New pool owner here! We've had our pool over a year now in Illinois south of Chicago. The installation finished in October of 2022 where we had a few days to swim prior to the pool company closing it up. We were so excited in 2023 we wanted to be the first to open, and had the pool company open us sometime in early April. Through all of 2023 I was trying to figure out the chemistry and maintenance as I didn't get much of a crash course on what to do, and what I did get a course on was quickly forgot over the winter months. Most of the learning in 2023 was from pool stores and some other pool folks in the subdivision to try to keep my water clear.
It was clear almost the whole year, but I had to continually keep my super chlorinator on and regular muratic acid to keep it clear. Well near the end of the year the intellicenter had a firmware upgrade which disabled the super chlorinator and my water quickly went cloudy, and I couldn't figure out how to keep it clear even using the pool shops advise. I just kept buying products which failed to maintain a clear pool which resulted in the pool closing cloudy by the pool company who said it will just open cloudy.
Now in 2024 since opening in April again I poured tons of chemicals in trying the same pool shop advise, but after talking to some friends they mentioned TFP. I'm really feeling like this will be the turning point for me, and already purchased the TF PRO Salt kit with the SLAM option, Taylor K-1515 kit, and a TON of liquid chlorine. The reason I purchased the K-1515 kit is because it was going to be here quicker so I could start monitoring the SLAM process to finally get this clean clear!
Well I got a little impatient and started pouring chlorine in to get the levels up using the kits I had available to me and pool math as the chems were in the right params for starting SLAM. I'm 2 days into it and the pool is getting more clear! the K-1515 kit will be delivered today and I plan to monitor even more using that vs what I have now because I don't think it's reading properly (test strips keep saying 0 FC, drops in the kit I had show above 3.0, and waterguru says .5). I'm struggling to figure out which I want to believe, and I think the drops are my best "guess" right now.
I keep pouring in a gallon of chlorine throughout the day as it's been super sunny, brushing the walls, cleaning the filters, skimming everything, and running both of my pumps (pool and water features) to keep water moving and filtering. I also added some DE to the sand filter to try to speed up the process.
Looking forward to learning as much as I can, and getting that sparkly water!
I've attached some pictures of my equipment, pool, and progress so far. Just noticed the foaming today which seems to happen more so with the waterfalls and bubblers on. It is getting more clear though
It was clear almost the whole year, but I had to continually keep my super chlorinator on and regular muratic acid to keep it clear. Well near the end of the year the intellicenter had a firmware upgrade which disabled the super chlorinator and my water quickly went cloudy, and I couldn't figure out how to keep it clear even using the pool shops advise. I just kept buying products which failed to maintain a clear pool which resulted in the pool closing cloudy by the pool company who said it will just open cloudy.
Now in 2024 since opening in April again I poured tons of chemicals in trying the same pool shop advise, but after talking to some friends they mentioned TFP. I'm really feeling like this will be the turning point for me, and already purchased the TF PRO Salt kit with the SLAM option, Taylor K-1515 kit, and a TON of liquid chlorine. The reason I purchased the K-1515 kit is because it was going to be here quicker so I could start monitoring the SLAM process to finally get this clean clear!
Well I got a little impatient and started pouring chlorine in to get the levels up using the kits I had available to me and pool math as the chems were in the right params for starting SLAM. I'm 2 days into it and the pool is getting more clear! the K-1515 kit will be delivered today and I plan to monitor even more using that vs what I have now because I don't think it's reading properly (test strips keep saying 0 FC, drops in the kit I had show above 3.0, and waterguru says .5). I'm struggling to figure out which I want to believe, and I think the drops are my best "guess" right now.
I keep pouring in a gallon of chlorine throughout the day as it's been super sunny, brushing the walls, cleaning the filters, skimming everything, and running both of my pumps (pool and water features) to keep water moving and filtering. I also added some DE to the sand filter to try to speed up the process.
Looking forward to learning as much as I can, and getting that sparkly water!
I've attached some pictures of my equipment, pool, and progress so far. Just noticed the foaming today which seems to happen more so with the waterfalls and bubblers on. It is getting more clear though
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