I just wanted to post to say thank you to those of you actively participating and giving advice here.
Over the past two summers, I've been trying to take care of our pool with really no knowledge whatsoever. My girlfriend and I are renting her parents old house, which came with a 23k gallon in-ground pool and spa. The only thing anyone told me to do was keep chlorine tabs in the skimmers and shock it once a week. Well, no freaking wonder we've been disappointed over and over and over...
Over the winter we just shut everything off (again, not knowleadgable to the possible consequences) thinking that we'd be less likely to break the pool even more than if we left it all on. We were very very wrong. Ice damage destroyed the filter and all the valves on the pressure side. Fed up, I came and found this place to get myself on the right track.
With the help of TFP I learned what kind of equipment to buy and how to install it. I did all the plumbing myself and now have a very good understanding of how it all works. Though frustrating, I was able to get the water filtering again. Now to the green swampy mess...
At first, and still naive, I thought simply having new filter cartridges would clear up the cloudy green mess in a few days, as long as I shocked it. Nah, not even close. But now that I had found with a place with good info readily available. I came back and started reading up. I bought a test kit, and ordered the chemicals I'd need to balance the water, this time saving probably 50% over the last time we visited the pool store. I even learned how to vacuum the pool. I was diligent all weekend, testing every few hours and applying what was necessary. I vacuumed. I blind skimmed for leaves that may have been lurking beneath and pulled net after net of green shlop and leaves.
I eventually went to bed disappointed once more. Though the chlorine was taking hold, it just didn't look any better. I had reserved myself to forking over the money to have someone do it for me. I just couldn't keep spinning my wheels.
Well guys, I woke up this morning and it was blue, and almost crystal clear. I could easily see the bottom in the deep end, which is roughly 8'6" deep. Though there were still a few bunches of dead algae sitting on the bottom, this was 100x better than I've seen it in a long time.
So thank you TFP! You guys are great!
Over the past two summers, I've been trying to take care of our pool with really no knowledge whatsoever. My girlfriend and I are renting her parents old house, which came with a 23k gallon in-ground pool and spa. The only thing anyone told me to do was keep chlorine tabs in the skimmers and shock it once a week. Well, no freaking wonder we've been disappointed over and over and over...
Over the winter we just shut everything off (again, not knowleadgable to the possible consequences) thinking that we'd be less likely to break the pool even more than if we left it all on. We were very very wrong. Ice damage destroyed the filter and all the valves on the pressure side. Fed up, I came and found this place to get myself on the right track.
With the help of TFP I learned what kind of equipment to buy and how to install it. I did all the plumbing myself and now have a very good understanding of how it all works. Though frustrating, I was able to get the water filtering again. Now to the green swampy mess...
At first, and still naive, I thought simply having new filter cartridges would clear up the cloudy green mess in a few days, as long as I shocked it. Nah, not even close. But now that I had found with a place with good info readily available. I came back and started reading up. I bought a test kit, and ordered the chemicals I'd need to balance the water, this time saving probably 50% over the last time we visited the pool store. I even learned how to vacuum the pool. I was diligent all weekend, testing every few hours and applying what was necessary. I vacuumed. I blind skimmed for leaves that may have been lurking beneath and pulled net after net of green shlop and leaves.
I eventually went to bed disappointed once more. Though the chlorine was taking hold, it just didn't look any better. I had reserved myself to forking over the money to have someone do it for me. I just couldn't keep spinning my wheels.
Well guys, I woke up this morning and it was blue, and almost crystal clear. I could easily see the bottom in the deep end, which is roughly 8'6" deep. Though there were still a few bunches of dead algae sitting on the bottom, this was 100x better than I've seen it in a long time.
So thank you TFP! You guys are great!
