Hi, although I haven't posted in a couple days (I have been reading) just wanted you to know I've been keeping up on pool maintainence. Friday I tested CYA levels with my remaining reagent, the black dot still does not disapear, since I read it can take a week to register levels, I'll recheck again when my order arrives, I couldn't find it locally.

So I went into a pool supply store to find the only person working was getting an ear-full from a customer, she was complaining she'd already spent over $200 and still had nasty pool water, she was not a happy camper! I heard the guy say, "that's the problem, people go to Walmart, buy the cheap blow-up pools, then expect US to FIX THEM!" I just smiled, left and went home to order my reagent that he was out of.

Our water went through a slight change, from clear to green & then started to turn slight brownish color so I just reversed my steps, added a little metal sequestrant, little algecide, keeping chlorine at good levels and today the water is "pristine" looking again. ( I had added some hose water when skimming the bottom so will need to add sequestrant each time I do that, I guess.)

I found the pole/skimmer that came with the pool to be useless...that is, until I made my own "skimmer bag." I took two cut up knee-highs, and one thicker nylon style sock with the cheese-cloth bag over the top, tied the whole thing onto the unit...boy! did I clean up the bottom! Only dust gets through now!

I'll check back when I have something to report.