Ok, so I admit. I didn't believe in you guys/gals. I am so sorry. I came here awhile back and asked some questions. I got the right answers but was very nervous about not using the chemicals that the pool stores tell me too. I went through pool school but didn't really absorb it . So I had no idea what anyone was talking about. Im not saying I didn't listen to you guys/gals at all. I found a ton of information on this site and found you all very knowledgeable . I think I just felt it was easier to go to a pool store and have them tell me what to do. I felt safer since they were the experts.... Does that make sense?
I am here to say...You were right and I was wrong. I am ready to take control of my own pool. I am buying the recommended test kit. So this year we opened our pool( my husband and I always do it ourselves). We have a swg that we just didn't understand. Our boost option never seemed to work so we just manually "shocked it" if we had a lot of people over, a storm or looked like it needed it. We opened it early this year so the algae wasn't bad. Lots of debris and worms. We cleaned it up. Was told that we needed to add a bag of salt and the chemical to make sure things don't rust. Had my levels checked and they were always somewhat good .
So we started having a problem . First we had a lot of sand come out during backwash. A lot. It happened a second time. But none of it has been going into the pool. I already posted about my adventures with that. At this time we are going to have a sand change. Then they can see if anything is broken. Im at a loss with this issue and am hoping this is the best course of action.
Then I had my water tested and was told my alkalinity was off and had to add a chemical for that. Also I wasn't showing any chlorine in my pool. We run it four hours in the morning and four at night. They told me to add another bag of salt. Came back and my chlorine still a problem so they told me I needed another bag of salt. Then I had an issue with this pool company which was in my other post (basically they never came out to do the filter ) so I moved to another company. Mainly because we don't close the pool because we are afraid to winterize it and break something .
Had my water tested and was told my chlorine was non existent and my salt levels were very low. They had us add 7 bags of salt . Was also told my ph was sky high and alkalinity is low. So the only way to fix that was to bring the ph to 0 and start over. So we had to add ph down(I think), run the system overnight to get a good filter. Then in the morning we were to add alkalinity up and run it for four hours. This was $250 later. I went back to get it tested. My salt levels were I believe 3200 so they told me I was ok there. The ph and alkalinity were now perfect but I still had zero chlorine. So they told me to buy the conditioner and put that in. So we did that. We also were told to add 4 lbs of shock. I brought back in my water yesterday and they said my chlorine was there but barely. We shocked the night before so this was concerning. So they checked for phosphates. They told me I had some but wasn't in danger yet. But that is why my chlorine is low and that I will need to add the phos free.
At this point I started looking stuff up and read that phosphates are normal and it's hard not to have any. They can come from stuff people have in there hair when they swim or anything like that. Now I do have the chlorine issue but I told my husband we need to take control and learn about this. We went online and read about our swg. Apparently you're supposed to clean the cell once in awhile. Didn't know that. Our cell had white stuff on it , so we are wondering if that is the issue. We used the wood scraper but it didn't work great. I have been reading on here about muriatic acid and/or vinegar to try. My manual says not to use acid ...so not sure about that.
But my swg manual says that we should have 4000 ppm . So maybe that is the issue? Maybe my swg requires more salt.
I came back here and went back to pool school. I printed out what I could and have learned. I learned it might be good for us to be running our system in the middle of the day instead of the morning . We have no trees so it's all day sun on our pool. I have learned what all the terms mean and understand I need to be testing my chlorine and ph level everyday. Im determined to take my pool back with your help!!
So thank you for this forum and all the experts on here. I finally realized if I just do what you say, then I will have a sparkling pool!
The one thing I am confused on is CYA. If my chlorine is burning off....then that bottle of conditioner is something that I will have to buy? i printed out the chlorine/cya chart...
Also I have a lot of white stuff floating in my pool . I had it last year and thought it was pollen. It still could be but I also heard it could be killed off algae? I think i might perform the overnight fc loss once I figure out what is going on in my pool. The chlorine concerns me. We have had our system running at 100% and I don't understand why the chlorine isn't there.
I am here to say...You were right and I was wrong. I am ready to take control of my own pool. I am buying the recommended test kit. So this year we opened our pool( my husband and I always do it ourselves). We have a swg that we just didn't understand. Our boost option never seemed to work so we just manually "shocked it" if we had a lot of people over, a storm or looked like it needed it. We opened it early this year so the algae wasn't bad. Lots of debris and worms. We cleaned it up. Was told that we needed to add a bag of salt and the chemical to make sure things don't rust. Had my levels checked and they were always somewhat good .
So we started having a problem . First we had a lot of sand come out during backwash. A lot. It happened a second time. But none of it has been going into the pool. I already posted about my adventures with that. At this time we are going to have a sand change. Then they can see if anything is broken. Im at a loss with this issue and am hoping this is the best course of action.
Then I had my water tested and was told my alkalinity was off and had to add a chemical for that. Also I wasn't showing any chlorine in my pool. We run it four hours in the morning and four at night. They told me to add another bag of salt. Came back and my chlorine still a problem so they told me I needed another bag of salt. Then I had an issue with this pool company which was in my other post (basically they never came out to do the filter ) so I moved to another company. Mainly because we don't close the pool because we are afraid to winterize it and break something .
Had my water tested and was told my chlorine was non existent and my salt levels were very low. They had us add 7 bags of salt . Was also told my ph was sky high and alkalinity is low. So the only way to fix that was to bring the ph to 0 and start over. So we had to add ph down(I think), run the system overnight to get a good filter. Then in the morning we were to add alkalinity up and run it for four hours. This was $250 later. I went back to get it tested. My salt levels were I believe 3200 so they told me I was ok there. The ph and alkalinity were now perfect but I still had zero chlorine. So they told me to buy the conditioner and put that in. So we did that. We also were told to add 4 lbs of shock. I brought back in my water yesterday and they said my chlorine was there but barely. We shocked the night before so this was concerning. So they checked for phosphates. They told me I had some but wasn't in danger yet. But that is why my chlorine is low and that I will need to add the phos free.
At this point I started looking stuff up and read that phosphates are normal and it's hard not to have any. They can come from stuff people have in there hair when they swim or anything like that. Now I do have the chlorine issue but I told my husband we need to take control and learn about this. We went online and read about our swg. Apparently you're supposed to clean the cell once in awhile. Didn't know that. Our cell had white stuff on it , so we are wondering if that is the issue. We used the wood scraper but it didn't work great. I have been reading on here about muriatic acid and/or vinegar to try. My manual says not to use acid ...so not sure about that.
But my swg manual says that we should have 4000 ppm . So maybe that is the issue? Maybe my swg requires more salt.
I came back here and went back to pool school. I printed out what I could and have learned. I learned it might be good for us to be running our system in the middle of the day instead of the morning . We have no trees so it's all day sun on our pool. I have learned what all the terms mean and understand I need to be testing my chlorine and ph level everyday. Im determined to take my pool back with your help!!
So thank you for this forum and all the experts on here. I finally realized if I just do what you say, then I will have a sparkling pool!
The one thing I am confused on is CYA. If my chlorine is burning off....then that bottle of conditioner is something that I will have to buy? i printed out the chlorine/cya chart...
Also I have a lot of white stuff floating in my pool . I had it last year and thought it was pollen. It still could be but I also heard it could be killed off algae? I think i might perform the overnight fc loss once I figure out what is going on in my pool. The chlorine concerns me. We have had our system running at 100% and I don't understand why the chlorine isn't there.