Help me not murder my husband!

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Hobokenkitchen

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Apr 24, 2012
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Before you all rush to call the police, I'm joking.... kind of. :wink:

I was new to TFP last year - and you guys were very encouraging while we were trying to turn the swamp to clear water. It took us so long to get it that we pretty much had to close the pool as soon as it was ok so we had very little maintenance of the water when we weren't constantly shocking.

This year we opened the pool and had some leaves ( and frogs), but it was a million times better. We had the pool professionally opened and everything looked pretty good.
Well I didn't realize that the pool guy told my husband to put tabs in the skimmer but that he really hadn't done anything other than backwash and sweep for several weeks.

I commented a couple of days ago that the water didn't look very inviting and that my guess was we were low on chlorine. I was assured (!) that there was chlorine in the pool no problem. I asked when he last tested the chlorine and got that sheepish look which told me it had been a while. I get it, he's in his busy time at work and with an 11 month old we both have our hands really full. I've been working like a demon trying to keep the yard under control, but he's meant to be in charge of the pool.

So we get out our test kit and of course it tests zero for chlorine. :roll:
Yesterday he had to work again but when he got home we ran out to grab some liquid chlorine as clearly the tabs in the skimmers aren't working.
I asked him if he had done the calculation for how much chlorine to put in and he said he didn't have time for that and dumped in a whole 5 gallon tub. :hammer:

I'm kind of freaking out. :shock: We tested after an hour and 'think' the results are:

FC: 16ppm
CC: 1ppm
TC: 17ppm

I say 'think' because it was pretty dark and we didn't want to turn on the outside lights and get inundated with bugs.

This morning he went down and got the following results:

FC: 20ppm
CC: 0
TC: 20ppm

Is this even possible? Did he misread last night's results or has he turned the pool into a burning acid pit?
He is very nonchalant about the whole thing. I wouldn't have minded swimming today as we're in a heat wave, but I'm not putting a toe in the pool before I know it's safe... and especially not the baby's toes.

We'll test again later today and see what burned off in the heat, but I'm worried.
Looks like the TYA is still super low so it may not hold the chlorine?

Help?
 
If your husband has agreed to maintain the pool, he should be here on the forum learning how to do that. If he is not interested in learning, I see no alternative but for you to learn it and do the work..

What is your current CYA level?
 
We're you able to test the CYA level last night? As you can see on the CYA chart http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock if you have a CYA of 50, then you are right on target with a FC of 20, but if your CYA was either higher or lower, you could be signifintly off on your shock values, which you will then need to hold.

As the general question I have found by being new to the board, what kind of test kit are you using?

There is a great article over in the pool school about how to make that pool clear, but you will have to be diligent at first with your testing.

Good luck!
 
I can't remember the name of the test kit - it's the one recommended on here which we bought last year.

I really don't want to fight with my husband over this, but if I hear 'I don't have time for all that' ( with regards to testing and forum use) one more time I may actually kill him. :rant:

We just always seem to be slammed with stuff and he really is short on time. I find this whole thing almost impossible to work out. I guess we need a pool service right? :cry:
 
Assuming the CAyA test is being done correctly, then according to the chart, you shock level should be 10. You didn't mention before what condition the water was in, but you had hinted that you were itching to swim today, which I take it to mean that the pool had been properly shocked, (which seems like it hadn't if you still had CCs present.)

Did you do a full set of tests, including PH, TA and CH?

I think the other post is correct here. Your husband, who said he would be the one to manage the pool hasn't done a thing about maintaining it, and you are either going to have to take full responsibility moving forward, or you will never get the levels set properly. The concept of having a trouble free pool works, but only if you are willing to take a bit of time to take the tests and use the calculators provided to take the appropriate course of action.


Good luck!
 
We promote the TF-100 kit from tftestkits.net. A Taylor K-2006 is often purchased and used as well.

On the heels of what duraleigh was saying, it sounds like the pool management is going to be up to you. We can help you, but if you lack the time to really involve yourself in it which may be true due to motherhood and your husband doesn't really care, you may need to find a pool service.

Once the problems are taken care of, staying on top of a pool is pretty easy.
 
Hobokenkitchen said:
I can't remember the name of the test kit - it's the one recommended on here which we bought last year.

I really don't want to fight with my husband over this, but if I hear 'I don't have time for all that' ( with regards to testing and forum use) one more time I may actually kill him. :rant:

We just always seem to be slammed with stuff and he really is short on time. I find this whole thing almost impossible to work out. I guess we need a pool service right? :cry:
Click to expand...
No.

Testing takes only a few minutes to run all the tests. Once the pool is tamed and you're in a comfortable routine - a couple weeks unless you're especially dense :wink: - about five minutes a day to keep the chemistry balanced. Brushing and vacuuming will take a little longer, but they're not a daily thing.

But first... :testresults: A full set, properly done.

PS/edit: Instead of hiring a pool service, hire a gardener. Costs about the same, and it's easier to find a good one.
 
This reminds me of the year it was my job to do pool duty, and my husband kept doing it anyway. I stopped, and so did he at the same time! It's really not time consuming to take care of the pool, and I'm a pool lover, so it feels good to enjoy it knowing I keep it up myself. It's easier, quicker, and more rewarding than cleaning the bathroom! Follow the instructions on the forum for getting it clean, and daily maintenance will be a breeze.
 

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I hope this doesn't feel like we are ganging up on you, but saying you don't have time to test and measure and just dump things in is like baking a cake and saying you don't have time to measure the ingredients and just dump in what you think a cake needs. When you do that you really can't complain about the results.
Testing takes about 5-10 minutes a day, and you can invest in a salt water chlorine generator or a liquidator if you want to automate chlorinating the pool. You could hire a pool service, but the odds are by the end of the season you will have a cloudy pool that is either over stabilized or has way too much calcium.
 
Ok, we're back home and doing a full test.

Here are the results (sun is down).

FC: 13
CC: .5
TC: 13.5

Alkalinity: 80 or 90

CYA: could always see the black dot. Does this mean we have a lot of CYA or none? I think we bought some liquid CYA last year and never used it. Should be put some in?

Calcium: 240

We are trying to work out how many liters are in the pool. I'm going to look for a calculator now.
 
At first learning how to keep a trouble free pool may seem very daunting, but it's all worth it when you have a beautiful sparkly clean pool. I am the one who tests the water, while my husband does more of the physical work (brushing, adding any chemicals (after I've run a thorough test), etc., and we share in skimming the pool. This works very well for us. Once you spend the time reading up in pool school, you should only have to spend just a few minutes a day maintaining your pool. Good luck :)

To figure out the volume of your pool, try this: http://www.poolcalculator.com It will also help you figure out what your numbers need to be, and how much chemicals you need to add to get to those numbers.
 
Just curious, does your husband like to swim? Have friends over to swim? Late night parents only swim? It's really pretty simple, once you do a little reading. I have a Polaris 280, it works just fine, but you'll need another pump and a line into your pool to run it, unless you use an existing return (don't know about that). I'd at least read up on robotic cleaners.
 
It's free form so that's making it really difficult to measure.
We think approx 50ft from tip to tip (but you'd need to be in the pool to know for sure) and 25ft from widest to widest. It's also really deep at the deep end. Like 10ft deep at the drain. So I put in 4 ft for shallow end and 10 for deep.
 


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