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Anyone else notice that the bleach at HEB is almost non-existent? The 2 near us (Spring/The Woodlands) have empty shelves. Or mostly empty.

I love the looks I get when I tell people all I use is bleach and MA and in the 2 1/2 years since we built the pool we've never had algae, never shocked the pool and never been inside the pool store. Thanks TFP!

I use a plastic knife to cut the liner then (while by the pool) tear the rest of the liner off with my hand and plunge my hand into the water. I guess I should say the bottle is sitting on solid ground (usually the spa ledge) so there's no sloshing while I do this.

Hello fellow Houstonian. pH is mostly affected by the TA value and aeration. The higher the TA the more it causes pH to drift higher. Aeration also causes pH to rise.

Just as a reference, here in the Houston area I use about 1/2-2/3 gallon of 8.25% bleach per day in my 16,000 gallon pool that gets full sun all day. So your pool's demand seems consistent with mine. For reducing cost look for a bulk chemical outlet/store. Not far from me is a place that has...

Drew, our tap/fill water is well over 300 TA (north Houston area) so it's entirely possible where you are that the TA is insanely high.

What is your TA reading? A high total alkalinity will cause pH to rise pretty rapidly.

Having the same problem. Installed winter of 2015. In the fall of 2016, heater failed. PB came out and ( I think) replaced a circuit board. Worked until yesterday. Same error. PB is coming out again to check. But this is the last year of warranty. When he fixes the problem this time what...

Mamiamjo, I don't know how far this is for you, but Napco on Spring Cypress rd near 2920 has bulk 10+% liquid chlorine at $1.68 / gal. I bought 2 x 7 gal Aqua Tainers off Amazon. You have to have a container with a decent sized opening, but they fill you up right there. I keep 2 single...

Once or twice on the weekend for about 45 minutes to an hour. - - - Updated - - - Makes me think they over exposed our pebble when they came out to drain and acid wash.

Addendum to my previous list: I'd go with traditional plaster instead of pebble. Why? The skin under both of my big toes is getting chewed up something awful.

I second the recommendation of a recommended test kit. It will make life so much better when maintaining your pool. Highly recommend the speed stir as well. Our neighbor is still bound to the pool store although they are intrigued by what I do which is simply test chlorine and pH daily and...

Good point about the builder. That's the single most important factor. Get someone you trust tearing up your backyard for 2 months or more. We also have our IFC on a separate pump. That's standard for our PB for the reasons already stated. Ours doesn't work as well as Jay's. We get a...

Also, splashing from heavy bather load will cause a lot of out gassing which will cause pH to rise. You may not ever get to a stable pH while in heavy use. - - - Updated - - - Oh. And only adding acid once a week is not too bad. I have to add at least once per week.

I've never seen a comparison article so I can't help you there. There are 3 major brands (from what I've read here): Paramount, A&A and Caretaker (not sure if that is still the brand - it may be under Zodiac now). One of the big differences in systems will be how the heads operate. The...

I started out a few years ago in my mid 40s just for fun. I bought a Tama Starclassic kit in Dark Cherry Fade. Beautiful kit. Loved it. I went Paiste 2002 series for cymbals. I did play some Zildjian Ks and the classic line and would do them again, too, but I preferred the 2002s. Wasn't a...

Mine is new - just a few months old. I don't know about lifespan or cost to repair. From what I read robots and Polaris type cleaners also have to be repaired/replaced periodically. I figure it's close enough to be a wash but I might be wrong.

Blue Surf was in the standard list for us.

I concur with Jay! Even though I do have to pull out the vacuum to get the one spot where debris collects, the In Floor is great! If it were me, I would seriously consider if it could be revived. A&A have a great reputation (as far as I can tell) so it would more likely than not work fine if...

That's along the lines we were thinking. Before we bothered the builder or looked for a sub, thought we'd ask here.

Update (been a while!) A few weeks ago the plaster company came out, drained the pool, acid washed the Pebblesheen, torched a few areas where they said water was trapped under the surface and manually acid treated particularly tough areas (mostly seams like where floor and wall meet). The...

If you have an Android phone you can get PoolPal. It will allow you to set goal values and calculate how much of each chemical to add. I use it regularly and about every 2 weeks or so transfer my test results to Jesse's spreadsheet for logging.

Can you update your signature with your equipment so we can see what we're dealing with? I don't believe many of us use an inline chlorinator and I'd have to look but I don't think mine has power. It's just an inline repository. So it gets flow whenever the pump is running. - - - Updated - -...

We love our pool, but if I had it to do over again... 1. Go with a different builder. 2. Insist on SWCG. 3. Sport pool depths or at the most 5 ft on the deep end. Ours is currently 6 ft and other than allowing for cannonballs it's not much use. 4. An extra bench on the near side of the...

True. Well this got away from my original intent which was to make sure I knew how to get all the hardware back up and running without damaging something. Mission accomplished thanks to Kim and Pat.

It's all good! You're great and I definitely make sure I read what you write.

Whoa! Slow down Pat. Haha! We just did a FULL drain and refill. Those numbers were immediately after the refill. No chems added. I needed to know where I was starting from. Our tap water is about 75 CH and 300+ TA. PH is high, too. I just wanted to confirm all of that before rebalancing...

Yep. Nothing much to post yesterday. FC 0 CYA 0 PH 8.2+ About 75 CH and I stopped counting at 150 TA!! Added 2 gallons of liquid stabilizer and a gallon and a half of MA and a gallon of 8.25% bleach. All spread out over a couple of hours with multiple pumps running.

Got everything up and running. And added all the chems except calcium. Will do that tomorrow. Almost back to normal. Thanks!

Ok thanks. The Blue Surf looks a lot better now. Not perfect but better. Excited to get this behind us. I'll update the thread once we get up and running. Thanks for the prompt replies!