Thanks for the welcome! Here's my pool novella:
What a nice forum this is, compared to others out there where you get grilled instead of welcomed at your first post! :-D
My pool is an 18 x 36 oval, in-ground, using chlorine. I was told it's about 22,000 gallons. It was green when we opened it, and I don't know how long it had been since it was maintained. The house was vacant when we first saw it in August, pre-foreclosure. We moved in in December, and the pool was frozen.
The pool folks initially shocked it for me (6 lbs) this spring when they were repairing a hole in the liner, after taking a diptest reading that showed no chlorine and low stabilizer. Nothing happened to the pool chemistry after that shock. I backwashed and vacuumed and kept chlorine pucks in the skimmer until they returned with a 25 lb bucket of shock, of which I added 4 lbs at a time (two times) as instructed, but again nothing happened to my diptest readings. By then, the pool was finally clean (lots of leaves, dirt and worms in it before) but still cloudy. (By the way, I bought a Taylor K-2006 which should be here soon.) I then took some water to their store for testing:
Free chlorine 1.6
Total chlorine 5.0
Combined chlorine 3.4
pH 7.8
Cyanuric acid 12
Adjusted alkalinity 158
They sent me home with another 25 lb bucket of shock, and instructed me to add 12 lbs every three hours until I got a chlorine reading on the diptest. Well, I went through both my remaining bucket and the new bucket (close to 50 lbs of shock) and never got anything above 0. (I tested the dipsticks on a bucket of shock-water before I added it to the pool, and they were okay.) My feeling is that pouring $170 of shock treatment into my pool without a decent stabilizer level was poor advice, but I'm not an expert. And besides, the water did become very clear!
I called them and explained the lack of chlorine, and after the next water test (they were repairing a small leak in the pipes and took the water and called with results -- didn't get numbers, just "low stabilizer" and "no chlorine") ... they finally recommended that I add stabilizer. I added 6 lbs of stabilizer into the skimmer, waited overnight, then another 12 lbs of chlorine in the morning.
In the afternoon, we finally got a 1ppm chlorine reading, and 30-50 stabilizer. My 4-year-old has been pacing around the pool while I add chemicals, vacuum and skim, begging me to go swimming, so we did yesterday. No problems. After swimming, though, chlorine and stabilizer were back to 0.
I'm not sure whether to trust this pool supply company's expertise. They do primarily installations and sell some chemicals on the side, but don't do any pool maintenance. They are about 15 miles away, and the next closest place is 25 miles away! I think I should take over the water maintenance at this point (although I feel like it's over my head -- pun intended!). But I'm not exactly sure how to proceed now. I've heard that getting rid of stabilizer can be tricky, so maybe I should add it 1 lb at a time?
I'm interested in your opinions!