Hi, I’ve known about TFP for a bit but for some reason have been getting advice from FB forums and Reddit instead lol (although to be fair a few directed me this way for SLAM). Full disclosure I’m autistic and have ADHD and understanding chemistry is not my strong suit. I actually had my son helping me with the test kit I had and the new Tf pro I just bought but I may just have to take a few hours to sit down and understand how to do it myself because he started school and doesn’t want to do it anymore lol. I just get easily frustrated when anything involves anything numeric and this many drops and this much mixing and calculating. PPM? In theory I know what it means but it eludes me so I rely on apps to help me calculate what I need in terms of keeping my pool balanced.
I have been a homeowner for 5 years and always wanted a pool and loved it in the beginning but then layoffs took its toll and I was unable to afford pool maintenance. Doing it myself in the summer has been a nightmare. I’ve never had a crystal clear pool. I’ve gotten it blue but never crystal clear. My neighbor has a pine tree that dumps all of its needles into my pool every summer and it’s a fight to keep it algae free. It’s perfect up until June when this tall tree sheds.
My pool turned into a bog during a period of unemployment from January to June this year and the minute I got a job I bought hundreds of dollars of chemicals. I drained it more than halfway after getting it tested at Leslie’s since my old Taylor Test kit was expired and test strips were unreliable. I admit to being led by the pool store and even the instructions on the back of Clorox shock products. I was buying liquid chlorine every day since the TX heat and sun just ate it up. My cya was low as were my ph and alk slightly out of range. I simply couldn’t get it right and people told me to do all these different things. So now I’m here.
I have an 18,000 gallon inground pool (I think because that’s what the realtor told me). I’m not sure when it was built (I suspect early 2000s). It has a single Hayward cartridge filter. I have a dual timer and a corded Polaris robot but that came disconnected from the valve at the side of the pool and it’s not going back on so I guess I need a new one.
Sorry for the lengthy intro but I just need to know what to do in the simplest way possible because frankly I got a D in chemistry and that has not improved now that I’m in my 50s lol. I know I bought way too many duplicate products (baking soda AND soda ash) because of the way people advised me and I just need to know if I need to drain my pool entirely and start over. Needless to say I will never have a pool again. I thought it would be far more enjoyable in TX summers but not so much. It’s a battle.
I have been a homeowner for 5 years and always wanted a pool and loved it in the beginning but then layoffs took its toll and I was unable to afford pool maintenance. Doing it myself in the summer has been a nightmare. I’ve never had a crystal clear pool. I’ve gotten it blue but never crystal clear. My neighbor has a pine tree that dumps all of its needles into my pool every summer and it’s a fight to keep it algae free. It’s perfect up until June when this tall tree sheds.
My pool turned into a bog during a period of unemployment from January to June this year and the minute I got a job I bought hundreds of dollars of chemicals. I drained it more than halfway after getting it tested at Leslie’s since my old Taylor Test kit was expired and test strips were unreliable. I admit to being led by the pool store and even the instructions on the back of Clorox shock products. I was buying liquid chlorine every day since the TX heat and sun just ate it up. My cya was low as were my ph and alk slightly out of range. I simply couldn’t get it right and people told me to do all these different things. So now I’m here.
I have an 18,000 gallon inground pool (I think because that’s what the realtor told me). I’m not sure when it was built (I suspect early 2000s). It has a single Hayward cartridge filter. I have a dual timer and a corded Polaris robot but that came disconnected from the valve at the side of the pool and it’s not going back on so I guess I need a new one.
Sorry for the lengthy intro but I just need to know what to do in the simplest way possible because frankly I got a D in chemistry and that has not improved now that I’m in my 50s lol. I know I bought way too many duplicate products (baking soda AND soda ash) because of the way people advised me and I just need to know if I need to drain my pool entirely and start over. Needless to say I will never have a pool again. I thought it would be far more enjoyable in TX summers but not so much. It’s a battle.
