Last year we bought a house with a salt water pool and had some issues. For the most part, I spent all season just trying to keep up, and used the pool store to get it done. Thankfully, my pool store is not very evil, they just get the numbers and tell you what to do, it's up to you if you buy chemicals there or not. The previous owner got a new liner under warranty due to excessive fading, but hadn't put it in. Since the pool is 6 years old we decided to just go ahead and do it, since we never did get everything well-balanced our first season. I got a ton of salt and chemicals from the store to get things started, and the results were decent.
This year, I decided to go the full TFP route, with maybe an occasional checkin at the pool shop this first year just to make sure I'm not doing something completely wrong. I ordered the TF-100 kit just yesterday and it came in today! So pleased with the service. I finally sat down and ran some samples through it, and it was about what I expected after my initial balance from the pool store numbers. Here are my levels before and after my initial setup:
FC: 4.1 -> 8.0
CC: ??? -> 0.0-0.5 (there was just maybe a tinge of pink before)
PH: 6.2 -> 8.0
TA: 34 -> 130
CH: 67 -> 225
CYA: 0 -> 30 (though need more experience with the test)
Salt: ??? -> 2500
Looks like the main mistake the store made was in TA. I just added CYA (slowly into skimmer) on Sunday 5/7, so should I bother correcting any more until the full week is up? I've been avoiding backwashing and shouldn't need to for several days. I also just dumped 18-20oz of 20 baume muriatic acid to try to get pH back down and start working on excessive TA. Is there anything else I should be doing other than a few more bags of salt? How long after adding acid should I retest pH to see if it's getting better?
Pool when we bought last year (realtor pic), sorry no pics of the messed up version:
Pool after new liner:
Deep end picture:
This year, I decided to go the full TFP route, with maybe an occasional checkin at the pool shop this first year just to make sure I'm not doing something completely wrong. I ordered the TF-100 kit just yesterday and it came in today! So pleased with the service. I finally sat down and ran some samples through it, and it was about what I expected after my initial balance from the pool store numbers. Here are my levels before and after my initial setup:
FC: 4.1 -> 8.0
CC: ??? -> 0.0-0.5 (there was just maybe a tinge of pink before)
PH: 6.2 -> 8.0
TA: 34 -> 130
CH: 67 -> 225
CYA: 0 -> 30 (though need more experience with the test)
Salt: ??? -> 2500
Looks like the main mistake the store made was in TA. I just added CYA (slowly into skimmer) on Sunday 5/7, so should I bother correcting any more until the full week is up? I've been avoiding backwashing and shouldn't need to for several days. I also just dumped 18-20oz of 20 baume muriatic acid to try to get pH back down and start working on excessive TA. Is there anything else I should be doing other than a few more bags of salt? How long after adding acid should I retest pH to see if it's getting better?
Pool when we bought last year (realtor pic), sorry no pics of the messed up version:
Pool after new liner:
Deep end picture: