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Thad, The answers to a few questions may help us provide better guidance. What are you using in the chlorinator? Have you read and studied the Pool School material (There is a button that links to Pool School at the top right side of every page on this site.) Do you have a comprehensive test...

The advantage of closing and covering the pool is that it takes no maintenance during the winter and it saves on electricity. The disadvantage is the cost of the cover, blowing out the lines, sealing off the pool, and the difficulty in removing the cover. On the other hand if you do not close...

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra I do not know if high calcium causes cloudiness in a pool. I know it causes scaling and for that reason should be reduced. Have you tested your fill water? If it has low calcium then partial draining and refilling would be a good...

Thanks Jason for that explanation

I suspect that most pool store sales people get their information from the chemical companies who want to push sales. Also it's a good business model. The more problems people have the more they come in to the store and the store has the opportunity to sell stuff.

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra Thanks for the compliment. The group here really is a great bunch of people and some are truly experts. The rest of us have learned a little bit from the school of hard knocks and are paying back for the support we received and...

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra Before I started covering the pool for winter I had to go from swamp to sparkly clear each spring. Sometimes it takes what seems like forever. In my case the leaves I could not see and get out were a big contributor to it taking so...

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra Your low PH and low TA will help offset your high calcium. Test your fill water for calcium level, if it is significantly lower than the pool you may want to consider replacing water. Of course you will also loose CYA and chlorine...

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra Yes, I believe you lost that much chlorine. Of course, it does depend on how effective your pump is, but in my experience the chlorine is pretty well mixed within an hour. You can test this the next time you add CL by waiting an...

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra What color is your water and how deep do you think you can see? The lost of 3.5 in two hours at night indicates you have some killing to do. The chlorine is doing what it is supposed to do. I think flock is useful when you have...

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra To answer your question about flocking i have a couple of questions. What does your water look like and are you brushing often?

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra Agree Jason, thanks for pointing that out. I just mean it is not as crucial as with a plaster pool and I would not let the chlorine level drop below shock level in order to check PH. If the level dropped to 10 or lower by all means...

Re: Fighting with pool all summer -- any advice before I dra Test FC then if 10 or below test PH then use pool calculator to determine how much MA and bleach you need to add. You can add bleach about 30 min after the MA. With a vinyl pool I would not worry too much about PH. Something I have...

Congratulations Noopa. I know when you are going through swamp process it seems like it will never clear and then it does. I hope you will follow the lessons of pool school and stay away from the pool store as much as possible. I have had two pools and for over a dozen years I spent a small...

Congratulations on the savvy way you handled your pool. I am not sure anything about you is "boring," it appears you are having a great time. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy the pool.

You could take a length of poly hose and siphon it out.

If you have your water balanced and your sanitation under control it should not matter when you run the pump. The key is to follow the advice in Pool School and to get a good test kit as recommended in Pool School so you can get the correct dosages. I run mind during after midnight until early...

Congratulations. I will try to answer some of your questions. 1. My high PH? When FC is above 10 your PH readings are inaccurate on the high side. So don't assume it is actually 8.2. You may want to just bring it down to 7.8 so you do not go too low. As the FC naturally comes down the PH...

I would go ahead and keep the FC at 17-20. The only risk is the bleaching out of the pool liner. You can minimize the risk by diluting the bleach in a bucket of water and brushing after you add it.

Typically umbrella policies raise your liability coverage on everything you can have liability on - auto, homeowners, boat, airplane, etc. Most companies will require you maximize your regular policies on all of the above. The reason for having an umbrella is to have coverage in the event of a...

Bring your cya level up slowly. Two things to keep in mind with regard to cya - the test has a + or - of at least 15. So you could be up to 43 or down to 13. Because the only way you loose cya is through water drain or splashout it is probably not that low. You probably have at least your...

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your experience. You can help others now. We all will be looking for the pics.

Fourofsmith, I haven't gone back over the entire thread and I know the answers are there. How many days have you been able to keep it at shock level and not let it drop, at least during the day? After you put the floc in did you ever turn off the pump and let it sit and settle for the...

It will get better. Are you vacuuming to waste or to the filter or to recirculation. If your vacuuming to waste which is what I do then vacuuming will not help with circulation. Brushing on the other hand will help with circulation and to a limited extent will help get stuff in suspension...

That is right. You have to have all three or you are not through shocking. But if your cc is .5 or lower the water is sanitary should you want to get in. Personally I would wait until it cleared and just brush a lot to circulate the water.

If your return does not have an adjustable eyeball you can get one from a pool store or online. This will enable you to direct the return down and will help with circulation. In the meantime brushing will help stir the water particularly after adding bleach. Now I know it sometimes is...

How long you should run your pump each day is a difficult question to answer. You want to turn the water over in your pool at least once a day. So you need to run it long enough for it to pump the number of gallons the pool holds. This requires you to know how many gallons per minute your...

That's what it takes sometimes POP (Pool Owner Patience)

Great. Just hang in there until you can get a good test kit next month. In the meantime, use the kit you have and look closely at the water. If the water starts getting dull or cloudy then be suspicious that something is going on. The good thing is that now you know how to maintain ph, fc...

How does the water look today? Getting all the decaying organic material,i.e. leaves, sticks, dead animals, etc., will cut down on what the chlorine has to do and thus will speed up the process. Since you vacuumed yesterday and only got a few leaves I would suggest going over the pool with a...