Second summer as a pool owner and my second opening. Last year's opening was 2 weeks after buying the house. Pool was green as grass and grossly out of balance. Contacted the pool builder/maintainer for the previous owners for advice, since he opened and closed it. Super nice guy... but... apparently he doesn't test the water, just eyeballs it and dumps stuff in. He overcalculated the volume for the pool he built by almost 10k gallons. That might have helped explain my opening it last year with TA being 240 with a pH of 6.6. Spent a month walking that back into balance.
But enough about the bad - this is a happy post! After finding the TFP forums last summer, my pool was, well, trouble-free. I test daily. I add appropriate levels of chlorine or acid as needed. Turns out, it's not so hard.
Opened the pool 5/17. A little cloudy and a little green. I wonder if the mesh-like safety cover allows enough light/material to somehow get through and contribute to that greenness, but this was only our first winter with the house and pool. Maybe I'll try opening earlier next year.
0 FC | 0 CC | 7.4 pH | 50 TA | 167 CH | 5 CYA | 56 degrees
By yesterday 5/19, the water was clear and warming up. A little baking soda. A little chlorine. A little stabilizer. Run the pump and run the vacuum and voila! Passed OCLT last night into this morning.
4 FC | 0 CC | 7.2 pH | 60 TA | 167 CH | 15 CYA (still adding) | 80 degrees
We were supposed to be swimming today, but of course the weather forecast was wrong and storms showed up that weren't on yesterday's forecast. Fortunately the weekend looks splendid and hot enough (high 80s in May in PA!) to take advantage. Cheers to a happy pool season for all.
But enough about the bad - this is a happy post! After finding the TFP forums last summer, my pool was, well, trouble-free. I test daily. I add appropriate levels of chlorine or acid as needed. Turns out, it's not so hard.
Opened the pool 5/17. A little cloudy and a little green. I wonder if the mesh-like safety cover allows enough light/material to somehow get through and contribute to that greenness, but this was only our first winter with the house and pool. Maybe I'll try opening earlier next year.
0 FC | 0 CC | 7.4 pH | 50 TA | 167 CH | 5 CYA | 56 degrees
By yesterday 5/19, the water was clear and warming up. A little baking soda. A little chlorine. A little stabilizer. Run the pump and run the vacuum and voila! Passed OCLT last night into this morning.
4 FC | 0 CC | 7.2 pH | 60 TA | 167 CH | 15 CYA (still adding) | 80 degrees
We were supposed to be swimming today, but of course the weather forecast was wrong and storms showed up that weren't on yesterday's forecast. Fortunately the weekend looks splendid and hot enough (high 80s in May in PA!) to take advantage. Cheers to a happy pool season for all.
