Have no idea what I am doing and completely overwhelmed....sorry this is long.

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.

You don't sound completely overwhelmed to me. What I read is that you're starting to put together the knowledge you need to take care of your pool. You've come to the right place.

It sounds like your pool is not now in crisis. Let's keep it clean until you can get good readings of the pool water chemistry. Get a few jugs of 8.25% bleach - if you get 'em from wall mart look for the hth 6-way drops kit as well. If you can't get the hth 6-way drops then buy a red / yellow (phenol red / OTO) drops kit anywhere you can. Also pick up a couple boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax while you're out.

Pour a jug of bleach in the pool this evening near a return jet. Run the pump for an hour to let it mix then test the water for chlorine and pH with your new kit. Report the chlorine and pH here and also tell us what kind of drops based kit you found.

Order a Taylor K-2006 testkit (or K-2006C - bigger bottles, better value). Accept no substitutes. Not available in stores. Without accurate testing, you (and we) are only guessing about how to treat your water.

Read the stickied threads in the testing, chlorinating, and SWCG forums. As a trial user, you'll have to log out to se the other forums. The How to Get the Right Testkits thread in the testing forum has links to the K-2006. If you buy through these links poolforum gets some coin to keep the lights on. Also read the guides on poolsolutions.com; pay special attention to the Best Guess Chlorine Chart. It explains the basis for the pool care method taught here.

Another note: When you tell us what you've put in the pool use chemical names instead of products. "Pool Shock" and "algecide" could be any number of things. We like to say shock is a verb not a noun.

Welcome:)

It still is hard to get through my brain that I can pour bleach into my pool..haha. ....You are talking about regular old bleach correct? I will go out and get the right test kit. Right now I have the 1 lb. bags of granual Shockwave ..I have a box full since that is what we were told to use. Can I still use them until they are gone? I will also go read the stickies. I have read from other forums..and Im still like huh? I know I will get it but..when I dream about it..I know it's overwhelming....haha.

Am I running my pool the right amount? Should I be at 75% or 100%

Just plain ole bleach! Walmart's generic is fine and is 8.25% sodium hypochlorite. Liquid chlorine that you can buy at the pool store is the same thing, only stronger concentration --- usually 10 or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite.

What are the ingredients in the Shockwave? Be specific.

It is Calcium hypochlorite 68%
other ingredients 32%
Total 100%

Cal-hypo is fine so long as the pH is in range and the Calcium Hardness isn't high (back to accurate testing). Each pound of 68% cal-hypo adds about 3ppm FC (Free Chlorine) to your pool and 2ppm CH. Cal-hypo can react energetically with stabilzed chlorine so do not add it to the skimmer if you have used trichlor tabs or dichlor granules in the skimmer.

I don't know enough yet to talk about the SWCG setting. We can start to measure chlorine consumption after you get the K-2006 (you have ordered one, yes?).