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Another thing to keep in mind. If your pH tends to rise (e.g. SWG, water features, new plaster, etc.), having a lot of splashing people will add to the effect. Make sure you start the day with your pH at the lower end of the "sweet spot".

Welcome, Veronica. As someone who grew up in Ohio and now lives just south of you, I can definitely say you'll appreciate the length of the swimming season here in Houston. Growing up, the pool was open between Memorial Day and Labor Day only. Down here, we never formally "close" the pool...

Tri Sodium Phosphate. It's a mild detergent that has generally fallen out of favor since the phosphate gets into lakes, rivers, and oceans and causes eutrophication. In the small does you would use to clean your cartridges there is negligible health risk, since this product is a food additive in...

It's kinda hard to kill spiders unless you (or your bug guy) can spray them directly. You have a bunch of spiders simply because there is an ample food source for them. Kill their food, and they will go somewhere else. Killing the mosquitos and gnats is easier said than done. However, with...

Last year, I went out of town for a 9 days shortly after my new pool was commissioned. Before I left, I dumped in 3 gallons of bleach to raise my chlorine level, so I was able to turn my SWG down (i.e. reduce 1 source of pH rise) for the duration of my trip. I dropped pH down to 7.0 right...

The efficacy of misting systems is highly dependent on the relative humidity of the area to be cooled. In dry heat places, they work quite well. In high-humidity places (like most of Texas) they are not as efficient, so fans are required to facilitate the evaporation. Just be sure you have...

We've been away on vacation for the last 10 days. Today I came home half expecting to find a semi-green alkaline swamp. Instead, I found a spotless, crystal-clear oasis in my back yard. I tested the pH and chlorine, adjusted my chlorinator down a bit, and jumped in! Thanks, TFP!!!

I live in the Houston metropolitan area. Every summer, there are multiple news stories about some kid(s) drowning in family/neighborhood pools. Each of these stories is unbelievably tragic, and each is 100% preventable. You cannot be too safe when it comes to water safety. As when...

This is the one we bought 2 years ago. It is messy to clean up (especially if you've been using it properly!....and by "using", I mean "drinking your creations"). But otherwise, it's perfect. I paid significantly less for it. I'm thinking $280.

I got my new breaker today. (I love Amazon Prime!) I installed it to a new location. Now let's see what happens.... {holding breath}

Good luck with that. Trimming a crepe myrtle will work perfectly....until it grows back bigger and thicker next season! - - - Updated - - - Woody....does that mean that one can lose their MOD status if their pool turns green? :-)

I'm not the expert on filters....but to me, that looks a lot like a DE filter, not a cartridge filter.

I have a total of 4 pumps. The suspect breaker trips, regardless of which pump is wired to the breaker. The other 3 breakers do not trip, regardless of which pump is wired to each. During my trouble-shooting, I re-wired in the panel itself, so the circuits for each of the 4 pumps seem to be...

Background: My pool is 1.5 years old. I have 4 pumps. About 2 months ago, my in-floor cleaning system wasn't working, and I traced the problem to a tripped breaker. I was not able to reset it. After wiring up different scenarios, I was able to conclude that it was a faulty GFCI breaker and...

Once I got my pool "lined out" (i.e. I know what level to set my SWG, which depends primarily on the outside temperature), I tend to do a "quick" pH and Chlorine screen twice a week, which is about the frequency I need to add a bit of acid. I do the full suite of TF100 tests every 2nd...

I live in Texas. I've built 2 pools over the last 6 years, each with a SWG. The only problem I have had (related to SWG) is my Polaris tail would occasionally spray water onto my steel patio furniture. After 2 seasons, I had piles of rusted junk. I replaced the furniture with aluminum...

+1 What are you doing in that swamp??!? Gulp.

A few years ago, and at my previous house, an open half-full jug of Sevin was accidentally* knocked into my swimming pool. I panicked for about 30 seconds before I measured my pool chemistry and increased my SWG %. As far as I could tell, there were no deleterious effects from the mishap. We...

I have an in-floor cleaning system, and I'm 100% happy with it...especially after I invested serious time and energy in truly understanding the theory and mechanics of how it is supposed to be working. In my system, I have a dedicated pump that does nothing other than intake water from the pool...

I bought 3 of those umbrellas at the beginning of last season. I have 2 "umbrella holders" in my pool decking and another one on my sun shelf, so I don't use weighted bases. On one rather windy day, I had an umbrella lift out of the holder. Otherwise, they worked very well. Now that we are...

On a more serious note....Zea, I see that you're in Houston. My pool hit 90° today. I should imagine that you've got your work cut out for you dealing with the kinetics of algae multiplication at these water temperatures. Maybe you should convert to Baquacil.

Matt: You failed Pool Store 101, as you forgot to use scare tactics to make a sale of Phos-Free! They'd fire you on Day 1!

Matt is most likely correct. Even when pool owners use non-SWG (e.g. bleach) methods for sanitization, they can still end up with a significant concentration of salt in their water over time. Therefore, one would expect to see delamination with some of these high-salt non-SWG pools...

I feel your pain. Based on actual rainfall totals in May and June, Mother Nature has replaced >75% of my pool water. I haven't yet found a good strategy to keep my pool "dry" and still be able enjoy the aesthetics and user-friendliness of cover-free pooling. I took a different tact after the...

Where is the floor debris accumulating? Is it close to the drain, or in other areas? If the jets don't push the dirt to the drain, it will not find its way into your filter.

How are you determining that you don't have much pressure? I have a Paramount in-floor system. Due to the design of the floor drain, it does not appear to have very much suction even though it does. Also, due to the design of my leaf canister, even if it is full there it can still pass lots...

I built 2 pools by 2 different pool builders in the last 5 years. In the neighborhood of 1 year in, I found similar things in my filter baskets. I never could find out where they came from, especially in my current pool where the plaster is blue and the "rocks" were white.

I've ordered another breaker; it will be here in Monday (thanks Amazon for 2 day shipping....even on holidays). Now that I think about it, this one tripped once before about 3 or 4 months ago. At that time, I was able to simply reset it. This time, it has definitely given up the ghost...

Before I go drop a hundred bucks on a new GFCI breaker, please let me know if I'm thinking correctly: My pool, pumps, and electrical equipment are all only 1.5 years old. I have 4x 240V pumps, each with a unique GFCI breaker in my pool panel. This morning, I noticed that one of my pumps...

There are only 2 gunite companies and only a few plaster companies in town. I guess I'm not surprised that various PBs have similar prices. It's not very surprising that they don't negotiate. This seems to be the norm for this industry in the Houston market.