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Sorry, I abbreviated my post. Borax has nothing to do with TA. It does raise pH and so does aeration. In such small quantities, borax doesn't raise it much. I'll pursue the borax addition in small quantities during pool season. As for aeration, now that you mention it, TFP posts recommend it in...

7/21, 8am: FC=8.5, CC=0. Did not add anything due to imminent swimming. Nice to see that the FC is almost holding steady. Pool looks great. 10pm: FC=9, CC=0.5. pH=7.2. FC went up slightly- could be testing variability, could be that I was wrong about the SWG not working. Either way, SLAM is done...

Pool is always covered w/ autocover, not exposed to the sun- it might as well be an indoor pool except for a few hours on weekends. We didn't swim today until 6pm due to rain. 10pm: FC=7.5, CC=0.5. Added 10 more oz of dichlor to target FC=10. Also added 4 lb of borax- this has always been a goal...

4:00pm. FC=5.0, CC=0.5. added 2.5qt 12.5% bleach to target CC=10. I didn't want too much chlorine so we could swim in a couple of hours. CYA reagent came today. it was barely cloudy but below any detectable level, so let's say it was <10 due to the pound or two of the old dichlor I tossed in at...

6am. FC=6.5, CC=0.5, water is clear. We're almost there. Added 3qt 12.5% bleach to target FC=12. Weekend guests arrive at 4pm. We will probably wait until tomorrow to swim.

11pm. CYA reagents did not arrive today :( but FC=5.5, CC=0.5, everything else is the same, so it is definitely slowing down. Optimistic with a very hot weekend starting tomorrow ;) Added 3qt 12.5% bleach to target FC=11 for overnight. And yes, I started using the 10ml samples- thanks for...

48 hours since first bleach addition. Note that yesterday's pH test was done when FC was 0.4. It was just out of curiosity, I know it didn't really mean anything. Today, 6:30a, FC=2.4, CC=0.4, Temp=85, SWG still at 90% to reduce need for bleach (theoretically). Added another 5 quarts of 12.5%...

6pm after work: FC=0.4, CC=0.6, pH dropped from 7.6 to 7.2. Temp=86. Added another 6 quarts of 12.5% bleach (PoolMath) to target 10-12 FC. Put the robot in the pool to pick up debris and stir the crud on the bottom- yeah, I know they say not to abuse the robot like that, but it was too hot...

Added bleach last night based on an estimated CYA of 30 and target FC of 10. Test showed FC of .6 and CC of 4+ before adding bleach. This morning, FC was 3.8 and CC was .4 so I'm happy that the response was rapid. Since it was so fast and CC still exists, I added more bleach raise to a...

How long do I need to hold FC at 10? I remember seeing a SLAM instruction somewhere in a sticky forum thread. Thanks for the help.

A drain and refill is not my preferred option due to the high calcium hardness of our local water. I spent a lot of effort getting CH down to it's current level (using softened water last season) and I don't want to repeat that anytime soon. The water looks a little better after an afternoon in...

I did not know that cya degraded over time. Other posts said that the only way to get rid of it was to drain and refill. I have an autocover, so I don't drain at all over winter so the cover doesn't rip out from the snow load. (per the builder's recommendation). I did need to add about 3" of...

The background: For reasons that have not yet been determined, the output of my SWG failed and the FC went to 0 sometime during the week. The obvious surprise consequence was a cloudy pool the following weekend, so I hit the turbo boost on the cell and tossed in about a pound of dichlor that's...

Rope on autocover just broke. I guess we'll closing it up a few weeks early this year.

Precipitation in this area is about 30 inches annually, rain and snow combined, but my autocover is closed 100% of the time when not in use and all precipitation is pumped off the top (albeit delayed a few months for the frozen stuff), so this is not a factor.

Each season I add about 5-6 inches of water in 2" increments. Rectangular pool. 18' x 36' x .5' x 7.48gal/cu.ft. = 2400 gal +/-. I keep track because I'm paranoid about frozen pipes and underground plumbing leaks with an outdoor, in-ground pool in Minneapolis. I've had very similar results for...

Let me see if I got this right. Since I have a SWG, I shouldn't need to add any salt because the chlorine/chloride is continuously recycled by the SWG. But since I'm adding about 120 lbs of salt each season, this means that I'm losing about 4600 gallons of water from splash out or leaks each...

This is a real eye opening discussion. Clearly there are a lot of reactions happening in the swimming pool, many of them chaining together, apparently in an endless loop. If I'm reading this correctly, most of the carbon based molecules (organics, oils, plant matter, algea) are ultimately...

Elemental chlorine is a gas, so I always assumed that the chlorine gassed off, hence the need to continually add more. Are you saying that it doesn't gas off?

Splashout and swimsuits would have to be pretty extreme to account for 2000 gallons of water/salt loss per season. On average, our pool gets used by 3 people for about an hour, once per week, 20 weeks per year. Note in the signature that we have an autocover which is closed 100% of the time the...

No leaks in our autocover, always dry (knock on wood), although it does have a worn out thin spot about 9 feet by 1 foot along one edge under the basketball hoop- not sure why in just this one area. Fortunately, its all above the water where it drapes from the top edge so it doesn't leak- just...

It is reassuring that I my water losses aren't extraordinary. Underground plumbing leaks are expensive. This post is actually related to another of my posts regarding annual addition of salt. It would seem that since salt can't evaporate, I shouldn't have to add more each year, and in the...

I add about 2 inches of water when I open the pool, then another inch or two twice more during the season for a total of 5-6 inches total (2000 - 2500 gal). Pool is 18' x 36' rectangle. Since I have an autocover, rain does not contribute to my water level, but neither does evaporation subtract...

Every year I add another bag of salt to my pool to keep it at 3100 ppm, more or less. Everyone knows that salt is just sodium chloride (NaCl). We all are aware (at least peripherally) of what happens to the chlorine part of the equation, ultimately gassing off in one form or another. The sodium...

I believe that it is probably a build up, but why isn't it sticky or gummy? Why does a household degreaser have no effect? I also tried magic eraser, which works, but also appears to scour a bit of the ink pattern off. The liner is about 12 years old. We bought the house 3 years ago and the...

I have brown staining above the water line. I tested it with vitamin c, which lightened it a bit, but did not remove it- I made a loose slurry of crushed ascorbic acid vitamin c, sponged it on a test area and lightly scrubbed for about 3 minutes. It did not respond to a household cleaner test...