Hi all! I've been lurking and reading a lot here lately after having some spa issues. We just recently moved into a house that has a spa and AG pool. The pool was winterized (I'm in southeast VA) and the spa is indoors. Both were previously using the Pristine Blue system, which I believe was pretty much the main spa issue - improper sanitation. Both my husband and I developed a terrible cough after using the hot tub, and even after draining and refilling it still happened. So I ended up doing a spa purge on it, refilling, superchlorinating, running for a couple days, and draining again, and finally scrubbing it down with bleach spray. It is currently still empty, but I'll probably refill it soon and use only chlorine.
The pool was scheduled to be "opened" by the pool store this Wednesday. The cover held nicely this year, but had about two feet of water, leaves and general yuckiness on top of the cover. I went ahead and started pumping that off yesterday in preparation, because when they opened the pool at a place we spent last summer, all that junk ended up in the pool and it took forever to get it cleaned. It took all night but the cover was nearly drained this morning. My husband accidentally ripped the cover when he was scooping some of the leaves and debris off, so the pool ended up being "opened" today, ha! I was pleasantly surprised at the nice clear water underneath with just a little bit of leaves and such in it. We've currently got the hose running to it, figured out how everything hooks together, and unplugged all the holes that were blocked off. Just need to snug up all the fittings and such. There is a solar heater too, I forgot to put that in my signature. I assume we just need to wait until there's enough water to hit the skimmer and fill up the filter/pump, or is there another way to do that?
So anyhow, I'm ordering my testing kit and skipping the pristine blue this year. The pool we swam in last summer was maintained (by someone else) on the pristine blue system too, but I still shocked it regularly myself with chlorine shock just because I didn't trust it. It generally stayed pretty clear. Our water here is pretty basic from the tap, when I've taken it in for testing right after a fill on the hot tub, the pH was usually around 8.2. We have plenty of muriatic acid on hand already, so I guess mainly I just need to stock up on some bleach.
So, wow, that got long. Thanks for reading and hello everyone!
The pool was scheduled to be "opened" by the pool store this Wednesday. The cover held nicely this year, but had about two feet of water, leaves and general yuckiness on top of the cover. I went ahead and started pumping that off yesterday in preparation, because when they opened the pool at a place we spent last summer, all that junk ended up in the pool and it took forever to get it cleaned. It took all night but the cover was nearly drained this morning. My husband accidentally ripped the cover when he was scooping some of the leaves and debris off, so the pool ended up being "opened" today, ha! I was pleasantly surprised at the nice clear water underneath with just a little bit of leaves and such in it. We've currently got the hose running to it, figured out how everything hooks together, and unplugged all the holes that were blocked off. Just need to snug up all the fittings and such. There is a solar heater too, I forgot to put that in my signature. I assume we just need to wait until there's enough water to hit the skimmer and fill up the filter/pump, or is there another way to do that?
So anyhow, I'm ordering my testing kit and skipping the pristine blue this year. The pool we swam in last summer was maintained (by someone else) on the pristine blue system too, but I still shocked it regularly myself with chlorine shock just because I didn't trust it. It generally stayed pretty clear. Our water here is pretty basic from the tap, when I've taken it in for testing right after a fill on the hot tub, the pH was usually around 8.2. We have plenty of muriatic acid on hand already, so I guess mainly I just need to stock up on some bleach.
So, wow, that got long. Thanks for reading and hello everyone!
