So I will keep this as brief as possible although I could probably write a novel about my pool problems! I'll give you some history and then get to the problem.
I recently moved in with my b/f who has an inground pool. He set it up last year with help from his Dad, but only kept it open about 2 months. He closed it when we went out of town for 2 weeks in August of last year. Last year he had a really tough time keeping it clean, but the pool was surrounded by about 15 trees which we thought was the issue. We got all but 5 cut down. I still wanted a little shade over the pool so we left some up.
This year the pool was opened in late May by my b/f. I just recently found out that he had NO IDEA what he was doing all this time. So due to his overwhelming work and school schedule I volunteered to take over. It's been 2 weeks and I still have no idea what I'm doing. I've gotten some great tips on here, but I want to really maintain it properly so we don't have to sink a ton of money into it to repair what we've messed up.
When I started taking care of it, it was really green. I added algaecide and triple shocked which is what searching the internet told me to do. It cleared the green for the most part, but it was still a light green. After checking the chemicals with the 6 way strips we have I found out we had NO chlorine in it, the pH was bottomed out, the TA was non-existent and the stabilizer was low. I was overwhelmed but decided to tackle the chemicals first to see if the green, which I still assumed was remnant algae would clear up. I don't remember the exact order I did things, but after searching on here and talking to my dad I did the following. Added baking soda to raise the TA, borax for the pH, chlorine tabs and shock for the chlorine and stabilizer. The chemicals started to balance out over the next few days, but the green tint would not go away. We also had what I thought was brown algae clinging to the sides. After researching some more and seeing pics of pool problems it became obvious that the problem was copper. We don't live anywhere near a pool store so I couldn't just go get the water tested to see what the deal was. So I just kept trying to fight it on my own. I made the decision to get a sequesterant the following day. Well, I woke up the next morning and the pool was amazingly clear. It was like a different pool.
I've been vacuuming daily and skimming the water a couple times a day. We swim a lot so I try to keep it really clean. I've also stopped letting the kids leave their toys and floats in the pool as it seems to get nasty and change colors when they do it. My 3-year-old is bad about playing with the chlorine hopper so my MIL took it out the pool on Monday. We've had a rough week with illness, surgery and other fun things so I haven't been out to check the pool until tonight. It's hard to tell you guys what the levels are because we have those ****ty color strips so I will just give you the value for the color on the strip. Total Hardness was 200. Total Chlorine was about a 2. Free Chlorine was a 1. Bromine was 2. pH was 6.8. TA was 40 and stabilizer was 0.
I don't get it. I just checked the pool Monday and it was perfect. We haven't had any rain or anything granted I haven't vacuumed in a few days. I've been running the filter for a couple hours a day, but I am not even sure how long to run that. The water level was really low today so I added more water. I figure the chlorine is so low because the hopper was out and we forgot to put it back in. It is in there now. It's got 3 of the 3" tabs in it. That is what the guy at the pool store told us to keep in it last year. My plan is to buy Borax and Baking Soda for the TA and pH. Will increasing the total chlorine and free chlorine increase the bromine? How do I get the stabilizer up?
I feel like a failure at this. I know this is something I'm going to have to stay on top of to maintain. I let it go for a few days and I am paying for it now. When I add chemicals I don't know what to add first. I do know that when I add something I only add 1 at a time and wait about 5 or 6 hours to see what effect it has had on the pool. Beyond that I am clueless.
So please be gentle with me. I admit that I have no idea what the heck I am doing. I could kill my boyfriend for letting it go so long unmaintained all because he didn't want to ask for help. At least it is still clear.
Here are some pics of the progress I've made with it.
In the 1st pic you can see how green it was. In the 2nd it had that weird teal/green tint to it. It actually looked worse in person than in the pic. The other was tonight. It looks a little cloudy in the pic, but that was the flash. It is actually clear.
I also have metal stains in the pool and don't know how to get rid of those, but I figured I need to address getting the chemicals maintained first before worrying about that. I've tried looking on this site to get a game plan but it is very overwhelming.
Thank you in advance for you help! Sorry for such a long post!