Just watched some of your videos. New pool owner, pre-existing home and pool. Outstanding information and details.

Managed pools for 50 years, and I've always been able to get them clear using just basic balancing and chlorine levels - no exotic additives. This year, for the first time, I had a big issue with phosphates. No idea where these came from, and had never tested for them before. A professional advised me about this problem I was not really even aware of, but sure enough the test revealed it. The phosphate remover was miraculous, and my green pool was solved in a little over a day. Has not recurred, but the phosphate test kit is now part of my arsenal. I do not test every day or even every month for this, but at least every season it is now a must. In the rare instances where I used pool companies to manage a pool, the technicians always added truckloads of Cyanuric acid. Big mistake - It makes your chlorine ineffective. I don't know who teaches them to shoot for high levels of this. I always use liquid chlorine, and will add a stabilized tab every once in a while if the level is really low, but it is definitely not something I add often. On DE filters - yes they are messy, and no, you don't want to breathe it, but the filtration really is better than cartridges or sand, and if you like crystal clear water they are the way to get that. One more thing - wildlife....specifically raccoons! If you have an open pool you MUST find a solution to keep them out. This is a danger that is getting worse, as the intestinal worms they carry are becoming far more prevalent across the US, and the microscopic eggs they leave are indestructible through chemical methods, and too small to be removed by filtration. Ingestion of a microscopic amount of these can leave you with incurable brain damage, including paralysis and stroke-like symptoms for life. This was not a significant danger just a few short years ago, but it is now, and it is getting much worse. Other wildlife carry similar parasites, but they do not go in your pool. Raccoons will and do - they love water, and they express their joy by pooping in your pool, putting you and your whole family in grave danger. If you don't have a pool enclosure, you're going to want to consider it as a priority. Don't have raccoons in your area? Do you live on Mars?

Thank you Steve! You are a fountain of knowledge.

Great discussion, thanks Steve, I appreciate the technical detail.

My client has been wanting to manage his pool. It started turning green, so he just kept adding pucks to his skimmer. Now it’s fully green and the cya is well over 100. FC is over 10

I now have a new respect for pool chemistry! Thanks Steve

Great info Steve! Our pool is always a forest green colour when we open every spring and the stench is off the charts...skimmer loaded with dead worms x4! In regard to vacuuming to Waste...Remove the Whatchamacallit/Gizzmo, hook up the vacuum hose, and I'm assuming fill the water pump with water prior to setting sand filter to Waste? OR immediately set the sand filter to Waste? On average it takes us 2 weeks to get clear/swimmable salt water blue colour again. We have a safety cover when closing the pool but some say those aren't ideal. I appreciate your videos. I'm also in Ontario, Canada.

Thumbs up on swapping from DE to cartridge. I recently made switch. I’m using way less electricity and getting the same flow rate. Bonus, I don’t have to backwash and I don’t have to worry about my family breathing DE.

Thanks!

Thanks Steve. I live in San Diego and have a DE filter and love it, the house came with it and it was the only piece I kept last year when I rebuilt the system, I'm my own pool guy and with your videos have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to maintain following your guidance, my local pool store (owner operated), and performing weekly maintenance. One question that came up with the spring heat, I have a year old pebble finish on an in ground 1960's 15k gallon guntite pool and notice spots and crud in the deep end that won't vacuum or brush off. Any suggestions on scrubbing pebble finishes?

I have a pool that has CYA over 300. The free and total chlorine is 24ppm. The water is crystal clear. I am worried about it going into the summer, but at this point when other pools I care for have algae growing starting, this one is perfect. I have not added chlorine to the pool in over 2 months, and it just does not burn off. Also, no one is swimming in this pool, and it is kind of becoming a test pool.

When own an obove ground pool,, how much chlorine?, when should I add baking soda, how do I get the ph right

do you have a pdf document with the idea levels?

Could you do a video on how to degrease a sand filter?

Above ground pools, what should ph , c chlorine,baking soda be add

What method of water testing do you recommend. Test strips? Drops? I don't live close to a pool store so home testingnfor all those chemicals is needed.

Always great information! Thank you Steve! Could you please tell me how many years I can expect to get out of a cartridge filter?

Saturation index has entered the chat👋🏻

Hey Steve, if a person is regularly backwashing the filter and refiling with fresh water would that keep the total solubles down over the life of the pool?

Hi Steve. I have problem with my pool water. I opened pool I did shock( I used liquid chlorine and than next week I used two pockets of Calcium chlorine HTH) and I did vacuum twice. All chemicals are in balanced, just chlorine is really high and also I used twice clarifier. Water in pool is still milky but not dirty. I went to pool store to check what they say and as everything is in balance they don’t know so I changed cartridges for new Pleatco. 48 h of non stop working pump the water is still milky. Steve please help.

It would be interesting to see your perspective on TDS in pools that keep low CYA, 30ppm, and use liquid chlorine feeders for chlorination. My pool water is 2 years old any my TDS is 2500. I bet most of the TDS is because of the salt added by the liquid chlorine. What if your take on this? Can I go to 4-5000 TDS?

@ Swimming Pool Steve, Would you recommend the much less priced Harris Brand VS Pumps compared to the Haywards, Pentair? Thanks.. and I Love your channel, it has helped me through the life of a pool owner in the NorthEast region of the country.

What do you mean that some people upgrade their filter to glass instead of sand?

Can you show us how to degrease a cartridge filter?

I have to say this didn’t work for me. My pool always turns green just before summer time. I have a fairly large pool to me, hard to guess size as it was built in the late 70’s early 80’s. It’s 15’ wide in the deep end and 8’ deep, about 42’ long and 4’ in the shallow end. Estimating 28-32k gallons. My plumbing underground is 1.5” pvc, on the equipment skid it’s 2” and goes back to 1.5” as it enters the ground. I have 1 skimmer, 3 return jets to the pool and 1 in the spa that’s constant flow to keep movement in the spa even if you have the suction valves from the skimmer and return to pool, I have a 1hp Hayward pump/motor, I have a pentair 420 cartridge filter assembly. My motor is 220v and I run it 24/7. All my equipment is less than 18 months minus the wet end of the pump, and my cartridges were brand new as of March 2023 with a starting dp of 12psi. my chlorine levels are .5-1ppm, my ph is 6.8, alkalinity is 30, which I’ve been adding baking soda to increase it, hardness is 300 and my cya is 35. My only thinking is that my pool doesn’t have the proper flow and I’m thinking of increasing the motor to a VS to increase gpm. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! I’m from Houston texas btw if that matters or helps.