The Pool is Open for the Season! My Tips for Crystal Clear Year Round.
The pool is open for the season!. 13k gallon vinyl, SWG, third year running it. It's only a little pool, but I love it :)
During the first year I let a pool service company handle everything. What a nightmare that was! Their guy was dumping copper-based algaecide into the water (I didn't realize) and I didn't connect the dots until my daughter climbed out of the pool one afternoon with green hair (it was blonde!).
The vinyl surface was also slippery a lot of the time, which in hindsight was the chemistry telling me something was off. I ended up draining the pool halfway and refilling a few times to get the copper out. After all that, I decided nobody else was touching my pool again!
In then decided to go DIY and started logging every test in an app so I could actually watch the trends.
Oh and I detest test strips. Awful things. If you're in the US, get a Taylor K-2006. Accurate readings!
So here is my list:
- Minimum FC is about 7.5% of CYA for traditional chlorine pools, and SWG pools can run a slightly lower ratio. Whatever your number is, never let FC hit 0, ever. That's how a clear pool turns green in 24 hours during a hot week.
- I keep pH between 7.4 and 7.6 and lower it as soon as it hits 7.8.
High pH quietly makes chlorine less effective even when the FC reading on your test looks fine. - Test CYA monthly and don't let it climb! Tablets and granules add CYA every time you dose. The only way back down is dilution, meaning drain some water and refill. Much easier to just stay on top of it.
- TA for pH-stability. Around 80 ppm TA for most pools, closer to 70 for SWG. Plaster/pebble/quartz wants 250 to 350 ppm CH. Vinyl and fiberglass can be lower.
- I brush walls, steps, and shaded corners weekly. I empty the baskets all the time :) My pump runs 8am to 8pm. A lot of 'chemistry' problems are really circulation problems imho.
Seriously, ditch test strips, haha! Catch small misses before they stack up. Boring repetition is what keeps water clear.
Edit: Thanks to the other comment below, point 2 needs some clarification. pH matters, but in outdoor pool with CYA what makes chlorine less effective isn't high pH, but a high CYA-to-FC ratio. That said point 2 still stands. When my pH hits 7.8 I know it's on the rise due to aeration (waterfall feature) and the SWG, which is why I lower it. pH still matters for scale prevention, corrosion control, and swimmer comfort.
There have also been comments about keeping CYA low, and while that's technically correct, just be careful. In very sunny climates with heavy swimming activity (in my case lots of kids!), without enough CYA to protect chlorine from UV, FC can dissipate very quickly, leaving the pool unsanitized. This is why I tend to keep CYA on the higher side, with FC scaled up to match, because I have to travel a lot for work at short notice. If I suddenly get called away, family members can deal with the pool a lot easier.