Jenne03
07-07-2014, 10:33 AM
Hi all... I have been to other pool forums and they kind of get made at new people. I was reading over this one and it seems like everyone is friendly and can put up with newbies like be! :) I am completely overwhelmed wondering if my pool is balanced correctly. At least i took the first step and found a forum to help! I also feel like an idiot because even though I read the terms and what I should be doing, I still get confused.
We got our pool at the end of last summer. It's a 20 X 40 rectangle pool with I believe about 27000 gallons of water. Our pump runs four hours in morning and four hours late evening per our pool guy. I have a Hayward sand filter model number s244T. I have a salt water system that is called Breeze(?). Our pool guy said we should have it running at 75%. He also told us that he believe the "boost" to shock the pool doesn't do a good job and has us just pour granular chlorine in the skimmer things so it distributes in the pool.
It was easy. I vacuumed . I used my net to get everything out. I have the robot that I put in at least twice a week. Everything was great. Then we noticed some algae. I believe it was due to the fertilizer that was put down to try and grow grass. I think it blew into the pool and from what I read that could cause an algae problem.
We were told to put some algae chemical in the pool and vacuum...which we did. It looked clear at the time but I really think it wasn't. We had our pool closed and my husband said he didn't see any chemicals put in. I would have thought we would need them to close. We have a safety cover(I think that is mesh?)
When we opened our pool this summer for the first time. We opened to a very very green pool. It was everywhere. It was scary . Since we are rookies..we had no idea what to do so went to our local pool store. She told us to shock it (I think like 8 bags worth of shock), vacuum the algae and then we had other chemicals to put in. Whether it was right or wrong, it worked. We got it clear and the pool place had our water at good numbers.
All was well and then I saw white thready like stuff floating on the top. I got nervous that it was dead algae but most pool stores and forums thought it was more of pollen. It has gone away since then.
We ended up getting test strips. I know..from what I read it's a no no. But we didn't know. We used them and the free chlorine wasn't registering. The ph was in the 7.2 colored range, TA was in the 40-80(I couldn't tell color wise) and the stabilizer was at 30-50 range. I didn't understand why the chlorine wasn't showing. I had heard from one of the pool stores that the strips aren't good at the chlorine. My husband wondered if we should have our salt system at 100%. He turned it up because he thought that would help with the chlorine. My husband doesn't read anything so its up to me to learn and tell him what to do ;)
The pool water is crystal clear. I was swimming last night and was on the side and scrapped of a yellow piece of teeny slime thing. Who knows what it was ..but I was afraid it could be start of algae? It could have been some gross nothing too...I didn't see anything else in the pool. Although nothing indicates that except for maybe my chlorine level not registering? My pool is in direct sun with no trees around.
We had people swimming in it so my husband decided to shock it with two bags(that was what we were told to use) just to sanitize and see about killing whatever that was just in case.
This morning I tested the pool water with the test strips(ashamed)..but it's all I have right now and I am learning. My ph was still in the ok level of 7.2 color. My free chlorine jumped to either 3 or 5 . It's hard for me to differentiate between the colors. My TA I think was at 40 and my stabilizer was still at 30-60 color range.
So i guess the shocking last night worked and there is still chlorine in my pool. I should also say that when my pool wasn't registering the chlorine, we had two days of storms prior. But I tested it yesterday morning also..and according to the color chart, I still don't think it was registering.
Besides a good test kit... are we completely wrong with all of this? Should my salt water system be at 75%? Is my pool safe to swim in after the shocking? I had heard to kind of ignore TA if ph isn't moving around? Oh! I have a vinyl liner too. What do you do if you go away for a week and not use the pool(chemical wise?)
Thanks so much for getting through this. I feel like such an idiot with this pool. It looks beautiful and I want to maintain that. I have looked up the terms fifty thousand times and still can't get it to sink in.
We got our pool at the end of last summer. It's a 20 X 40 rectangle pool with I believe about 27000 gallons of water. Our pump runs four hours in morning and four hours late evening per our pool guy. I have a Hayward sand filter model number s244T. I have a salt water system that is called Breeze(?). Our pool guy said we should have it running at 75%. He also told us that he believe the "boost" to shock the pool doesn't do a good job and has us just pour granular chlorine in the skimmer things so it distributes in the pool.
It was easy. I vacuumed . I used my net to get everything out. I have the robot that I put in at least twice a week. Everything was great. Then we noticed some algae. I believe it was due to the fertilizer that was put down to try and grow grass. I think it blew into the pool and from what I read that could cause an algae problem.
We were told to put some algae chemical in the pool and vacuum...which we did. It looked clear at the time but I really think it wasn't. We had our pool closed and my husband said he didn't see any chemicals put in. I would have thought we would need them to close. We have a safety cover(I think that is mesh?)
When we opened our pool this summer for the first time. We opened to a very very green pool. It was everywhere. It was scary . Since we are rookies..we had no idea what to do so went to our local pool store. She told us to shock it (I think like 8 bags worth of shock), vacuum the algae and then we had other chemicals to put in. Whether it was right or wrong, it worked. We got it clear and the pool place had our water at good numbers.
All was well and then I saw white thready like stuff floating on the top. I got nervous that it was dead algae but most pool stores and forums thought it was more of pollen. It has gone away since then.
We ended up getting test strips. I know..from what I read it's a no no. But we didn't know. We used them and the free chlorine wasn't registering. The ph was in the 7.2 colored range, TA was in the 40-80(I couldn't tell color wise) and the stabilizer was at 30-50 range. I didn't understand why the chlorine wasn't showing. I had heard from one of the pool stores that the strips aren't good at the chlorine. My husband wondered if we should have our salt system at 100%. He turned it up because he thought that would help with the chlorine. My husband doesn't read anything so its up to me to learn and tell him what to do ;)
The pool water is crystal clear. I was swimming last night and was on the side and scrapped of a yellow piece of teeny slime thing. Who knows what it was ..but I was afraid it could be start of algae? It could have been some gross nothing too...I didn't see anything else in the pool. Although nothing indicates that except for maybe my chlorine level not registering? My pool is in direct sun with no trees around.
We had people swimming in it so my husband decided to shock it with two bags(that was what we were told to use) just to sanitize and see about killing whatever that was just in case.
This morning I tested the pool water with the test strips(ashamed)..but it's all I have right now and I am learning. My ph was still in the ok level of 7.2 color. My free chlorine jumped to either 3 or 5 . It's hard for me to differentiate between the colors. My TA I think was at 40 and my stabilizer was still at 30-60 color range.
So i guess the shocking last night worked and there is still chlorine in my pool. I should also say that when my pool wasn't registering the chlorine, we had two days of storms prior. But I tested it yesterday morning also..and according to the color chart, I still don't think it was registering.
Besides a good test kit... are we completely wrong with all of this? Should my salt water system be at 75%? Is my pool safe to swim in after the shocking? I had heard to kind of ignore TA if ph isn't moving around? Oh! I have a vinyl liner too. What do you do if you go away for a week and not use the pool(chemical wise?)
Thanks so much for getting through this. I feel like such an idiot with this pool. It looks beautiful and I want to maintain that. I have looked up the terms fifty thousand times and still can't get it to sink in.