I am new here and have been thrilled with the wealth of knowledge on this forum and organized in the Pool School. I have a 22,000 gal. above ground vinyl pool which came with the house when we bought it a few years ago.
I must admit that I have really had no idea what I was doing the last few years and threw myself on the mercy of the local pool store. They really did a nice job of keeping my pool clean and clear, but it cost an arm and half a leg. The bigger issue for me was that I had absolutely no idea what the various numbers, tests, powders and liquids that they kept telling and selling to me meant. So this spring I was doing a little learning online to get smarter and found this awesome forum.
I have studied Pool School, bought my bleach, borax and baking soda, and have been putting numbers into the pool calculator, and I think I am in the home stretch. Two weeks ago when I took the cover off, the pool was a green swamp (no exageration). It has been on a steady dose of bleach since then to get things under control. I have also had to adjust pH and add CYA to get things in line. As of 20 minutes ago, here is the latest test results:
FC = 2
TC = 3
CC = 1
pH = 7.5
TA = 150
CYA = 30
Pool = 22,000 AG / Sand Filter
My DE filter died end of last season, so I tried a sand this year. The first one I found (given to me) was too small and had issues, but now I have a Hayward s220t and things look great! Pool water has gone from green 2 weeks ago, to grey / cloudy, to cloudy, to blueish-hazy, to blueish-foggy, to pretty darn blue as of this weekend!!! I can cleary see the bottom in the deepend. It is still going through chlorine, so I want to get it back up to shock level of 11-12. The great and wise Pool Calculator tells me to add 422oz of 6%, so I am going to dump in 4 96oz jugs now. I am then going to test in a few hours and again in the morning to see how much was consumed over night.
Here are my questions:
1) Anything I should be doing about the high TA at this time?
2) what is a safe range of chlorine to let the kiddo's swim?
3) when adding chlorine, I pour one jug after another into the pool in front of the return jet. Should I wait some time between each jug or is it ok to just keep pouring in the entire dose?
4) anything else you see in my numbers or other recommendations?
Thank you!!
ps - I wish I had taken a before shot of the green monster, but here it is tonight looking mucho better.
I must admit that I have really had no idea what I was doing the last few years and threw myself on the mercy of the local pool store. They really did a nice job of keeping my pool clean and clear, but it cost an arm and half a leg. The bigger issue for me was that I had absolutely no idea what the various numbers, tests, powders and liquids that they kept telling and selling to me meant. So this spring I was doing a little learning online to get smarter and found this awesome forum.
I have studied Pool School, bought my bleach, borax and baking soda, and have been putting numbers into the pool calculator, and I think I am in the home stretch. Two weeks ago when I took the cover off, the pool was a green swamp (no exageration). It has been on a steady dose of bleach since then to get things under control. I have also had to adjust pH and add CYA to get things in line. As of 20 minutes ago, here is the latest test results:
FC = 2
TC = 3
CC = 1
pH = 7.5
TA = 150
CYA = 30
Pool = 22,000 AG / Sand Filter
My DE filter died end of last season, so I tried a sand this year. The first one I found (given to me) was too small and had issues, but now I have a Hayward s220t and things look great! Pool water has gone from green 2 weeks ago, to grey / cloudy, to cloudy, to blueish-hazy, to blueish-foggy, to pretty darn blue as of this weekend!!! I can cleary see the bottom in the deepend. It is still going through chlorine, so I want to get it back up to shock level of 11-12. The great and wise Pool Calculator tells me to add 422oz of 6%, so I am going to dump in 4 96oz jugs now. I am then going to test in a few hours and again in the morning to see how much was consumed over night.
Here are my questions:
1) Anything I should be doing about the high TA at this time?
2) what is a safe range of chlorine to let the kiddo's swim?
3) when adding chlorine, I pour one jug after another into the pool in front of the return jet. Should I wait some time between each jug or is it ok to just keep pouring in the entire dose?
4) anything else you see in my numbers or other recommendations?
Thank you!!
ps - I wish I had taken a before shot of the green monster, but here it is tonight looking mucho better.