I've been reading through the pool school and posts and have seen lots of posts about people buying houses with pools. I am another and am feeling completely overwhelmed and confused after reading, probably too many posts. This is likely a simple problem, but my super human strength is the ability to over analyze everything and make it more complicated than it is.
We moved in a week ago. The previous owners opened it and left us instructions on opening and closing and how to vacuum. Their maintenance schedule was "put 3-5 tiny pucks in the floaty basket [sic] and a scoop of chlorine in the pool every 3-5 days". The pucks are almost gone (I don't even know what they are, since the bucket isn't present) and the bottle of chlorine is granules (calcium hypochlorite 47%).
I haven't had any luck finding one of those test kits that ship to Canada (that I can afford right now), so in the meantime, we've had to settle for one of the cheapie tests. Over the week we've lived here, we've had major downpours and now it appears my pool chemistry is out of whack. I know the test kit isn't what is recommended for accurate testing but its all I have and it is telling me my chlorine is essentially non readable and my pH is down below 7.
I'm suffering from information overload, feeling quite stupid that all my reading has made no impact and am completely overwhelmed about where to start. All of the pool math and other chemistry links require information I don't have and can't get right now because I can't afford a test kit in Canada. The longer I leave it, the worse off it will be since we are forcasted for more rain over the next week.
Where should I start?
We moved in a week ago. The previous owners opened it and left us instructions on opening and closing and how to vacuum. Their maintenance schedule was "put 3-5 tiny pucks in the floaty basket [sic] and a scoop of chlorine in the pool every 3-5 days". The pucks are almost gone (I don't even know what they are, since the bucket isn't present) and the bottle of chlorine is granules (calcium hypochlorite 47%).
I haven't had any luck finding one of those test kits that ship to Canada (that I can afford right now), so in the meantime, we've had to settle for one of the cheapie tests. Over the week we've lived here, we've had major downpours and now it appears my pool chemistry is out of whack. I know the test kit isn't what is recommended for accurate testing but its all I have and it is telling me my chlorine is essentially non readable and my pH is down below 7.
I'm suffering from information overload, feeling quite stupid that all my reading has made no impact and am completely overwhelmed about where to start. All of the pool math and other chemistry links require information I don't have and can't get right now because I can't afford a test kit in Canada. The longer I leave it, the worse off it will be since we are forcasted for more rain over the next week.
Where should I start?