I found this forum a few days ago and have been reading quite a bit. Like many others, I have thought that phosphates have been my big problem in trying to maintain chlorine in my pool. I have had my pool for almost ten years now and have always fought the chlorine levels after the first year I had it. The SWG will not generate chlorine. I've replaced the entire system twice. I very rarely have any free chlorine in the water etc. I have always had high phosphates levels in my pool and the local pool store always told me that was my problem.
My pool has sat empty for the last year as I have been and I finally filled it back up about a month ago, but instead of using my house water or having it filled, I pumped water in from my pond. So far, I have been able to easily maintain the proper chemical levels and have 0 phosphates in the water. But after reading this forum, I'm wondering if the phosphates were ever my real problem. When ever I shocked my pool, I usually would put in 2 or 3 gallons of liquid chlorine and let it sit for 24 hours with the pump running. It seems like this is my major problem as I never had enough chlorine in the water and is why I always had so many problems with the pool.
From what I've been reading though, that is not how to properly shock the pool, although with the fiberglass pool, if I properly shocked it, wouldn't it burn the pool? I already have problems with chlorine burning the pool with the way I was previously shocking it. Any recommendations on how to shock the pool and not burn the fiberglass? As I sit right now, I want to continue filling the pool with pond water instead of using my house water because I know it contains high phosphates. With all the problems I had before it's hard to want to risk filling/topping it off with house water when I have had so many problems in the past.
My pool has sat empty for the last year as I have been and I finally filled it back up about a month ago, but instead of using my house water or having it filled, I pumped water in from my pond. So far, I have been able to easily maintain the proper chemical levels and have 0 phosphates in the water. But after reading this forum, I'm wondering if the phosphates were ever my real problem. When ever I shocked my pool, I usually would put in 2 or 3 gallons of liquid chlorine and let it sit for 24 hours with the pump running. It seems like this is my major problem as I never had enough chlorine in the water and is why I always had so many problems with the pool.
From what I've been reading though, that is not how to properly shock the pool, although with the fiberglass pool, if I properly shocked it, wouldn't it burn the pool? I already have problems with chlorine burning the pool with the way I was previously shocking it. Any recommendations on how to shock the pool and not burn the fiberglass? As I sit right now, I want to continue filling the pool with pond water instead of using my house water because I know it contains high phosphates. With all the problems I had before it's hard to want to risk filling/topping it off with house water when I have had so many problems in the past.