Hello

[SafetyBob]

Just up the road from you and I can tell you that for the most part, as long as you have the chemistry good enough, I have found with the cover on, I can leave the pool alone for a week and feel confident that nothing will grow. That said, if someone uses it during the week, before it get's closed up for the night it ALWAYS gets it's levels tested. If you haven't got that good Taylor kit from PoolDoc's links yet, do. I know you have a small pool (like me), but it ensures absolute clarity on chemistry levels......which is the key to keeping that little pool good for the kids.

My two cents worth on pool size. I am very much in the same place as you. Every year for the past three years, I have grown in pool size. We are looking at the 15' metal frame pool or the 16' metal sided pool. We simply don't want to take any more of the back yard up with a pool and/or don't want to spend thousands of dollars on an inground either. Nice to have the option of......well, kids done with the pool, let's wrap it up and throw it out. Alot better than around 1/2 my neighbors who have filled in their pools after the kids leave.

OK, one more comment. For me, the pool cover has made all the difference THIS year over past years when I did not cover my pool(s). Chemistry does not change fast (or I can keep ahead of it now) and much less filter changing.

Hope your kiddies enjoy the pool like ours do!!

Bob E.

[CarlD]

As one who started with an Intex donut and moved to a full-sized pool it was for me an excellent training experience. When I got my FantaSea I was already pretty good at keeping my Intex pristine. That was a 15' round. Since now the 15' donuts are SO cheap (even Toy'r'Us sells them) I don't see why you don't upgrade.

BTW, when your pH was 8 and your CYA=0, that's a GREAT time to use Tri-chlor tabs, albeit without copper, as they add CYA and lower pH, while maintaining fairly consistent FC levels.

The hardest part about small pools is getting the right amounts of stuff in without over-doing it. If your pool is about 1000 gallons, then you can use the Rule of Thumb calculation of chlorine--and increase or divide by 10 as needed:
1 Gallon of 6% Bleach adds 6ppm of FC to 10,000 gallons.
5.25% adds 5.25 ppm, 12% adds 12ppm.
Now with your 1,000 gallon pool, you use 1/10 of a gallon to get the same effect.

Or...1 quart of 6% would add about 15ppm (roughly) to your 1000 gallons. (15= 1/4 of 6*10 )