When to admit defeat and start over?

[Watermom]

Only one tweak to the good advice Carl gave you. When you test CYA, you want the sun at your back.

[SpacemanSpiff]

Only one tweak to the good advice Carl gave you. When you test CYA, you want the sun at your back.

Thanks, Watermom.

In order to get a definitive answer, I asked the Director of Education @ Taylor Technologies, Wayne Ivusich, and he was gracious enough to pass along this bit of information:

"the "correct" way to test for anything (not just CYA but for all the other tests, especially color-matching) is to NOT face the Sun. The Sun will alter you eyes' ability to match colors. The Sun should be behind you or on your shoulders. Never face the Sun. If it's an overcast day then it kinda doesn't matter!"

You might want to put that in a sticky as Taylor's Instruction Manual doesn't address it.

I don't know if we'll ever get our pool clear, but I'm certainly enjoying all the conversations about it.
There's some nice people in this business.

[PoolDoc]

Honestly, if you're not clear yet, you may want to consider draining, refilling, and then following the SSR (http://pool9.net/ssr/)

I've ofter said in the past that pools are not that hard, but that they aren't forgiving, either. That's doubly true with the soft-side pools, like the Intex. With the seriously undersized pumps and filters that can just barely keep up with a normal, there's simply no extra capacity for cleaning a mess.

If you have a cartridge filter, do make sure you get the Unicel cartridges, before you start up. Those seem to make quite a bit of difference.

[Watermom]

Honestly, if you're not clear yet, you may want to consider draining, refilling, and then following the SSR (http://pool9.net/ssr/)

Yeah, that's kinda what we thought and advised him up in post #2 in this thread. Especially since he said it would only cost $47 to do so!

I don't know if we'll ever get our pool clear, but I'm certainly enjoying all the conversations about it.
There's some nice people in this business.

That's nice of you to say but......... we want you to get it clear so you can enjoy swimming. After all, that's what having a pool is all about!

[SpacemanSpiff]

Purely for clarification [pun intended], we have well water and a pressure pump that automatically kicks out if you try to fill a pool as it thinks there's a waterline break.
Our neighbors have city water @ much higher pressure and kindly allowed us to use their water and pay the $47 increase.
1. I don't want to bother the neighbors again unless absolutely necessary. [We just filled it last June]
2. I wanted to become educated in not only the proper way to start, but in what to do when things go awry.
So far, I believe I'm achieving the objectives, even though one wasn't intentional.

I would like to add, we're leaving on vacation for a few days, in a few days. Given the other numbers above and figuring I'll have the FC ~ 15 tonight [I added 1g bleach last night and will test when I get home], what can we do to best protect our efforts while we're gone?

[PoolDoc]

3 things:

1. Get some polyquat, and add a double dose just before you go. (You can add some now, if you think you have any traces of algae left). Here's the info page: http://pool9.net/polyquat/

2. Read up on borax and muriatic acid. http://pool9.net/borax/ http://pool9.net/ma/ Add 7 boxes of borax and 1.5 gallons of 31% muriatic acid to your pool. That will give you a borate level > 60 ppm. You can add all the borax and a gallon of the muriatic acid at once. Make sure the pump is on and that you can brush / swirl / otherwise dissolve the borax. (Walking around and brushing it, is good). Then add the remaining acid in decreasing doses till your pH is between 7.2 and 7.8.

Borax inhibits algae and remains permanently, unless drained.

3. Put in a clean cartridge before you leave.


Removing phosphates inhibits algae even more strongly, but you don't have time.