Well, folks, I'm three weeks late getting my pool up and running, and I'm paying for it!

Three weeks ago the water was still clear and blue, with a lot of winter accumulation on the floor of it, but still easy. That is normally when I try to get the pump and filter running. But this year, due to family conditions (my mom in a sub-acute facility after breaking her leg) and going away during the kids' spring break, it was delayed. Further, I had the Eastern end of the deck extended and the filter is now under the new deck. So I had to move it to a more convenient location. That meant extending the 230v outlet and switch all within a waterproof environment, then moving the 200# sand filter, and, finally re-adjusting all the plumbing to fit. As an added bonus I now backwash directly in to a standpipe--no more backwash hose!.

All this means is my water today looked like disgusting green jello or worse with all kinds of stuff floating around. But, around 1pm, I got the pump started.

I cheated. I immediately grabbed a carboy out of the shed that had about 4 gal in it and unceremoniously opened the spigot into the skimmer. Probably "too much" liquid chlorine, but my liner is old and if it bleaches a little, I don't care. I'm guessing I ran the FC up to 24ppm with 0 CYA.

Around 5:30 it was a little cleaner, and I backwashed and cleaned the skimmer and checked the water. FC down to 1ppm, no CYA.

So I dug out a 5# bottle of dichlor that was mostly full and estimated that this was about what I would need to shock the water and get a minor base of CYA. Then, around 7:15, the water was definitely clearer and cleaner, and FC, was down to 5ppm.

So I poured in a gallon of LC (12.5%) and we'll see where we are in the morning.

But I start by hammering the pool with chlorine, and it doesn't matter what kind.