Hello From KY

[rkhodges21]

Hello TFP!

I am new here, and I have a ton of questions. My wife and I purchased a home in May of last year that had an in-ground pool approximately 18000 gallons (major plus for buying or so I thought). The previous owner opened the pool before we moved in, and he had been using baquacil and swore by it. He left notes on how to care for the pool, and I tried to follow his instructions to the letter, but I could never keep the chemical levels right, the water seemed to irritate the eyes and nasal passages, and I am pretty sure we had water mold, so we finally just gave up and closed it down. Also note that all I had to go by as far as checking chemicals were these baquacil strips that I later found out have an extremely short shelf life, so I guess I really had no idea about what any of the levels were.

My parents installed a large above-ground SWG pool at their house, and my stepfather told me about how easy and inexpensive it was to maintain it even though it was about a 36000 gall. pool, and the water felt so much better than our pool. I am thinking I want to install SWG on our pool when we decide to open it up this year so I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction as far as what would be the best system for my pool, how much I would be looking to spend for said system, what other tools/testing supplies would help me keep my chemical levels in check, and what I will need to do when opening the pool since there may be traces of baquacil still lingering. If it matters, I did drain about 40% of the water out of the pool when I closed it to get the water level under all the plumbing to keep from busting a line.

We also noticed that because our pool gets a significant amount of shade throughout the day, that it was July before the water really got to feeling just right temperature-wise. We are planning to purchase a solar cover to get the water temps up in the early part of summer.

Thanks for any help.

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: Start in Pool School in the upper left corner of the page. read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" first and then reread it until it makes some sense.

Next, you will find an article on how to do a baquacil conversion. Read that through and then start asking questions. All of us here will help you through it and your pool will be crystal clear and sparkling if you are willing to invest the time in learning.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Welcome to TFP.

If there's a good bit of baq left in the pool you need to make the decision of whether it's easier and cheaper to replace all the water or do a conversion. A conversion takes a lot of bleach and a good bit of time. Water replacement only requires water. Either way you'll have to replace the sand if you have a sand filter. And probably have to replace the cartridge(s) if you have a cartridge filter.

If water is cheap in your area it may be cheaper and easier to just replace the water, especially considering you're already about half way there. Then you'd only have a very abbreviated conversion to have to do.

As for the SWG, you want to get something in the 30k gallon size range.
Do you want any automation besides the swcg out of the system?

Since your pool is shaded you may want to look into a solar heater (panels) besides the solar cover.

 

[rkhodges21]

Welcome to TFP.

If there's a good bit of baq left in the pool you need to make the decision of whether it's easier and cheaper to replace all the water or do a conversion. A conversion takes a lot of bleach and a good bit of time. Water replacement only requires water. Either way you'll have to replace the sand if you have a sand filter. And probably have to replace the cartridge(s) if you have a cartridge filter.

If water is cheap in your area it may be cheaper and easier to just replace the water, especially considering you're already about half way there. Then you'd only have a very abbreviated conversion to have to do.

As for the SWG, you want to get something in the 30k gallon size range.
Do you want any automation besides the swcg out of the system?

Since your pool is shaded you may want to look into a solar heater (panels) besides the solar cover.

I don't think there should be much baq left in the water, but I am not really sure. I guess a testing kit could tell me how much is left? Draining the water completely may be worth looking into. Will I have any issues with my liner if I drain the pool completely?

I was also planning to replace the sand in the filter, so I will have to read up on doing that right.

I had thought maybe about the solar heater, but not sure if I can get to that this year or not.

 

[Bama Rambler]

You can take a sample to a local pool store and have them check the baq level. If it's very low or non-existent, you cna preform a quick conversion and go from there. Changing the sand isn't a huge job but you have to be careful of the laterals in the bottom of the filter so as not to break them.

As Dave stated, there's a baq conversion article in Pool School.

 

[rkhodges21]

You can take a sample to a local pool store and have them check the baq level. If it's very low or non-existent, you cna preform a quick conversion and go from there. Changing the sand isn't a huge job but you have to be careful of the laterals in the bottom of the filter so as not to break them.

As Dave stated, there's a baq conversion article in Pool School.

Ok. Thanks for the insight. I will be sure to get a sample as soon as I take the cover off and post some numbers so I will know how to proceed from there.