Happy Good Friday from NW Indiana

[Arlah]

Hello Everyone! My two daughters and I are very new to pool ownership so hope to learn a lot from your forum. Thanks for having us. We actually bought the house we live in now because of the pool. We have a 21' x 41' in ground pool that is 8' deep end and 3' shallow end. It has one skimmer and two return jets. The deep ends has a diving board and a slide. This year we are trying filter balls instead of sand - crossing fingers they work as good as the reviews claimed. I have the hardest time determining what color my test strip land so also am trying an app that lets me scan the strips - hoping that will help solve some of the mystery of "all the shades look so similar which one is my water". Good night and hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Hiya Ariah! Welcome to TFP!

We call test strips "Guess Strips" for a reason. They don't give you an exact number (which is important to us), and in your case whose to say your camera on your phone has the best colors for the strip ap to read? Sounds like a nice gimmick, but one we hardly trust.

We believe that to care for a pool (the huge investment!) one needs a test kit that gives accurate, reproducible test results because we only put the least amount of chemicals which our pool needs in the water . Our pools don't turn green when properly monitored, nor do they transmit bacteria or viruses. The water is clearer than most pool folks have ever experienced and our way is cheaper too by far!

For your size pool I would suggest ordering the TF-100 test kit, and speed stir device (not necessary but sure makes testing fast) from any of the following places:
Tftestkits.net ships from NC
PoolSupplyWorld.com ships from CA
Amazon ships from... I dunno?

That one kit will save you a fortune in chemicals and fixing problems.

I envy you that diving board!! How I miss diving... my one regret when we picked our pool. Not deep enough for safe diving. <boo hoo! :sad:>

Have you started to read pool school yet? Link up at the top.

I've never *heard of* blue balls filter. Let us know how they work for you.

How do you sanitize your pool??

Yippee

Addendum- Oh I lied!! I have seen these mentioned once on here. I looked them up on Google and saw what they are. Interesting!