Introducing my family and our pool....I'm Elaine and my husband, twin almost-8YO's, and I joined the ranks of frustrated pool owners when we moved to a 1950's-era ranch style house in July 2006 (didn't really want a house with a pool but we liked everything else about the house).
Our pool is approx. 15 x 30 in-ground rectangle (~17K gallons) with aging fiberglass liner (pool inspector told us that it'll be due for replacement in the near future so we knew we'd be in for some maintenance expenses), Hayward S244S sand filter and 0.75HP Franklin Electric pump, single return in the shallow end (no "eyeball" to adjust direction), skimmer about midway between deep and shallow end, vacuum port a bit further down towards the deep end. There's a mystery valve under an access cover that *might* be what controls how much intake is directed towards the skimmer or the vacuum port, but it's frozen in place. No heater, and we use a PoolZone ThermoTex bubble cover when I'm not trying to chlorinate an algal bloom into oblivion
Have been frustrated by the usual headaches - algae, poor circulation, and cloudy water - and am hopeful that this forum will help me learn how to better maintain our pool and my sanity
. Right now the water is looking pretty good after a sustained chlorine/brushing/filtering attack but I won't have numbers to post until after the test kit I ordered arrives (I brought a sample to Leslie's yesterday and they said my chlorine was over 10 so they couldn't test it)
Quick question - I understand that my lack of test results will mean that there might not be an answer for this - my water looks pretty darn clear and blue but when I brush it, I *do* see a bit of light yellowish/brownish dust clouds pop up - does this sound like I've still got some live algae? After having subdued a few earlier algal uprisings, I'm reluctant to put the cover back on if there's a good chance that the fuzzy film is ready to stage a comeback.
Also, the instruction sheet that comes with the ThermoTex cover says not to use the cover when the pool chlorine level is more than (I don't remember exactly) something like 3 ppm - but it seems that I probably need to keep my chlorine higher than that to keep the algae at bay (My most recent full test in mid July had a CYA of 70 ppm, FAC of 2, TA 100, Calcium hardness 200, TDS 1500)
Our pool is approx. 15 x 30 in-ground rectangle (~17K gallons) with aging fiberglass liner (pool inspector told us that it'll be due for replacement in the near future so we knew we'd be in for some maintenance expenses), Hayward S244S sand filter and 0.75HP Franklin Electric pump, single return in the shallow end (no "eyeball" to adjust direction), skimmer about midway between deep and shallow end, vacuum port a bit further down towards the deep end. There's a mystery valve under an access cover that *might* be what controls how much intake is directed towards the skimmer or the vacuum port, but it's frozen in place. No heater, and we use a PoolZone ThermoTex bubble cover when I'm not trying to chlorinate an algal bloom into oblivion
Have been frustrated by the usual headaches - algae, poor circulation, and cloudy water - and am hopeful that this forum will help me learn how to better maintain our pool and my sanity
. Right now the water is looking pretty good after a sustained chlorine/brushing/filtering attack but I won't have numbers to post until after the test kit I ordered arrives (I brought a sample to Leslie's yesterday and they said my chlorine was over 10 so they couldn't test it)Quick question - I understand that my lack of test results will mean that there might not be an answer for this - my water looks pretty darn clear and blue but when I brush it, I *do* see a bit of light yellowish/brownish dust clouds pop up - does this sound like I've still got some live algae? After having subdued a few earlier algal uprisings, I'm reluctant to put the cover back on if there's a good chance that the fuzzy film is ready to stage a comeback.
Also, the instruction sheet that comes with the ThermoTex cover says not to use the cover when the pool chlorine level is more than (I don't remember exactly) something like 3 ppm - but it seems that I probably need to keep my chlorine higher than that to keep the algae at bay (My most recent full test in mid July had a CYA of 70 ppm, FAC of 2, TA 100, Calcium hardness 200, TDS 1500)
