Test Your Water!
Before attempting to balance your water levels. Always test your water to determine what you should dose your pool with. Dosing without checking the levels could cause damage to the pool over time.
Recommended Chemical Balance:
Free Chlorine: 1 - 4 ppm
pH: 7.2 - 7.6
Calcium Hardness: 200 - 500 ppm (plaster pools)
Alkalinity: 80 - 120
Cyanuric Acid: 20 - 50 ppm
Copper: 0 - 0.3 ppm
Phosphates: 0 - 150 ppb
Salt: 3,000 - 4,000 ppm (salt pools)
Common Problems and SOlutions
1. Cloudy pool water. Commonly caused a by a combination of high pH and low Alkinity, or high number of particulates in the water. First, balance all your chemicals levels, then add a clarifier.
2. Returning Algae growth. Commonly returning algae in your pool is mainly caused by inconsistent chlorine levels. Keep an eye on your levels each week an adjust your dosage accordingly. If the issue persists consider adding a preventative algaecide and cleaning your filters.
3. High CYA levels. High CYA is mainly caused by adding too many chlorine tablets to the pool, this will raise the CYA way more than intended causing your chlorine to be less effective. Immediately switch to non-stabilized tablets and consider draining part of the pool.
