$285.00 in pool supplies to unlock chlorine -- Didn't work. No guarantee .

[CalG]

All that "stuff"in the water ...and you want to jump in???? WTF are you thinking?

 

[newbury]

All that "stuff"in the water ...and you want to jump in???? WTF are you thinking?

Yeah, I agree.

When I lived in Vermont we had a 3 acre pond up to about 20 foot deep as a "swimming pool". To clear the algae we used Daphnia, to clear the Daphnia we used minnows, to clear the minnows we used trout, to clear the trout we used worms, flies, and an occasional lure (and fish hooks) and ate the trout we caught.

About the only chemicals we used was salt, on the cooked trout.

 

[CalG]

Yeah, I agree.

When I lived in Vermont we had a 3 acre pond up to about 20 foot deep as a "swimming pool". To clear the algae we used Daphnia, to clear the Daphnia we used minnows, to clear the minnows we used trout, to clear the trout we used worms, flies, and an occasional lure (and fish hooks) and ate the trout we caught.

About the only chemicals we used was salt, on the cooked trout.

My Family swims in the Green River, there is a covered bridge, and a nice spillway... good for swimmers or splashers. Watch for the snappers though! ;-)

 

[PILOON]

In my early teens we'd swim at the local city beach.
Rather than a firm sandy bottom it was sort of gooey like slippery dissolved clay. They claimed it was silt.

Later on we learned that the municipal sewers were dumping the effluent upstream of the city beach so silt it was not.
Guess no amount of chemicals would have corrected the PH at that swimming hole.

 

[coffeeman]

This is spot on and as mentioned trouble free pools will help and teach you to take care of your pool yourself. I can't believe there is a pool guy that uses strips. That is horrible and I don't feel he or the pool store has your best interests in heart. They are just lining their pockets and selling you things that you don't need

Brett

Hey Bret...
The pool store recommending the 45 lbs shock uses computer print out. The small store I usually go to recommended small repeated shocks oil chlorine started showing on test strip. They are installers and they recommended baking soda to balance and don't really try to rip ya too much. They just use test strips. Usually ok with me. I went to big store for advice because it was too late to go to little store. The little guys earlier said shock daily until it breaks. That was my plan. As fate has it couldn't make it to little store. So I got diagnosis of 45 lbs of shock in BIG store with computer print out. BIG store has all the modern tools. Almost same as small store calling for daily shock. So I figured same conclusion , only using a 'get 'er done' method.

I am going to buy a test kit. I need to clear up problem quick. Will get another opinion test from BIG store. Ask for money back if their test test shows they screwed up. Like if stabilizer reads high after they told me to use 8 lbs stabilizer . I'm sure they will laugh and blow me off.

Question....Those computer print outs. Do they take the water and manually enter the numbers in to data base and get printed info? Another words the machine doesn't test the water, chemical tests results are entered by human? That being case mistakes or on purpose reports can be handed to us. Who would ever check?

What scalds me is waste of my time and $$$ do to incompetence or thievery. So I don't have the $40 test kit. I delegate testing to the "professionals". I will pay for results.
But, it's sad they can't even do the job while skinning me alive.

Again, thanks TBNers for all input. Great group....... Coffeeman

 

[aczlan]

The stores I use all use a test strip that a machine reads. I assume that they read the color of the pads.
That is automatically imported into the machine and it uses the stored pool size to compute the amount of chemicals needed.

Aaron Z

 

[rustyshakelford]

Hey Bret...
The pool store recommending the 45 lbs shock uses computer print out. The small store I usually go to recommended small repeated shocks oil chlorine started showing on test strip. They are installers and they recommended baking soda to balance and don't really try to rip ya too much. They just use test strips. Usually ok with me. I went to big store for advice because it was too late to go to little store. The little guys earlier said shock daily until it breaks. That was my plan. As fate has it couldn't make it to little store. So I got diagnosis of 45 lbs of shock in BIG store with computer print out. BIG store has all the modern tools. Almost same as small store calling for daily shock. So I figured same conclusion , only using a 'get 'er done' method.

I am going to buy a test kit. I need to clear up problem quick. Will get another opinion test from BIG store. Ask for money back if their test test shows they screwed up. Like if stabilizer reads high after they told me to use 8 lbs stabilizer . I'm sure they will laugh and blow me off.

Question....Those computer print outs. Do they take the water and manually enter the numbers in to data base and get printed info? Another words the machine doesn't test the water, chemical tests results are entered by human? That being case mistakes or on purpose reports can be handed to us. Who would ever check?

What scalds me is waste of my time and $$$ do to incompetence or thievery. So I don't have the $40 test kit. I delegate testing to the "professionals". I will pay for results.
But, it's sad they can't even do the job while skinning me alive.

Again, thanks TBNers for all input. Great group....... Coffeeman

Check out trouble free pools. I'm telling ya that's a great group of very knowledgeable folks that love helping people. I would spend the money on the tf-100 with speed stir so you know exactly what you water needs. They also have something called pool calculator that will tell you what your pool needs. But at this point, nobody know what it needs because there hasn't been an accurate test completed. Pool stores are notoriously inaccurate.

If it was mine, I would order the kit today and start reading up over there till it comes in. Then when you know where your at you can attack the problem correctly. If you do anything, add 1/2 gallon of regular bleach every day till the test kit comes in

Brett

 

[coffeeman]

In my early teens we'd swim at the local city beach.
Rather than a firm sandy bottom it was sort of gooey like slippery dissolved clay. They claimed it was silt.

Later on we learned that the municipal sewers were dumping the effluent upstream of the city beach so silt it was not.
Guess no amount of chemicals would have corrected the PH at that swimming hole.

I used to swim in Monongahela river in Pittsburgh Pa. We knew of sewers before we got in. Used to joke about the "crap" floating by
Waste from chemical plants, sewerage , steel mills, sulphur creeks dumped in river. About only fish was cat fish. we swam and came out of
water stinking. I don't know for sure, but no one seemed to get sick. Were we stronger then or did we just realize when some one
became sick from water?? I remember long ago the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. Up near Cleveland in the 70s.

The Monongahela River is clean now. It's one of the few rivers that flow north. I hear they do Trout fishing there.
It is nice to see things cleaned up.

Cheers....Coffeeman

 

[dodge man]

I'm no expert, we just sold our pool, but I never had a problem just using test strips. I also got enough stabilizer using the tablets. I always had a problem with the alkalinity in my pool. I'd add acid and it would help but it didn't seem to matter as far as keeping the pool clean, just a little hard on the skin. I never ever had a problem unless I forgot to add chlorine tablets.

 

[kenmac]

something that hasn't been mentioned is the total available chlorine in the shock you are buying..
I try to buy shock with the highest available chlorine..I get mine from Leslie's pools..Best I remember , their shock has 70-73% available chlorine.. I have never had any problems since I starting using their shock