Hi Everyone!
My wife and I recently moved to sunny Omaha - Nebraska and for the first time in our lives (in spite of having lived in various much warmer places previously) we have a pool. We also recently had a baby so it would be an understatement to say that the pool has not gained my full attention.
I just used the same pool company that the previous owner had used and it seems like most of his advice conflicts with what is on here.
The pool was drained, but full of debris and he told me just to fill it up as it would be easier to clean. My instinct would have been to clean out what was in there (probably 2/3 feet of dirty water and leaves etc), but I followed his advice. He then came by and shocked the pool and showed me how to operate the pump etc.
I have spent the following two weeks raking leaves out the pool, emptying the pool robot (every 20 minutes sometimes) that a friend has loaned me and backwashing the pump.
I can now see the bottom of my pool - though not quite clearly at the deep end, and have belatedly bought a testing kit, the K-2006. The numbers from today's (first) test:
FC: 0.4
CC: 0.4
pH: 7.3
TA: 70
CYA: 0
CH: 160
The CYA I put as zero because the solution didn't go cloudy at all and when the tube was full I could still see the black dot at the bottom. If any of the numbers look suspicious, it may be because I am slightly colour blind (in the red spectrum) and a lot of the tests required differentiating reds and pinks etc!
I suppose my first question would be should I resign myself to not using the shock and tabs that the pool guy recommended? (the pump/filter set up has a chlorine dispenser tube for the tablets)
Secondly is there any advice beyond getting the chlorine right and then worrying about the other stuff? According to the pool math I need to add another 96oz of 8.25 bleach, which doesn't seem like that much.
Thanks for any advice.
My wife and I recently moved to sunny Omaha - Nebraska and for the first time in our lives (in spite of having lived in various much warmer places previously) we have a pool. We also recently had a baby so it would be an understatement to say that the pool has not gained my full attention.
I just used the same pool company that the previous owner had used and it seems like most of his advice conflicts with what is on here.
The pool was drained, but full of debris and he told me just to fill it up as it would be easier to clean. My instinct would have been to clean out what was in there (probably 2/3 feet of dirty water and leaves etc), but I followed his advice. He then came by and shocked the pool and showed me how to operate the pump etc.
I have spent the following two weeks raking leaves out the pool, emptying the pool robot (every 20 minutes sometimes) that a friend has loaned me and backwashing the pump.
I can now see the bottom of my pool - though not quite clearly at the deep end, and have belatedly bought a testing kit, the K-2006. The numbers from today's (first) test:
FC: 0.4
CC: 0.4
pH: 7.3
TA: 70
CYA: 0
CH: 160
The CYA I put as zero because the solution didn't go cloudy at all and when the tube was full I could still see the black dot at the bottom. If any of the numbers look suspicious, it may be because I am slightly colour blind (in the red spectrum) and a lot of the tests required differentiating reds and pinks etc!
I suppose my first question would be should I resign myself to not using the shock and tabs that the pool guy recommended? (the pump/filter set up has a chlorine dispenser tube for the tablets)
Secondly is there any advice beyond getting the chlorine right and then worrying about the other stuff? According to the pool math I need to add another 96oz of 8.25 bleach, which doesn't seem like that much.
Thanks for any advice.