Hi,
I just wanted to introduce myself and provide a bit of background. Not completely new to pools, but new to becoming a good pool owner
.
We're having an 18x36 IG pool installed right now!!! The electrician just finished his work last night and we're excited to get the filter running and get in our pool.
On my agenda today is to get a water sample to the pool installer and pick up my (included in the price of the pool) start up chemicals.
Chemicals... That is the main reason why I started doing internet searches for pools. I had a 24' AG pool at my last house. I would take samples to my local pool shop periodically and watch them run the tests. This consisted of dipping a test strip and putting it under an electronic reader. Then selling me a bottle of this and two pounds of that... oh yeah, a couple of bags of shock too. A bit frustrating to not really understand the chemistry AND not really have high confidence in the process.
So I bought a simple Chlorine/pH test kit and learned about the BBB method. That worked OK, but without keeping an eye on Alkalinity... it all gets out of control pretty quickly.
Fast forward to today: The 18x36 IG pool has much more water than the old 24' round standard, so I want to be really careful with my chemistry and I have already learned a lot from this forum. I'm buying the TF-100 kit with the speedstir and plan to do the quickie testing a few times per week and the full test every weekend (maybe add a mid week full test for a few weeks just to fine tune everything and practice the testing process).
I'm sure I will learn a ton from the members of this forum and I thank you all in advance.
Doug
I just wanted to introduce myself and provide a bit of background. Not completely new to pools, but new to becoming a good pool owner
.We're having an 18x36 IG pool installed right now!!! The electrician just finished his work last night and we're excited to get the filter running and get in our pool.
On my agenda today is to get a water sample to the pool installer and pick up my (included in the price of the pool) start up chemicals.
Chemicals... That is the main reason why I started doing internet searches for pools. I had a 24' AG pool at my last house. I would take samples to my local pool shop periodically and watch them run the tests. This consisted of dipping a test strip and putting it under an electronic reader. Then selling me a bottle of this and two pounds of that... oh yeah, a couple of bags of shock too. A bit frustrating to not really understand the chemistry AND not really have high confidence in the process.
So I bought a simple Chlorine/pH test kit and learned about the BBB method. That worked OK, but without keeping an eye on Alkalinity... it all gets out of control pretty quickly.
Fast forward to today: The 18x36 IG pool has much more water than the old 24' round standard, so I want to be really careful with my chemistry and I have already learned a lot from this forum. I'm buying the TF-100 kit with the speedstir and plan to do the quickie testing a few times per week and the full test every weekend (maybe add a mid week full test for a few weeks just to fine tune everything and practice the testing process).
I'm sure I will learn a ton from the members of this forum and I thank you all in advance.
Doug
Great decision on the TF-100 w/ speedstir. 
Have a nice weekend. 