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Here's an alternative to consider: this post got me interested in the Big Steel Keg as a less expensive alternative to the BGE. It is insulated steel instead of ceramic. The post mentioned the Bubba Keg; that's the older product style & name. Some Home Depots still have closeout deals on the...

Do you have stairs, a ladder, or some other place where there is low circulation & thus where algae can survive? I had algae growing in my steps & the weight with the result that FC levels didn't drop overnight nor was CC above 0.5, and the water stayed cloudy even after shocking. Filtering for...

My wife works with someone who was commenting a while back that they were spending $$$ on all the stuff their pool store told them they needed & they still couldn't get the pool cleared up (I know: common story). I sent links to this site, the Pool School, TFTestKits, and so on a few weeks ago...

I haven't dumped it yet, so I can try leaving it for a while. I should probably add some chlorine to it if it is going to sit longer. But, it has been a few weeks since I added the CYA to the pool & that still hasn't budged. I've only added a few of those quick dissolving trichlor pucks so far...

I don't know about jmills, but I ended up with ring bubbles by being at the bottom of the pool, looking up, then simply letting out a little air. I didn't blow the air out; just sort of quickly opened & closed my mouth to let some air out. My daughters & I had been watching each other blow air...

Those were interesting. I keep thinking I should find an underwater camera. And, what's funny to me is that I discovered by accident yesterday that you could blow ring bubbles. :)

Well, I think it has been long enough to test the results. To recap: I dissolved 1/4 teaspoon of CYA starting on the 26th. It all looked to be dissolved & mixed into 5 gallons of water. The expected CYA reading would be approx. 60 ppm. I first tested the tap water. As expected, there was no...

We're in central NJ & with the solar heater + solar cover, the water was 82 on the last day of Sept last year. After that, the temps dropped & we shut off the solar heater, then closed sometime in Oct when the water got into the 60s.

Having started this CYA test, I have to say that getting the stuff to dissolve is an interesting experiment of its own. While I can tell there is less of the CYA granules visible in the water than the 1/4 teaspoon I started with, some of it is still swirling around the water after 2 days &...

Thanks -- that helps confirm some calculations I did last night. :) I'm assuming I need to give it time before testing. Oh, and I'll test the water I start with before adding it too. As a side note, the trichlor tabs practically effervesce -- they are small "One-A-Day" tabs from Nu-Clo, weigh...

The label says 100% cyanuric acid. I saw no lot number, so it is hard to track that, btw. One interesting experiment would be to add the CYA to our reverse osmosis drinking water to see what a subsequent CYA test says. I'm basing the 11K gallons of water on the pool calculator's result for my...

I spent some time searching/reading more on this forum about CYA and possible reasons for it not to go up after adding it -- I've seen comments about losing CYA via water loss (not happening), bacteria converting the CYA to ammonia (don't think that's happening), and a few comments referring to...

Are the Pool School articles maintained by the people who wrote them, or are they pretty much set by now? If they are maintained, would it help to have the perspective of a new user on what isn't clear? So far, examples include having areas of poor circulation (mentioned above) and the effects...

Pool School's article on shocking doesn't mention pH, but the posts I've seen, including Jason's post above, indicate that the pH can go up temporarily while shocking, then goes back down when the FC is used up & returns to normal levels. I've also seen comments that the pH test is not valid...

OK, then I won't feel bad about possibly missing it. :) I run a forum too & often point people to FAQs, documentation, etc., so I've been trying to read more than post here. For future reference, it would help new people if there was some article (or update of existing articles) mentioning poor...

Further clarification: I wasn't really asking about my situation; just trying to offer a suggestion to look for possible hidden algae locations or even consider a low level of algae growth, so I probably worded my post incorrectly for that purpose. I've learned a lot from the Pool School &...

A BTW, since this was spit off the topic I posted to: My issue was originally posted here, if you think my post really belongs there. I have already pretty much decided it was what you mentioned: low circulation in the steps & weight. However, I intended the above post to be a description of...

Split off of this post. JasonLion I don't know if this is similar to what I ran into, but I kept getting 'stuff' settling in the dips/crevices of my liner that looked similar to your photos, but the overnight FC loss test never dropped more than 0.5 and CCs were usually 0.0, sometimes 0.5...

When I was looking into solar last summer, I found this list: Solar Pool Heating System Businesses in New Jersey ... and ended up using SolarSwim. I liked their Heliocol solar panels and ended up also having them install a GoldLine Aqua Solar TC control unit for the pump timer and automatic...

Have you considered solar? We had an AG pool put in last summer in NJ w/a solar system & swam until the end of Sept in 83 - 85 degree water. This year, we swam the whole first week of May when the water was 85. The weather was a bit cool for most of the rest of May... well, we could have gotten...

We were up to 95 yesterday & 96 so far today; in NJ. I remove the cover & run the solar system to help cool it overnight, but it doesn't go down much when the overnight low is in the mid 80s -- the pool was down to 90 at 6 AM today. When we built the pool, I thought heating would be the main...

Steps are probably the issue This must be the problem. After several days, the sediment was back. Pool was clear. FC levels have tested fine; CC was 0 - 0.5 (barely turned pink when doing the CC test; practically had to put it against white paper to see that it was a little pink). I decided to...

I meant "overkill" only in the sense that some of the SWCG units also had timers. :) When you mentioned in-ground pools, I checked out the Aqua Rite units. I'll also search for more info on the AutoPilot unit I just noticed in your sig. For an 11K gal pool, I thought a 15K unit would suffice...

I've been looking into whether to add a SWCG to our 11K gal AG pool. We already have the Hayward/Goldline Aqua Solar TC control to use as the pump timer & to control the solar heater diverter. Hayward's Aqua Trol looks like it comes with its own timer, which seems pointless to add to our...

Try a WHY (Wasp/Hornet/Yellow jacket) trap. You can get them from Home Depot & Costco, among other places. HD also has the refills. We had nests all over our deck last year & hardly any this year. So far, I think I've found 1 nest on the end of the pool farthest from the trap.

Re: Algae or sediment? I think it is sediment To follow up: I'm not sure whether that one afternoon's worth of shocking killed whatever small amount of algae was growing (stopped because of small FC loss overnight & CCs were low) or whether the constant filtering did it, but the pool is much...

Re: Algae or sediment? I think it is sediment At 6:50 last night, FC was 12.5, CC was 0.5. The sun wasn't shining on the pool after that. At 4:50 this morning, FC was 12.0, CC was 0.5. Unless someone can tell me there could still be something there, I'll just bounce back to the sediment theory...

Re: Algae or sediment? I think it is sediment I don't expect to see results after just a few hours, but I do have one question since this is the first time I've tried shocking: if there was something growing, wouldn't CC go up while shocking? I've been trying to keep FC around 12-13 every hour...

Re: Algae or sediment? I think it is sediment Well, after almost an inch of rain, some cool air, and a cloudy day that prevents the solar system from adding any heat, the pool is cooler than I care to go into. FC is now 4.5 & CC is 0.5. But, the water now has a very slight green cast to it. I...

Re: Algae or sediment? I think it is sediment Thanks for the quick reply -- now I know what it is like when people on a different forum used to accuse me of never sleeping after replying quickly! ;) I'll check out the feel of the stuff tomorrow. For now, all I can say is that it doesn't stick...