Hi y'all! TFP newbie! I've taken over pool care from my hubs and and have successfully managed it in the past. Typical protocol is shock the Crud out of it while vacuuming up all the winter junk. Our pool stays open until about late October and we usually begin opening it in early April. We have not covered it the past few years because the cover was damaged in a fire and it is a very large pool and not just a simple rectangle... Costly to replace and we just havent allocated the funds or time to get it taken care of! Not ideal I realize, but it's not caused us too much trouble in the past. This year, however, we had a damaged pipe and seal because of some crazy winter weather, and then with covid shortages, there were delays in getting it fixed - so bottom line is I just now started opening the pool in the past week or two. Very, very hot here in Oklahoma! So I've had a mess on my hands!
Shocked and vacuumed as usual, but have had trouble maintaining chlorine levels high enough for true shock levels... Was using diclor, currently using burnout 73 (hypochlor). My test kit was also expired and I've been waiting on one... Using strips and taking samples to the pool store in the meantime. I am realizing my mistake now of not maintaining proper chlorine levels. I had only been adding chlorine at night because of these bright sunny days we've been having and knowledge that the chlorine can basically get burned up and be wasted. Chlorine is also hard to come by here and prices are much higher than they have been. So my thought process was that I was wasting chlorine by adding it during the day... I am understanding now through this site the error of my ways!!
Our pH tends to run high and we seem to have a somewhat regular need for adding muriatic acid. Did so yesterday to bring pH down (It was over 8). Waited a few hours and added some shock to bring chlorine levels up to about 3 Waited a few hours and added flocculent (per pool store's recommendation (Was trying the assure that pH and chlorine levels were both in line so that flocculent could work. Had just shocked the night before and backwashed that morning) Pump on recirc for 2 hours; pump off overnight. Flocculant appeared to do nothing... (Also now realizing thru this site that using flocculent was a mistake, lol!)
So what to do now? pH is still high, clorine is still low... Get pH in order & just go with the SLAM method and hope the flocculant doesn't mess things up?? I'm going out searching for liquid chlorine today...
Huge 38,000 gal pool; plaster; sand filter
Shocked and vacuumed as usual, but have had trouble maintaining chlorine levels high enough for true shock levels... Was using diclor, currently using burnout 73 (hypochlor). My test kit was also expired and I've been waiting on one... Using strips and taking samples to the pool store in the meantime. I am realizing my mistake now of not maintaining proper chlorine levels. I had only been adding chlorine at night because of these bright sunny days we've been having and knowledge that the chlorine can basically get burned up and be wasted. Chlorine is also hard to come by here and prices are much higher than they have been. So my thought process was that I was wasting chlorine by adding it during the day... I am understanding now through this site the error of my ways!!
Our pH tends to run high and we seem to have a somewhat regular need for adding muriatic acid. Did so yesterday to bring pH down (It was over 8). Waited a few hours and added some shock to bring chlorine levels up to about 3 Waited a few hours and added flocculent (per pool store's recommendation (Was trying the assure that pH and chlorine levels were both in line so that flocculent could work. Had just shocked the night before and backwashed that morning) Pump on recirc for 2 hours; pump off overnight. Flocculant appeared to do nothing... (Also now realizing thru this site that using flocculent was a mistake, lol!)
So what to do now? pH is still high, clorine is still low... Get pH in order & just go with the SLAM method and hope the flocculant doesn't mess things up?? I'm going out searching for liquid chlorine today...
Huge 38,000 gal pool; plaster; sand filter
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The first thing we need are some valid test results. You mentioned getting a new kit? Which one do you have coming? TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C?
