My name is Victor. I'm from Ann Arbor and am in my second season of pool ownership. We moved into our home a year and a half ago with a custom 21,000 gallon plaster pool.
Opening last year was a huge mystery. We moved in December and had no idea what we were in for. Getting the pump primed was problematic. We finally realized the problem was with an open valve connected to a no-longer-existing main drain. Spent last year adding 1-2" of water every day. "sounds normal," said pool store. Finally realized towards the end of the season that there were gaping holes in the corners of the skimmers. "they look good," said the pool store. Look again, I said. Oh yeah...
Got that taken care of at the beginning of the season. They came to open up. Didn't clean and store the cover, didn't screw down all of the cover anchors, didn't light and test the furnace, and hooked up the chlorine feeder backwards (in from the furnace return and out to the filter). I didn't notice the issues with the feeder until later. Noticed my CYA was 0 and FC was nearly there. Added CYA, and then got the chlorinator set up right again. Knew nothing about raising the FC level with the CYA level. Was running CYA around 65.
Finally found Trouble Free Pools and the Pool School. Tried getting the FC level up. Did good for a while until I got a mustard algae bloom 2 weeks ago. Spent a few days draining and filling, draining and filling (could only go down to the skimmer level and back up again) until CYA was closer to 45. Thanks to the Pool School, dropped the pH to 7.2 and then added bleach to normal shock level. FC stayed steady overnight, so I brought the FC to MA shock level yesterday morning. Checked it and added during the day, and it stayed steady overnight again. Woke up to a blue pool. Now waiting for FC to come back down.
You all rock. Thanks for all of your knowledge and experience helping us noobs out.
Opening last year was a huge mystery. We moved in December and had no idea what we were in for. Getting the pump primed was problematic. We finally realized the problem was with an open valve connected to a no-longer-existing main drain. Spent last year adding 1-2" of water every day. "sounds normal," said pool store. Finally realized towards the end of the season that there were gaping holes in the corners of the skimmers. "they look good," said the pool store. Look again, I said. Oh yeah...
Got that taken care of at the beginning of the season. They came to open up. Didn't clean and store the cover, didn't screw down all of the cover anchors, didn't light and test the furnace, and hooked up the chlorine feeder backwards (in from the furnace return and out to the filter). I didn't notice the issues with the feeder until later. Noticed my CYA was 0 and FC was nearly there. Added CYA, and then got the chlorinator set up right again. Knew nothing about raising the FC level with the CYA level. Was running CYA around 65.
Finally found Trouble Free Pools and the Pool School. Tried getting the FC level up. Did good for a while until I got a mustard algae bloom 2 weeks ago. Spent a few days draining and filling, draining and filling (could only go down to the skimmer level and back up again) until CYA was closer to 45. Thanks to the Pool School, dropped the pH to 7.2 and then added bleach to normal shock level. FC stayed steady overnight, so I brought the FC to MA shock level yesterday morning. Checked it and added during the day, and it stayed steady overnight again. Woke up to a blue pool. Now waiting for FC to come back down.
You all rock. Thanks for all of your knowledge and experience helping us noobs out.
