re: Pool Maintenance

Been a pool owner almost a year now. First few months were great, then ran into high CYA due to the shock I was using, and that sucked. Screws up a lot of your other chemicals, and basically only way to fix it is to drain and refill. Now that I'm past that, haven't had too many issues. I shock about once every couple of weeks, and lately have been adding acid to lower PH some (it seems to slide upwards to). Otherwise, just keeping the chlorine discs in and check chemical readings about once a week.

How often do you guys scrub down all your walls and steps?

quote:

---

I shock about once every couple of weeks

---

you know you can just buy a few gallons of liquid chlorine and do the same thing without adding CYA to the water. maybe costs a little more with inflated bleach prices right now but this is a no-brainer if you need to super chlorinate your water in a hurry.

also, do you have alot of organic matter falling into your pool or something? you shouldn't need to constantly shock your pool unless you're not getting all the algae out before you let the chlorine levels drift back to normal.

or you can get that $20 test strips kit i posted that give you the same results as playing chemist.

i have the TF Pro kit and it used to be my gold standard until i started comparing the results with the dip strip.

15 seconds vs at least 30 minutes to an hour of mixing chemicals, counting drops, playing swirly twirly mixey, needing direct sun to look through the special clear base to see if the CYA matches and hoping your eyes aren't deceiving you... No thank you.

quote:

---

7-IN-1 TEST STRIPS: Tests the most critical parameters: pH, Total Chlorine, Free Chlorine, Bromine, Alkalinity, Total Hardness, & Cyanuric Acid

AQUACHEK ACCURACY: Using medical industry technology, our test strips offer comparable accuracy to liquid tests; No measuring & counting drops of reagent, leaving less room for error

EASY TO USE: No more messy drops; Just dip the silver strip, remove it, wait 15 seconds, & compare with the color chart on the bottle; Test water at least twice a week for safe & balanced water

SAFE & CLEAN WATER: Each color pad is designed with unique paper to optimize color vibrancy & mitigate color-bleeding to help maintain healthy water chemistry

TRUSTED QUALITY: With over 35 years in the business, our products will help professionals maintain healthy pool and spa water chemistry

---

Work smarter not harder!

quote:

---

I use the strips. However, I am interested in the water guru.

---

i'm not poo-poo-ing on TFP or their advice in any way. They are the best when it comes to maintaining your pool.

I just don't have the time to fool with that test kit these days. Too many other things going on and the wife would lose her shite while it looked like i was sitting by the pool for an hour playing chemist.

I can't say i blame her.

This page is your friend (troublefreepool.com)

quote:

---

then ran into high CYA due to the shock I was using, and that sucked. I shock about once every couple of weeks,

---

There is no need to use shock at all. The only shock i've ever used is the stuff my pool builder left me when the pool was completed. I used it sparingly over time until it was empty. You only need to use liquid chlorine to manage your chlorine levels.

quote:

---

and lately have been adding acid to lower PH some (it seems to slide upwards to).

---

Water features (bubblers, deck jets, fountains, etc) will increase pH. If my ph gets low, I turn on my water features and it will go back to 7.6. If I run the water features a lot, I will need to use a little muriatic acid to bring pH down.

quote:

---

Otherwise, just keeping the chlorine discs in and check chemical readings about once a week.

---

The 'discs' have CYA and will raise those levels as well. If my CYA gets low, i use tablets to raise it. In two years, I've used less than one bucket of chlorine tablets. Testing weekly is a must in my opinion. I try to test more often, but that isn't always realistic. But I've had my chlorine levels go from 6.0 to 0.0 in a week b/c my cya was low. It's caused the only algae blooms I've had to deal with and I'm still pissed about it.

quote:

---

How often do you guys scrub down all your walls and steps?

---

My dolphin runs daily and it scrubs the walls, seat, and waterline tile. I manually brush the spa and ledge weekly. Sometimes more often depending on the weather, pollen, etc

ill try them out, and if you say they are accurate, they dont look precise. So a novice wouldnt know how much chemical to add.

I say all that in the above post and when I checked this morning in my 2 week old pool my chlorine was dead on and PH too high. Added a gallon of acid waited three hours and retest and my Ph is dead on and I am showing almost no chlorine.

I quit.

quote:

---

I bought some test strips the other day, also Aquacheck I beleive, and there is an app to download to your phone. Take a pic of the test strip, then upload it to the app, enter in the gallons of your pool, and it spits out the amount of chemicals to add

---

i know how it works.... the full titration set wll get you specific ppms. looks like this will only get you "in the ballpark" depending on how far you are off this could be a great difference in the amount of chems needed to add.... but it does seem that these will be nice for weekly tests while doing a full test every month or so will stiil be useful.

i build a pool automation panel and about to add automated chlorine additions.

New pool owner having just gone through pool school. We have a gunite salt pool that's 15,700 gallons. I really appreciate everyone's advice in this thread.

Here's a little tip as well...if you need to increase water hardness I buy the Calcium Chloride in bulk from Home Depot instead of the pool stores. It's much much cheaper.