Hello,
Unfortunately the wife talked me into a pool in mid 2020 and we had it installed fall of 2020.
Little did I know I bought all the WRONG stuff! After spending hours upon hours the past couple days reading on the forum I've now learned I should have done A LOT more of that in 2020 when purchasing the pool. So needless to say, suckered into 27' round above ground. With Frog system and cartridge filter and just a 2 speed pump. OH and some wedding cake steps to top it off!
So end of 2020 they come and install the pool, all I did then was have the pool filled, dump in the stuff they told me to and put a cover on it. Come spring of 2021 they say just take the cover off, dump in the 4 gallons of liquid chlorine and you should be good to go! HAHA.. little did I know.. Spent all last summer learning and failing at pool maintenance. (never found TFP either)
So fast forward to spring 2022. Mind you I still hadn't found this forum yet. So I go, get a new "mineral" pack for the FROG along with new cartridge filter and some chlorine packs. Get home, scooped out the winter debris dumped in some liquid chlorine and added the new mineral pack and the regular backpack. All seemed to be going well..... until I didn't check the frog back pack for a couple days and it ran empty. So of course when your FC levels are 1.0 or so it doesn't take long for there to be no FC at all. So needless to say.. I all of a sudden have green stuff in the bottom of the pool. I tried granular shock overnight like the pool store told me. Seemed better for a couple days but then came back the green / brown stuff in the pool. Tried Algaecide that they sold me. No luck.
SO here I am.. my water seems clear but there is a slimy film on the bottom of the pool and brown piles of stuff that go "Poof" when you vacuum them and turn into a brown cloud in the water. Luckily for me I've found TFP and have spent hours and hours reading and reading. But its left me feeling overwhelmed with what to do and where to go. So here are my thoughts and questions. Any help would be appreciated.
#1- I've ordered a K-2006 test kit, (should be here Friday) I've also ordered a K-1730 Copper Test kit (Eta Unknow) I know I need to start with testing my water to figure out EXACTLY what my levels are before I start my SLAM. I also have downloaded PoolMath App already!
#2- Should I wait till Friday / Saturday (depending when my test kit arrives) to add liquid chlorine and start the SLAM process? Based off the test strips I have it puts my Cya in the 50-80 range. So should I just add liquid enough to go on a 80cya SLAM level or wait till I have exact test results?
#3- Obviously the FROG system has to go, but I do have 4 of their backpack bottles of chlorine left and would hate to waste chlorine that I paid like $30 a bottle for :\ So could I just remove the mineral pack from the frog system and leave the chlorine bottles in the system and adjust my FC levels to 5-6 like suggested on TFP using a combination of liquid chlorine and the frog system until the frog bottles are gone? Once the bottles are gone then I can just leave it empty and use purely liquid chlorine for the remainder of the summer.
#4- What about the copper that I'm sure is in my pool from the Frog system running for the last 1.5 year and the algaecide they told me to use. Test for that then drain some and refill, drain some and refill using soft water?
#5- During SLAM process should I remove the wedding cake steps? I did take them out this weekend and drill about 25 holes with a 2" hole saw around the areas I felt water would circulate as well. When I had them out I also scrubbed them down with a bleach water and hosed them back off before reinstalling in the pool.
#6 - During SLAM process should I clean the filter nightly? Just take it out and spray it off to rinse off a lot of the green stuff? Or wait till the SLAM is all done?
#7 During SLAM should I vacuum at all or just brush the pool?
#8- All of this has me wanting to switch to a SWG for 2023. I don't want to have to shut down the pool for any amount of time this summer to preform the conversion so I'm ok with waiting till then. But until then, What should I be doing with my pool to prepare for it? Is there anything I should do different?
Sorry for the long long novel. Just have a lot of thoughts and questions right now. Trying not to think this pool ownership is for the crazy people out there. Its very overwhelming for sure!
Thank in advance!!
Unfortunately the wife talked me into a pool in mid 2020 and we had it installed fall of 2020.
Little did I know I bought all the WRONG stuff! After spending hours upon hours the past couple days reading on the forum I've now learned I should have done A LOT more of that in 2020 when purchasing the pool. So needless to say, suckered into 27' round above ground. With Frog system and cartridge filter and just a 2 speed pump. OH and some wedding cake steps to top it off!
So end of 2020 they come and install the pool, all I did then was have the pool filled, dump in the stuff they told me to and put a cover on it. Come spring of 2021 they say just take the cover off, dump in the 4 gallons of liquid chlorine and you should be good to go! HAHA.. little did I know.. Spent all last summer learning and failing at pool maintenance. (never found TFP either)
So fast forward to spring 2022. Mind you I still hadn't found this forum yet. So I go, get a new "mineral" pack for the FROG along with new cartridge filter and some chlorine packs. Get home, scooped out the winter debris dumped in some liquid chlorine and added the new mineral pack and the regular backpack. All seemed to be going well..... until I didn't check the frog back pack for a couple days and it ran empty. So of course when your FC levels are 1.0 or so it doesn't take long for there to be no FC at all. So needless to say.. I all of a sudden have green stuff in the bottom of the pool. I tried granular shock overnight like the pool store told me. Seemed better for a couple days but then came back the green / brown stuff in the pool. Tried Algaecide that they sold me. No luck.
SO here I am.. my water seems clear but there is a slimy film on the bottom of the pool and brown piles of stuff that go "Poof" when you vacuum them and turn into a brown cloud in the water. Luckily for me I've found TFP and have spent hours and hours reading and reading. But its left me feeling overwhelmed with what to do and where to go. So here are my thoughts and questions. Any help would be appreciated.
#1- I've ordered a K-2006 test kit, (should be here Friday) I've also ordered a K-1730 Copper Test kit (Eta Unknow) I know I need to start with testing my water to figure out EXACTLY what my levels are before I start my SLAM. I also have downloaded PoolMath App already!
#2- Should I wait till Friday / Saturday (depending when my test kit arrives) to add liquid chlorine and start the SLAM process? Based off the test strips I have it puts my Cya in the 50-80 range. So should I just add liquid enough to go on a 80cya SLAM level or wait till I have exact test results?
#3- Obviously the FROG system has to go, but I do have 4 of their backpack bottles of chlorine left and would hate to waste chlorine that I paid like $30 a bottle for :\ So could I just remove the mineral pack from the frog system and leave the chlorine bottles in the system and adjust my FC levels to 5-6 like suggested on TFP using a combination of liquid chlorine and the frog system until the frog bottles are gone? Once the bottles are gone then I can just leave it empty and use purely liquid chlorine for the remainder of the summer.
#4- What about the copper that I'm sure is in my pool from the Frog system running for the last 1.5 year and the algaecide they told me to use. Test for that then drain some and refill, drain some and refill using soft water?
#5- During SLAM process should I remove the wedding cake steps? I did take them out this weekend and drill about 25 holes with a 2" hole saw around the areas I felt water would circulate as well. When I had them out I also scrubbed them down with a bleach water and hosed them back off before reinstalling in the pool.
#6 - During SLAM process should I clean the filter nightly? Just take it out and spray it off to rinse off a lot of the green stuff? Or wait till the SLAM is all done?
#7 During SLAM should I vacuum at all or just brush the pool?
#8- All of this has me wanting to switch to a SWG for 2023. I don't want to have to shut down the pool for any amount of time this summer to preform the conversion so I'm ok with waiting till then. But until then, What should I be doing with my pool to prepare for it? Is there anything I should do different?
Sorry for the long long novel. Just have a lot of thoughts and questions right now. Trying not to think this pool ownership is for the crazy people out there. Its very overwhelming for sure!
Thank in advance!!