Hello - I have owned a home with a pool for 1.5 years. We currently have a company doing maintenance, and I like them. I am going to start now taking more ownership of the pool water and maintenance, and so I have spent a lot of time doing research here. I have a draft of a plan, and I know I will be missing things...
First, the pool is large and about 13 years old. It has original Pebble Tech. The pool has a SWG that was just inspected and in good shape, a large newer sand filter, and a new variable speed pump.. We don't get much debri at all as we are above most trees. We do however get a ton of direct sunlight. The first year the pool was awful (foreclosure). We did acid wash and some pebble tech repairs, and had a good first season, although we didnt open the pool in 2015 until late May. Overall, a good year.
The second year, we opened the pool earlier, and ended up with a couple algae problems including Black Algae, looks like dime to quarter sized black spots with a slimy surface.. The pool service company was fully in charge of chemicals, etc... Moving forward, I will be more involved, and expect to collaborate with the pool company.
This year, I decided to open pool early and try and do whatever we can to be better.
Good news/bad news.....the black algae is far less than when we closed pool, but there is still some there. The Pool company 5 days ago put in Black Algaecide and phosphate remover, and came back 3 days ago and added four bottle of shock chlorine. I am brushing the pool with a vinyl brush, going over the black algae many times, and backwashing the sand filter every couple days. I am running the pump 24x7 at 3,250 rams.. Our booster pump has failed, and so our polaris auto vacuum is not usable.
After research:
- I learned we should have had a different algaecide in the pool over the winter - will do that next year.
Moving forward......
- I need a test kit.... I know there is a thread here for these.
- At what point should I start doing things to get Pool Chemistry to optimal levels - for example, should I leave the copper based algaecide do it's thing for a while?
Once I start, I believe the order of operation is to test and adjust : TA, pH, then not sure....
When do I test and add for Borate, Salt, FC, CH, CYA???
I know I need a good auto/robot pool cleaner.
Do I need a stainless steel brush for the black algae, or is the vinyl brush ok?
I would greatly appreciate the review of my plan...
Thanks!
First, the pool is large and about 13 years old. It has original Pebble Tech. The pool has a SWG that was just inspected and in good shape, a large newer sand filter, and a new variable speed pump.. We don't get much debri at all as we are above most trees. We do however get a ton of direct sunlight. The first year the pool was awful (foreclosure). We did acid wash and some pebble tech repairs, and had a good first season, although we didnt open the pool in 2015 until late May. Overall, a good year.
The second year, we opened the pool earlier, and ended up with a couple algae problems including Black Algae, looks like dime to quarter sized black spots with a slimy surface.. The pool service company was fully in charge of chemicals, etc... Moving forward, I will be more involved, and expect to collaborate with the pool company.
This year, I decided to open pool early and try and do whatever we can to be better.
Good news/bad news.....the black algae is far less than when we closed pool, but there is still some there. The Pool company 5 days ago put in Black Algaecide and phosphate remover, and came back 3 days ago and added four bottle of shock chlorine. I am brushing the pool with a vinyl brush, going over the black algae many times, and backwashing the sand filter every couple days. I am running the pump 24x7 at 3,250 rams.. Our booster pump has failed, and so our polaris auto vacuum is not usable.
After research:
- I learned we should have had a different algaecide in the pool over the winter - will do that next year.
Moving forward......
- I need a test kit.... I know there is a thread here for these.
- At what point should I start doing things to get Pool Chemistry to optimal levels - for example, should I leave the copper based algaecide do it's thing for a while?
Once I start, I believe the order of operation is to test and adjust : TA, pH, then not sure....
When do I test and add for Borate, Salt, FC, CH, CYA???
I know I need a good auto/robot pool cleaner.
Do I need a stainless steel brush for the black algae, or is the vinyl brush ok?
I would greatly appreciate the review of my plan...
Thanks!