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Unfortunately, I had to close my pool early last year and open late. Just the opposite of what is recommended. Needless to say, when I opened this past Thursday 4/25/24 it was a swamp. I had zero chlorine, and zero CYA and pH was very high. A half gallon of MA and my pH was 7.6. I next brought...

Hi All, our 12 year old pool was freshly re-plastered today. The plaster company used the bicarb startup process which is what sold me on them but I’m not sure they did the process correctly. They had the right equipment but after doing the calculations they added about 60 lbs. of Calcium...

Here it is after the fact but I just have to know! I redid some pool plumbing by removing one 3-way diverter valve and installing two 2-way Waterway diverter valves. I used Oatey purple primer and Oatey clear PVC cement. Did I use the wrong cement? I believe the valves are CPVC. I used schedule...

I know people like to wait until their water temp is 60 or below but in Oklahoma that might not be until December. I have trees and I like to close before the leaves all end up in the pool. I have a safety cover and I bring the pool up to slam level before closing. When I open in the spring I...

This 3-way valve in the picture has been bothering me for years. Can someone please look at the valve and tell me whether or not it is installed correctly for what I want it to do? it is hard to see in the picture but to go from fully open (6 o'clock) to fully closed (12 o'clock) I would turn...

In order to get Pentair to honor the warranty on my IC40 SWG they wanted test results of my pool water including phosphates. Off to the pool store I go. Of course phosphates were detected so in order to satisfy Pentair I bought some phosphate remover and after that, Pentair sent me the flow...

Our 11 year old plaster pool is in need of an upgrade and we have decided to go with a Pebbletec Sheen finish. I had previously spent a lot of time learning about the plastering process on this site with the greatest help coming from several excellent articles that OnBalance wrote. I had been...

Hi All, our current pool light is located in such a way that when we are on the patio at night the glare is unbearable. It is just a standard white light. I need some ideas as to what is available that would have reduced glare or even colors that would be gentler. Even some sort of hood on top...

Well, I opened the pool on Monday. Chlorine was 12ppm and ph as usual was off the charts using the K-1000 test kit. Today the chlorine was at 8 so I started attacking the ph. 2 gallons (really) of MA later and the ph is at 7.7. This can’t be normal nor healthy for my plaster! Every year the ph...

Last Sunday, Oct. 29 I added 6 gallons of 8% bleach. That brought my free chlorine up to 29 ppm. Today, Nov. 4 my FC is at 23. My pool guy is coming on Thurs. Nov. 9 to close my pool. My question is, is it okay to close with the FC that high? I plan on adding 1 quart of Kemtec 60% algaecide on...

This is something I haven’t seen discussed much. What do you do once your pool is closed for the season? Do you sample the water? If you sample and add chemicals, how do you circulate them? No doubt the chemistry will change over the winter but, how do you know if you should add chems? The...

I have been using the Taylor Watergram calculator for about 4 years. I like the convenience of the Watergram. I have seen the Pool Math calculator and have sort of played with it a little but it wasn't until today that I noticed a difference between the two calculators. Is it me or is there a...

My IC40 has been giving me an alternating low salt/salt OK light. Of course, when I saw the low salt light I added a bag of salt. After a day or two it showed that salt was still low so I added another bag of salt. Still low. I took the SWG off and cleaned it with MA, 100% MA! I forgot to dilute...

I opened the pool last week. This is our 5th year. During our 2nd year we noticed the plaster being very rough. That is when I started looking at the different pool forums and checking my own pool chemistry. I received my TF-100 kit in the mail today. Prior to that I was using the Taylor K2006...