My wife and I bought a foreclosure in May of 2012. It had a "pool" in the backyard. Apparently, it's common for the pools to be sabotaged as part of an FHA foreclosure. I wasn't a big fan of the idea/expense of a pool, but the house, location, and five-acres had me sold. I secretly hoped I could someday hope to convince her to let me fill it in. In April of 2015, after getting another round of quotes, and getting two that didn't make my want to pass out, I finally conceded and signed off on it. I know pool work is extremely seasonal in our area, but I'm still shocked at how much cheaper it was in early April versus June-August when I had previously had it quoted. I was able to get the vermiculite surface completely re-skimmed and a 27-mil liner installed for just a hair under $3000.
I attempted to document the whole process in this set of photos on my Flickr account. For those who don't want to see the whole process...
Before:
IMG_4209
After:
Untitled
Fast forward just two weeks: the pool company has repaired the vermiculite surface and installed the liner, I've replaced/repaired a bunch of the plumbing, the pool was filled from our municipal supply, and all the equipment has been running for a few days now. I'm moving on to "pool school" - we both grew up around pools but have never had the joy/pleasure of maintaining one, so we need to learn about proper cleaning, chemistry, etc. The idea of TFPC is super-appealing to me. I did visit a local shop late last week and had the water sampled after the initial 24-48 hours of circulation:
Water temp: 58º
Total Chlorine: .1
Free Chlorine: .1
Total Alkalinity: 221
pH 7.9
CYA: 0
Hardness: 341
They sell Bioguard stuff... so $270 later, I was out the door with 6 lbs of stabilzer/acid, 16 lbs of LoNSlo, some scale inhibitor, algaecide, four 1 lb bags of their Burn Out shock, and of course an expensive 25 lb tub of 3" Silk tablets. I dumped in the stuff in the recommended order... the CYA, then algaecide & scale inhibitor, then started adding a few pounds of LoNSlo every afternoon for a few days. Three of the 3" tablets are in the CL200 chlorine feeder too with it set to about the 50% dosing position. I have NOT added the shock yet. Over the weekend, I found you guys and have ordered the Taylor 2006 test kit, but it's still a few days out. Took a fresh sample to the store this morning and was pretty happy with the readings:
Total Chlorine: .9
Free Chlorine: .9
Total Alkalinity: 158
pH 7.1
CYA: 44
Hardness: 319
So, I'm looking to learn from you guys. I'm still reading and re-reading the TFPC and playing around with PoolMath, but curious where you'd suggest I go from here. I know I need to get the FC and pH up just a bit. I've got a 25 lb bucket of the 3" tabs that can't be returned, so do I stick with "traditional" method of supplying chlorine until those run thin and start stocking up on bleach in the meantime? From what I've gathered here already, the algaecide and scale inhibitor are pointless?
Thanks in advance - Looking forward to learning and hopefully at some point - contributing back!
-Justin
PS - Don't tell my wife, but I already like having the pool - even though we're probably at least a month out from comfortable water temps. The backyard atmosphere is so much more relaxing already.
I attempted to document the whole process in this set of photos on my Flickr account. For those who don't want to see the whole process...
Before:
IMG_4209After:
UntitledFast forward just two weeks: the pool company has repaired the vermiculite surface and installed the liner, I've replaced/repaired a bunch of the plumbing, the pool was filled from our municipal supply, and all the equipment has been running for a few days now. I'm moving on to "pool school" - we both grew up around pools but have never had the joy/pleasure of maintaining one, so we need to learn about proper cleaning, chemistry, etc. The idea of TFPC is super-appealing to me. I did visit a local shop late last week and had the water sampled after the initial 24-48 hours of circulation:
Water temp: 58º
Total Chlorine: .1
Free Chlorine: .1
Total Alkalinity: 221
pH 7.9
CYA: 0
Hardness: 341
They sell Bioguard stuff... so $270 later, I was out the door with 6 lbs of stabilzer/acid, 16 lbs of LoNSlo, some scale inhibitor, algaecide, four 1 lb bags of their Burn Out shock, and of course an expensive 25 lb tub of 3" Silk tablets. I dumped in the stuff in the recommended order... the CYA, then algaecide & scale inhibitor, then started adding a few pounds of LoNSlo every afternoon for a few days. Three of the 3" tablets are in the CL200 chlorine feeder too with it set to about the 50% dosing position. I have NOT added the shock yet. Over the weekend, I found you guys and have ordered the Taylor 2006 test kit, but it's still a few days out. Took a fresh sample to the store this morning and was pretty happy with the readings:
Total Chlorine: .9
Free Chlorine: .9
Total Alkalinity: 158
pH 7.1
CYA: 44
Hardness: 319
So, I'm looking to learn from you guys. I'm still reading and re-reading the TFPC and playing around with PoolMath, but curious where you'd suggest I go from here. I know I need to get the FC and pH up just a bit. I've got a 25 lb bucket of the 3" tabs that can't be returned, so do I stick with "traditional" method of supplying chlorine until those run thin and start stocking up on bleach in the meantime? From what I've gathered here already, the algaecide and scale inhibitor are pointless?
Thanks in advance - Looking forward to learning and hopefully at some point - contributing back!
-Justin
PS - Don't tell my wife, but I already like having the pool - even though we're probably at least a month out from comfortable water temps. The backyard atmosphere is so much more relaxing already.
Welcome to TFP!!
