Hello! This is my second full season with a pool, the first summer our pool wasn't finished until July of 2015. This site has been my God send so far, thanks to everyone who contributes!
Pool opening last season was amazing! I had very clear water when pulling off the safety cover, brushed everything down and vacuumed to waste. We were swimming as soon as the heater warmed it up enough. I unknowingly trusted the strips with the different pads. I found this site after my pool flooded with silt due to grass not being grown in and a torrential downpour, and got it all cleared up, while not relying on a TF-100 kit (naive, yes). Our first two seasons were amazing, with the only problem being that one flood.
This season was quite different. We had a very mild winter for this area (Cincinnati), and the water was cloudy, with the brushing taking some effort to clean the walls (still not perfect yet). The company who installed the pool do the closing and opening for me, as they guarantee them and will take responsibility should any mishaps occur, they have a "kit", no idea what it is, but I trusted them as our first two seasons were great. They put in 2 gallons of shock as well this opening (approx 2-3 weeks ago). This seasons opening obviously not going as well. Plus, we had another rain last week that caused my pool to flood (2 times in 3 seasons) with silt due to an underground electric feed being ran a week ago. I am having a company that specializes in yards holding water and with large amounts of runoff come out to assess our problem. We had a curtain french drain, another french drain lower than the curtain,plus a footer drain around the entire pool, but they obviously weren't enough for the great flood of 2017. I don't want to waste money and throw a bunch of stuff at it, since I have no idea what I'm doing, so I finally got my TF-100 kit in the mail and did the onslaught of tests, here's was I got.
pH - 7.8
FC - 1
CC - 0
CH - 250
TA - 130
CYA < 20 (never even got close to the black dot disappearing!)
Salt 3200ppm per the Hayward screen. The strip I used said 1100ppm, but I just put in six 40lb bags to raise it from 1800ppm, so temp maybe? I didn't warm that water like I did for the other tests.
Pool temp - 61 degrees, but I had the water sample in my home 2 hours prior to testing (except salt test strip).
I know I need to get my CYA way up, FC up, and TA down, pH slightly down, but where do I start first? I've read that some changes to one can affect another, so I really don't want to mess things up any more than they already are. We had some more heavy rain for a couple days and it seemed to knock down the silt which I vacuumed to waste today, then I backwashed a ton of dirt out of my sand filter from the flood a week ago. I can actually see the liner at the bottom of the pool about half way down to the deep end, and that is a first since opening!
Thanks in advance for any tips!
Pool opening last season was amazing! I had very clear water when pulling off the safety cover, brushed everything down and vacuumed to waste. We were swimming as soon as the heater warmed it up enough. I unknowingly trusted the strips with the different pads. I found this site after my pool flooded with silt due to grass not being grown in and a torrential downpour, and got it all cleared up, while not relying on a TF-100 kit (naive, yes). Our first two seasons were amazing, with the only problem being that one flood.
This season was quite different. We had a very mild winter for this area (Cincinnati), and the water was cloudy, with the brushing taking some effort to clean the walls (still not perfect yet). The company who installed the pool do the closing and opening for me, as they guarantee them and will take responsibility should any mishaps occur, they have a "kit", no idea what it is, but I trusted them as our first two seasons were great. They put in 2 gallons of shock as well this opening (approx 2-3 weeks ago). This seasons opening obviously not going as well. Plus, we had another rain last week that caused my pool to flood (2 times in 3 seasons) with silt due to an underground electric feed being ran a week ago. I am having a company that specializes in yards holding water and with large amounts of runoff come out to assess our problem. We had a curtain french drain, another french drain lower than the curtain,plus a footer drain around the entire pool, but they obviously weren't enough for the great flood of 2017. I don't want to waste money and throw a bunch of stuff at it, since I have no idea what I'm doing, so I finally got my TF-100 kit in the mail and did the onslaught of tests, here's was I got.
pH - 7.8
FC - 1
CC - 0
CH - 250
TA - 130
CYA < 20 (never even got close to the black dot disappearing!)
Salt 3200ppm per the Hayward screen. The strip I used said 1100ppm, but I just put in six 40lb bags to raise it from 1800ppm, so temp maybe? I didn't warm that water like I did for the other tests.
Pool temp - 61 degrees, but I had the water sample in my home 2 hours prior to testing (except salt test strip).
I know I need to get my CYA way up, FC up, and TA down, pH slightly down, but where do I start first? I've read that some changes to one can affect another, so I really don't want to mess things up any more than they already are. We had some more heavy rain for a couple days and it seemed to knock down the silt which I vacuumed to waste today, then I backwashed a ton of dirt out of my sand filter from the flood a week ago. I can actually see the liner at the bottom of the pool about half way down to the deep end, and that is a first since opening!
Thanks in advance for any tips!
![IMG_0713[1].jpg](https://www.troublefreepool.com/data/attachments/49/49769-9c4de12e744b5060d77f754a75fe0cb2.jpg "IMG_0713[1].jpg")
![IMG_0715[1].jpg](https://www.troublefreepool.com/data/attachments/49/49770-2358e7f6da5fc8b29df97c2b7e87ed88.jpg "IMG_0715[1].jpg")
Now just maintain the FC level as best as you can and make sure to brush the pool often. Leave no stone unturned when it comes to inspecting algae hiding places such as behind lights, in ladder rungs, under steps, etc. Good luck!