re: how to cool water temps without a chiller?

You can run those little return fountains and help a small bit if you run it at night.

Our first year with the pool was last year, I remember it getting really hot and not fun to be in about this time last year. But as we got thru like August, even though it was hot as hell, the pool became cooler. Any cloud cover or thunderstorms will cool my pool pretty significantly.