First time pool owner

[ZackCB]

I bought a house with an inground pool last fall and the liner was old and falling out of the coping so I had it replaced last month. This is the first time I have ever had to maintain a pool. It's a 16'x32' oval and holds about 18,000 gallons. I bought 12,000 gallons of water and slowly filled the rest from my well after the new liner was installed. The pool has a 300 lb. Hayward sand filter and pump.

I bought a lot of chlorine (liquid and 3" tabs), a water test kit (strips), skimmer and vacuum at Namco when they had their 20% everything sale. And then I found this forum.

I haven't bought a Taylor test kit yet, but my pool water is testing in the normal ranges according to the strips on everything except CYA, which is low. Should I just let the CYA come up slowly by using the 3" stabilized chlorine tabs or should I add stabilizer separately? Once the CYA gets into the normal range, I may switch from the tabs to the liquid chlorine so CYA level doesn't get too high.

I want to get a safety cover for when I close the pool this fall. Since I am currently blocked from using the search function or viewing any of the results in the moderator's customized google search, I guess I'll ask about it here. What is the best option for the type of safety cover - mesh or solid with one or more mesh panels to let the water drain through? Where can I buy a good quality safety cover that I can install myself? I don't think it would be too hard to put the anchors in my concrete pool deck.

Thanks!
Zack

[Watermom]

Zack, we don't trust those test strips. Do yourself a favor, and go ahead and order a Taylor K-2006. You won't regret it.

You can use trichlor tabs to bring your CYA up and then switch when you get it where you want it but if you do so, you're going to have to be able to measure CYA. Test strips are notoriously inaccurate especially on the CYA test. Also, trichlor is very acidic and will drive your pH down, so you will need to monitor it closely.

While you are waiting for your registration to be completed, if you log out, you can see the rest of the forum and use the search. But, don't use the search feature that is built in to the forum software. Use the one in one of our signatures or you can go to www.poolsolutions.com and find the search there as well.

Welcome to the Pool Forum!