I had such a better time opening my pool this year! Just as a refresher, last year it was SWAMP complete with frogs and bugs! Last year got it clear but had trouble keeping it that way due to lack of time to really follow BBB method. By late fall it was green. I got the FC up and kept it that way, but could not get it to clear I think due to the cold water/air temps. I just covered it with a leaf net for winter.
Opened it up to green but no bugs or frogs lol. Started dumping bleach but little time to keep up with constant testing. Found an Intex SWG on craiglist for $100. Best money ever spent on the pool! WOW! Added our salt and we were off. I was able to get my FC levels to 15-16 and keep them there just with the SWG (my pool is only 7500 gallons) and running my pump/filter 24h/day it is CLEAR. Did a good vacumming to get the remaining bits of leaves out of the bottom. So now I need to tweak my numbers:
pH 7.4
CYA 45
TA 70
CH 90
FC 9.5 (I'm letting it work down after being in shock mode)
My salt level was 3450 last week, but with all the vacumming and backwashing and adding water it may be slightly lower now.
I think the only thing I really need to do is add some stabilizer to get my CYA to 70. And let me FC get down to 3-5 and play with my SWG settings to see how many hours a day to keep it at that level.
As far as pH, I'm thinking retest it once my FC is down since it might be low due to the high FC levels..or should I add Borax? Also should I worry about borates? I added some borax last year so does that mean I have borates in the pool? I always get little mixed up on the pH and alkalinity stuff!
Any other ideas? It's already in the 80s outside and it's so great to get the pool up and running so early. I wish I'd have bought the SWG last year I consider it MUST HAVE equipment now!!
Opened it up to green but no bugs or frogs lol. Started dumping bleach but little time to keep up with constant testing. Found an Intex SWG on craiglist for $100. Best money ever spent on the pool! WOW! Added our salt and we were off. I was able to get my FC levels to 15-16 and keep them there just with the SWG (my pool is only 7500 gallons) and running my pump/filter 24h/day it is CLEAR. Did a good vacumming to get the remaining bits of leaves out of the bottom. So now I need to tweak my numbers:
pH 7.4
CYA 45
TA 70
CH 90
FC 9.5 (I'm letting it work down after being in shock mode)
My salt level was 3450 last week, but with all the vacumming and backwashing and adding water it may be slightly lower now.
I think the only thing I really need to do is add some stabilizer to get my CYA to 70. And let me FC get down to 3-5 and play with my SWG settings to see how many hours a day to keep it at that level.
As far as pH, I'm thinking retest it once my FC is down since it might be low due to the high FC levels..or should I add Borax? Also should I worry about borates? I added some borax last year so does that mean I have borates in the pool? I always get little mixed up on the pH and alkalinity stuff!
Any other ideas? It's already in the 80s outside and it's so great to get the pool up and running so early. I wish I'd have bought the SWG last year I consider it MUST HAVE equipment now!!
