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I live in southeast Texas and we're supposed to have a night or two of below freezing temperatures. Do I turn the pump off overnight? Am I supposed to drain the pool a little? Any tips?

I replastered my pool a month ago, and the plaster is looking good. We're going into the winter season, however... and the water is quite cold, about 50 degrees. I live far enough south to not have to close the pool entirely, and would use the spa every now and then. My fill water has high TA...

Starting a new thread to chronicle the replaster job. The back story is that I had a new pool built this year (2014) but with a bad plaster job. Stains were appearing all over the plaster two months in. I did everything I could to identify the stains: the vitamin C tablet test ruled out...

Water has looked great, and with a solid understanding of how CYA and FC interact with each other, as well as pH and TA, etc, it has been so easy to keep chemicals in balance using the TF100 test kit. Granted, it takes daily vigilance, but nothing more than 5-10 minutes a day. So I feel like...

Two weeks ago, my CYA was about 25. I wanted to bring it up to over 40, so I switched to trichlor temporarily. I've used up about 4 lbs of pucks in the past 2 weeks, but my CYA level is only 30. According to pool math, it should have went up by 22 to about 47. Is there a reason why my...

I'm temporarily using trichlor pucks to increase my CYA while keeping the pool adequately chlorinated. Last weekend CYA was 25 (dead center between 20 and 30). My target is between between 40 and 50 (and when I hit that I'll go back to using bleach), so I've added 3 pounds of pucks in the...

So I'm wondering why can't pool stores or hardware stores sell solid or powdered sodium hypochlorite? Just like they do with cal-hypo bags of shock. Is it because sod-hypo is unstable in solid form and must be stored in liquid at a low concentration? Not that I'm complaining about using...

So a month ago, I posted a thread sharing how much CL I put in my pool daily and asked how much others are doing so. Was cruising on 2-3 ppm or so, and I thought for my pool it was exactly a quart a day. But what I didn't notice was that my CL demand was slightly more than a quart, maybe a...

I've done some research on borates, and I've decided that I will want to add them at some point. My reasons for adding borates are to: 1. Help buffer against pH rise as the new plaster cures 2. Improve water feel 3. Reduce chlorine demand 4. Make the pool an unfriendlier environment for...

Hey all, I'm looking for a good deal on a skimmer sock. I have a hayward skimmer like shown in the picture: http://www.amazon.com/Pool-Filter-Savers-Skimmer-5-Pack/dp/B00373PFT8 $6.99 + shipping, is this a good deal?

Today I tested CH, and it was 275... while I like that number, it's down from 300-325 from a month ago. A bit of background - this is a new pool/plaster, and I've been working through a scaling/gray mottling problem (thread here) and trying to get the PB to come and take a look (but that's...

I'd been fighting ph rise and my TA keeps going under 60 when I add MA, so I tried reducing aeration. My jets were turned up towards the surface at a 45 degree angle, so I turned them down another 45 degrees so the jets would be pushing water parallel to the surface. This minimized aeration...

I'll be out of town this weekend, about 3 days, and don't have anyone to care for the pool. I'd use pucks and crank up the chlorinator, but I like my current CYA level just right where it is. So is the other solution is to just dump a certain amount of bleach before I head out? Let's say my...

Hey everybody! So I'm cruising along with the TFPC method (really is a piece of cake), keeping FC levels between 4 and 7 (CYA at 45) not letting it go below 3.5. Hardly any CC, the test never turns pink to begin with. But it smells like a public pool. You know, that heavy chlorine-ish...

I've been trying to maintain a pH of 7.2-7.5, but it keeps rising and I have been adding 2-3 cups of muriatic acid every other day just to keep it in the range I want. In fact, I got a 7.8 reading today, so I added a good splash of acid. I do notice my TA started at 100-110 or so, and when I...

For non-SWG folks, how much liquid chlorine do you usually put in each day? I'm on week 2 of BBB, and it seems my 12k gallon pool with CYA ~ 45 needs a quart a day, maybe a little splash more. I live in sunny Houston, it's 90 degrees+ already, and my pool has no shade at all. Quart a day...

I've known that my yard has a flea problem, and I treated / sprayed the yard with permethrin with one of those spray bottle thingies where you attach a water hose to it. I did that last week. It helped, except now the fleas are having a party in the pool. I guess they're trying to avoid the...

Ain't this great? :)

I've been using the TF100 kit once a week to get a full set of results, and using my basic color matching test kit from Leslie's during the week just to see the FC and pH in the evenings. But today was the first time I tested FC using both kits, out of curiosity. The color matching test...

Just found this through a search, and I'm starting to think that I have this gray mottling problem by improper plastering. What is THE solution to this? Short of re-plastering, of course.

Today went swimming with some friends along with a BBQ - it was great! Pool was sparkling and so clean, thanks to adopting TFP methods and that SLAM I've recently completed. Thank YOU, TFPF, for just being here!!! Now my next question... when I got out of the pool my skin became pretty dry...

Up until earlier this week, my pool wasn't holding chlorine. It was getting eaten up by organics and algae. SLAM'ed my pool for 4 days, and this morning I passed the 3 tests: 1. Water is glassy clear 2. OCLT < 0.5 3. CC = 0 Here's a full set of test results as of now: FC: 16 CC: 0 CYA...

Title says it all. R-0870 and R-0871 seem to be the ones I use the most in just 2 days of having this kit. Did I just answer my own question? ha :scratch:

I checked the pressure on my Hayward 4030 filtering system, and it's running at 20 PSI, a little higher than yesterday. Normally it runs at 14-16 PSI. The green needle is set to 14, and the red needle is set at 24, and this was set by the pool builder. I looked at the Hawyward manual and it...

How do I get air out of my pump system and raise the pressure back up to acceptable ranges? It was running fine and there was no air inside the pump filter basket, and no air bubbles were coming out of the returns in the pool. Then this morning, air somehow got into the system and the returns...

Hey everyone, first post here. Wife and I bought a house and immediately had a pool (see my sig) built in our backyard this spring. Here are the latest test results: FC: 0 - tested by me CC: ? - not tested pH: 7.6 - tested by me TA: 80 - tested by me CH: 210 - tested by pool store Borates...