Hey there Jason, nice to see another Georgian in the pool here at TFP! Welcome!
You appear to have a Salt Water Chlorine Generated pool (SWG) which is *ideal* in our climate. Our long swim seasons are easier and more maintenance free when we have it dialed in. Vacations are a snap with a SWG! But that doesn't mean "set it and forget it", ok? We still need to do routine tests, and sometimes tweak the device as the season progresses or winds down. If we have too little FC (free chlorine) we can either turn the device to a higher percentage or just run our pumps for a longer time. Either way you'll get more free chlorine! Conversely if we have too little we can crank either the pump time up or the SWG % up. Sometimes you will need to boost your FC up quickly so for those times you just use plain liquid chlorine or household bleach (plain, unscented, non=thickened, no Clorox brand).
Testing often at first to learn your pool's personality is a must. Soon, as you can predict how things are going you can extend the testing days out a bit. You'll learn. Keep a good log to notice trends and keep notes on interventions. PoolMath, the App, is an ideal adjunct to TFP pool care.
Do you have an acceptable, reliable test kit yet? One with the FAS-DPD tester? You can look at:
www.tftestkits.net or Amazon or PoolSupplyWorld.com for the TF-100 (preferred) or the Taylor K-2006C. Either of those are our preferred, but I'll tell you outright the TF-100 from TFTestkits.net is the cheapest and a better buy for size of reagents. A company makes them with just our way of pool care in mind. Both use Taylor reagents.
I'm sorry to tell you that that UV/Ozone thing was .....uh....kinda a waste of money. Here in Georgia we get *plenty* of UV rays free of charge from the sun. And Ozone doesn't really provide much in the way of sanitation considering you still need to use chlorine. So when it dies.... just unplug it and forget it.
Get a test kit and tell us:
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
...and we'll do our best to help you keep that pool algae free. No pool store potions, please! We just use basic easy to buy chems from the grocery or hardware store. Same chemical, lots of money saved.
Got questions? Holler!
Maddie
