Howdy all! David here, from the Houston area. I just stumbled onto this web site yesterday, and I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time here. Not sure why I haven't found this before. I belong to quite a number of other forums - autos, motorcycles, home brewing, etc. I've been a pool owner for over 10 years at two different residences. I've always just fumbled around, doing what I thought made sense and following the directions of the local pool store employees. Chlorine tabs here, shock there, algecide when needed. I do just enough to stay 1/2 step ahead of the green monster! Well after 24 hours a member, and several hours of reading, I've already learned quite a few new things. I ordered a complete test kit yesterday. I wanted the TFP-100, but I needed it FAST and wasn't prepared to spend $110 total for overnight shipping. I was able to get the K-2006 with overnight shipping (should arrive on Friday) from Amazon (thank you Prime!) for $60. I assume I can use the refill kit sold here when I run out and just refill the smaller Taylor bottles.
I realize there is not much to ask here before I can do testing, but in a nutshell I have a nasty green pool due to the weather in Houston finally warming up. I don't do a lot of maintenance over the cooler months, just keep the leaves from getting too thick on the bottom, run the pump about 4 hours a day, clear the skimmer, and keep the auto clorinator full of 3" tabs. I also have a floater with more 3" tabs.
I cleaned my filters last weekend, which usually results in relatively clear water within a day or two, but I don't seem to be getting much water flow. The pressure gauge is reading 32, which seems higher than normal with clean filters. We had a rainstorm coming in, so I wasn't quite as thorough as usual, so I'll pull them out again on Saturday and clean them off some more. I'll also clean the pump basket again, but what else could be slowing down the water flow? Of course I'm keeping the skimmer basket cleared.
I'm looking forward to converting over to the BBB method. Would it do any harm to go ahead and dump some Clorox in tonight before my test kit arrives? I'd like to put my Polaris back in the water, but the green water is so thick I can't even tell if there are a lot of leaves on the bottom or not. I had removed most of them with my net about three weeks ago before the weather had warmed up and the water was still clear. Although, with the pump not producing much flow, it may not be able to power the Polaris anyway, so obviously I need to solve that issue first.
I'll keep reading, but if anyone would like to point me to some particularly pertinent threads, I would be most appreciative. I look forward to meeting some of you on here, and one day being more of a helper as I soak in all the knowledge that is to be found here. Did I mention that I LOVE forums!
I realize there is not much to ask here before I can do testing, but in a nutshell I have a nasty green pool due to the weather in Houston finally warming up. I don't do a lot of maintenance over the cooler months, just keep the leaves from getting too thick on the bottom, run the pump about 4 hours a day, clear the skimmer, and keep the auto clorinator full of 3" tabs. I also have a floater with more 3" tabs.
I cleaned my filters last weekend, which usually results in relatively clear water within a day or two, but I don't seem to be getting much water flow. The pressure gauge is reading 32, which seems higher than normal with clean filters. We had a rainstorm coming in, so I wasn't quite as thorough as usual, so I'll pull them out again on Saturday and clean them off some more. I'll also clean the pump basket again, but what else could be slowing down the water flow? Of course I'm keeping the skimmer basket cleared.
I'm looking forward to converting over to the BBB method. Would it do any harm to go ahead and dump some Clorox in tonight before my test kit arrives? I'd like to put my Polaris back in the water, but the green water is so thick I can't even tell if there are a lot of leaves on the bottom or not. I had removed most of them with my net about three weeks ago before the weather had warmed up and the water was still clear. Although, with the pump not producing much flow, it may not be able to power the Polaris anyway, so obviously I need to solve that issue first.
I'll keep reading, but if anyone would like to point me to some particularly pertinent threads, I would be most appreciative. I look forward to meeting some of you on here, and one day being more of a helper as I soak in all the knowledge that is to be found here. Did I mention that I LOVE forums!