New Pool Owner Wanting to do Own Maintenance

[Teald024]

Great looking pool! Looks like Mr B. just beat me to it, lol. Great job posting. I assume from your pdf that your SWG is running. If so, it looks like you need to bump it up a bit in addition to adding the liquid chlorine. Dose per the recommendations of Pool Math.

Could you add your equipment data from your original post to your signature. It will help us from having to remember or lookup the equipment you have.

Your pool volume has a large range to it. If you want to narrow it down, add a known amount of chlorine, wait 30 mins, do a FC test, and post your data. The original added chlorine volume & strength as well as the new tested FC level. From this we can help narrow down the pool size. This will help you be more precise in your future chemical additions. Right now it's a guestimate.

Dave

 

[Mark R]

My neighbor used to have a tree that hung over my side wall, windy day would leave leafs in my pool, it was a eucalyptus tree. If I don't by get the leaves out within a week they would leave a stain. Brushing didn't help or do much at all, but I noticed that once the leafs were cleaned out and my chlorine level was accurate or just a bit high the stain disappeared own its own. I'll assume since it's an organic stain the bleech faded it completely away. That's what I think anyways..

 

[Patrick_B]

You're doing great, and you are going to look back and wonder how you ever thougt it was difficult at all. It only seems like a lot at first, but I promise it isn't.

Do get the FC up and stay after it with your kit. Test it every day for a while, and you will be able to predict what it will be with astonishing accuracy. Once you reach that point, and see how well your pool is doing, you're gonna be asking yourself why you are paying someone for this. Stay on the forum, and there won't be much if anything we can't walk you through.

If you will target the high end of your FC to Cya range those stains may begin to fade pretty quickly.

 

[said530]

Hi All,
I have slowly been trying to keep up with the pool. I would like to know if I should purchase all items to raise/lower the chemical contents at once or just as needed? I am asking so that I can budget which chemicals I need to buy now. I've made the below list of items needed and estimated costs. Can anyone let me know if they think I should buy them all now or not?

Action:	Item:	Estimate $
Chlorine	Chlorine 8.25%	35 / 10 121oz jugs
Lower pH	Muriatic Acid 20° baume	30
Raise pH	Borax 20 Mule Team	15
Raise TA	Baking Soda	18
Raise CA	calcium chloride	80
Raise CYA	Stabilizer	30
Raise Salt	Solar Salt	50 / bag

 

[Mr Bruce]

Nope, buy as needed. I only buy 1 weeks worth of bleach at a time. It loses strength over time, so I always buy fresh. MA keeps longer, and you will probably be using that given your setup. You will probably never need Borax. Your TA is fine. You didn't post CH in the last result, if it is in the "good" range, it'll stay there for a long time. Your CYA does need to come up if you have a SWG (? Please fill out signature ) For salt, same as CH comment.

 

[said530]

I did my signature but I guess it didn't save, I'll redo once I get to my laptop again.

My pool seems to have some discoloring or spotty areas on the plaster. The pool is 13 years old. Is that normal or could it have been a case of too low CH?

 

[PrairieGirl]

Buy as needed, because you may not use all of it. With Bleach, this year I will stock up a bit earlier in the season if there's a good sale, and the bleach product date is pretty fresh. (we have a place to store it cool and dark, so there's less loss of effectiveness). I made the error of buying what I thought I would need for the rest of the season in early august... I still have 4 gallons of now useless bleach sitting out in our shop.

Dive full in on caring for your pool. Let go of the pool guy and the pool store. Get your basic chemicals balanced. This group is here to support your efforts. First master basic pool care. Then the crew here can help you figure out what you need to do to get rid of stains. If you find you don't like caring for your own pool, you can always go back to the pool guy.

Last year was my first year of pool care, and we started out with a grand SLAM of our swamp, and got it looking very nice. Just go for it! I doubt you'll regret it!