird considering the tendency of pH to go UP in outdoor pools. Ah well, not worried about it right now. I'll figure it out once the SLAM is done, I reckon.

Update! Got the CYA, it's in the socks now, being distributed. Prior to adding bleach today, test indicated an FC of 0. Added bleach to shock level (12) for a CYA of 30. Tested after about an hour, some interesting results: pH has dropped to 7.2. FC reads 13, CC reads 1. Hmmm!

woodyp suggested a CYA of 30 ppm. If I just assume (without testing) that's where it's at once I dissolve the CYA, that would mean using a different FC target level for the SLAM. Is that really a good idea? I also see that, until the week is up, I'm not supposed to backwash the filter. That's...

Tested again at the hour mark. CC still reads 1, FC now reads 7. The ABCs section suggests solid stabilizer as the more economical option, so that's what we'll go with. That section also advises the CYA level not be checked until a week later, so I reckon the SLAM will be on hold until then...

Okay, tested 30 minutes later. FC reads 10, CC reads 1. 10 was my target shock level, so it doesn't seem like it's dropped much in 30 minutes. I'm guessing a CC of 1 is not high. I will wait and test again at the hour mark, unless you advise otherwise.

Okay, I think I understand. I thought you guys were saying that the CYA may have turned into ammonia, which would show up as high CC. But what you were actually saying, is that a high CC may indicate the presence of ammonia, because the chlorine is destroying the ammonia. So, a reading of zero...

Bump, because I'm still trying to decide whether or not to add CYA to the pool before we SLAM it.

From what I've read you have to wait a week after adding CYA to the pool, before you can get an accurate reading of what your new CYA level is. Do you think it's worth waiting on the SLAM, to get the CYA up? Prior to adding any bleach, the pH was high (8.2+) and the TA was 60 (which seems to...

A small update... With winter behind us, we are working on getting the pool back in shape again, and preparing to SLAM it. Used my fancy test kit to check various levels, and was quite surprised to find that the CYA reads zero! Now, the general feeling I get on the forum is that CYA is bad...

Now, tim5055 doesn't have a salt system, but still needs muratic acid. Is that just generally to get the ph down if it gets too high? My wife seemed to think muratic acid was mostly used to clean the DE filter. Is muratic acid better to use than that "ph down" stuff? Or is it pretty much the...

Excellent. Yes, I know. I was curious about what you thought of the two different systems. Is salt really cheaper in the long run? I know about the higher up front cost, not sure about "replacement of the cell down the line." Ugh. And yet clearly you don't necessarily have to drain your...

Wow, that's pretty cool. We can't afford one of those right now, but it looks like something we'd definitely want to add at some point. Gotcha. Remind me: does the 8.25% bleach lose potency over time, if you don't use it quickly enough? What's that? Are you referring to the salt water...

Thanks for the welcome! I've followed your example, and put the details of my pool in my signature! The pool did indeed start out as a swamp when we first bought the house, but we eventually got it back in decent shape. It got pretty swampy over the winter too, due to our pool pump breaking...

Here is our pool: It's a pretty fancy gunite pool, it came with the house. It was in pretty bad shape when we first moved in, but has since been remediated. This is our first experience maintaining a pool, so it has been a definite learning process. I'll collect some statistics about our...