I'll be over here writing "I will never not cover my pool again" 50 times...
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGHGHHGHGGHGHHG!!
:thumbdown:
So yeah. 4 years has taught me that I tend to replace a cover every year, never seem to get the sucker off/out cleanly in the spring, always wind up shocking and vacuuming for 2-3 days ANYway because of the crud that drops in while I'm removing it, and generally just DO NOT LIKE the whole process of dealing with the whole cover/uncover process.
Me in late 2016 : "I'll just leave it uncovered this winter. A few days of shocking and cleaning...heck, I do that anyway. How bad can it be?? BAH GAWD, I'M A BBB GUY!"
Me on May 13, 2017.
"Alright, self. You made your bed. Time to swim in it."
100 new pounds of sand went into the filter, along with a whole new set of laterals. Then :
Literally bought 2 local WalMarts completely out of bleach. Also learned that Home Depot is a pretty amusing place to visit when your picking up your online order of 10 cases of the stuff. "Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am, that's correct. What's that? Oh, well, it's a particularly messy murder scene see...."
Finally, on day 3, depression (and tadpoles) began giving way to hope.
Soooooooooo much brushing, vacuuming, and backwashing. My god, the brushing, vacuuming, and backwashing. Oh, and bleach. Always bleach. More bleach. And more bleach. OH MY GOD, THE BLEACH.
Week 1 ended with something that resembled most public pools. At this point, I'd actually drug out the
and started trying to monitor a few things. CYA was 0 (I know y'all often say it shouldn't disappear in the winter...but mine ALWAYS does, has every year), so dumped enough in to get to about 30 or so, got a FC value > 50 so felt like I was still well into deep shock (and so was the pool *har*), and the smell told me all I needed to know about CC.
Week 2 was more of the same. Brushing, vacuuming, digging things out (now that I could sort of see blurry smudges at the bottom to know something was there!) and beginning to test for real. Finally, last Wednesday (11 days!) I got those magic numbers we all dream of. 1ppm OCLT and 0 CC!
Still wasn't clear, but I knew we were on the downhill side now. Started vacuuming and brushing EVEN MORE, and letting FC come down from ~60 to 20 or so over the next few days.
Just keep brushing, just keep brushing, just keep brushing! (And vacuuming, and backwashing...)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand....This morning, just in time for Memorial Day! Gonna be a little cold, but DON'T CARE!
103 jugs of 8.25% Bleach, 16 days, and god KNOWS how many hours of vacuuming, brushing, and backwashing. I will never not cover my pool again!
-----
I know I don't post often, but that doesn't mean I'm not lurking. SO many of you experts, long-timers, and mods are constantly giving solid, reliable, sound advice, and encouraging others to stay the course. Had you guys shouting in the back of my mind this whole two weeks... "TRUST THE SYSTEM!". Thank you for all you guys do!
Trust the system, indeed.
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGHGHHGHGGHGHHG!!
:thumbdown:So yeah. 4 years has taught me that I tend to replace a cover every year, never seem to get the sucker off/out cleanly in the spring, always wind up shocking and vacuuming for 2-3 days ANYway because of the crud that drops in while I'm removing it, and generally just DO NOT LIKE the whole process of dealing with the whole cover/uncover process.
Me in late 2016 : "I'll just leave it uncovered this winter. A few days of shocking and cleaning...heck, I do that anyway. How bad can it be?? BAH GAWD, I'M A BBB GUY!"
Me on May 13, 2017.
"Alright, self. You made your bed. Time to swim in it."
100 new pounds of sand went into the filter, along with a whole new set of laterals. Then :
- Dump a truck load of bleach in
- Vacuum, brush, and backwash like mad.
- Wait
Literally bought 2 local WalMarts completely out of bleach. Also learned that Home Depot is a pretty amusing place to visit when your picking up your online order of 10 cases of the stuff. "Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am, that's correct. What's that? Oh, well, it's a particularly messy murder scene see...."
Finally, on day 3, depression (and tadpoles) began giving way to hope.
Soooooooooo much brushing, vacuuming, and backwashing. My god, the brushing, vacuuming, and backwashing. Oh, and bleach. Always bleach. More bleach. And more bleach. OH MY GOD, THE BLEACH.
Week 1 ended with something that resembled most public pools. At this point, I'd actually drug out the
and started trying to monitor a few things. CYA was 0 (I know y'all often say it shouldn't disappear in the winter...but mine ALWAYS does, has every year), so dumped enough in to get to about 30 or so, got a FC value > 50 so felt like I was still well into deep shock (and so was the pool *har*), and the smell told me all I needed to know about CC.Week 2 was more of the same. Brushing, vacuuming, digging things out (now that I could sort of see blurry smudges at the bottom to know something was there!) and beginning to test for real. Finally, last Wednesday (11 days!) I got those magic numbers we all dream of. 1ppm OCLT and 0 CC!
Still wasn't clear, but I knew we were on the downhill side now. Started vacuuming and brushing EVEN MORE, and letting FC come down from ~60 to 20 or so over the next few days.Just keep brushing, just keep brushing, just keep brushing! (And vacuuming, and backwashing...)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand....This morning, just in time for Memorial Day! Gonna be a little cold, but DON'T CARE!
103 jugs of 8.25% Bleach, 16 days, and god KNOWS how many hours of vacuuming, brushing, and backwashing. I will never not cover my pool again!
- Temp : 20°C
- FC : 7.0
- CC : 0.0
- CYA : 50
- TA : 100
- pH : 7.4
-----
I know I don't post often, but that doesn't mean I'm not lurking. SO many of you experts, long-timers, and mods are constantly giving solid, reliable, sound advice, and encouraging others to stay the course. Had you guys shouting in the back of my mind this whole two weeks... "TRUST THE SYSTEM!". Thank you for all you guys do!
Trust the system, indeed.
