My pool will finally be finished this week (quartz finish) and looking for advice from ags in the area.

Stuff I have so far:
Variable speed pump
Gas heater
UltraPure Ozone/UV sanitizer
IPS VidaPure 200 ORP and Ph control system
Dolphin Sigma robotic cleaner
A few gallons of muriatic acid and liquid chlorine from Leslie's

Things I'm looking to buy (unless otherwise advised)
15 gallon drum of cholorine*
5 galling jug (rectangularish shape) to put muriatic acid in
Secondary containment for both if I can find something that makes sense
Secondary cheaper/smaller robot for the spa?

*I know the chlorine degrades "quickly" but I want to be set up to be able to take a 2-3 week vacation during the summer and not worry about my chemical control/dosing system running out. I was told to expect as high as a gallon/day use of chlorine during peak summer. Is this true? It's not a big pool (rectangular 22'x25' including spa and large sundeck, 4'-4 1/2' deep on average). Are these numbers accurate?

Did I make a mistake on any of my equipment? I haven't used any of it so I can probably return and exchange it if needed.

Best source for chemicals? Where can I buy a 15 gallon drum of chlorine? I know it'll weight 150-200 lbs but I'm not a lolfat, lolold and have a dolly and good friends with neighbors.

Pump run times? 8 hrs/day full speed? 12 hrs half speed?
How often will my filters need cleaning?
How often should I send the dolphin in?
How long should I brush daily/twice daily because it's a new pool?
Can I just send the dolphins sigma instead?
Anything else?

Return the ozone/UV. Not needed.

troublefreepool.com

Do your own chemistry in lieu of taking water to Leslie's. It's not hard.

I buy all my chemicals from the local Ace hardware except for CYA. I buy that from Amazon since I prefer the liquid Verizon even though it costs more.

Your builder will do(suppose to anyway) a pool school for you. Only need to run your pump for the daylight times. That depends on how hot it is. If in the 90's then 9hrs. If it's in the 70's then 7hrs.

Clean filters before pool season(April) and then in September or October. Buy a second set of filters on Amazon so the pool is never down.

Hire a pool cleaner.

We are putting a chiller in because we are hitting 92 degree water with water features running.

For chemical storage, keep pool acid and pool shock away from each other.

But if you watched "Breaking Bad", they are correct: polypropylene tubs will protect against acid and such. Just get big totes for each.

~egon

Get a pole with a brush and basket. That's all you'll need for the spa. Overall, troublefreepool.com is very helpful. They aren't big fans of chlorine tabs, but as long as you monitor your CYA, the tabs work great. Especially for travel. I say don't mess with an in line chlorinator, but just use a floating basket. Get the test kit they recommend to do it yourself.

KT_Ag08 said:

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We are putting a chiller in because we are hitting 92 degree water with water features running.

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post up when you have a good review of it. I am curious out them.

You might want to look at a pvc aerator depending on size. They hook up to your existing jets. I have a 12x20 pool that when covered gets to 100. I run that overnight and it drops 15 degrees. Also only $30-50 or you can DIY cheaper. If your pool is bigger try running two.

I have three waterfall features that should do pretty much the same, but my issue is with running the pump all night. I run the pump during the day, but not sure I want to pay to have it running most of the night too. Being cheap is in my bones.

I only run my pump a couple hours per day and damn the water stays nice and I have never had any issues with growth or other funk. My pool is pretty small though.

Equipment: if you have an auto chlorinator and a uv sanitizer/ozonator- make sure the chlorinator is upstream of the uv sanitizer. Inline sanitizers introduce air into the stream and you'll never keep water in your in line chlorinator rendering it useless. This happened to me and it took a while to figure out.

Chemicals - bulk chlorine may be be cheaper per gallon, but get ready to add it while naked every time…I use one gallon buckets of liquid chlorine to avoid risk of spill and splashing or dripping liquid chlorine on my clothes or the floor.

I follow a hybrid of trouble free pools and Leslie's. I follow the deals and stock up on calcium hypochlorite (power powder plus is the Leslie's name) on the Black Friday/ super sales a few times a year. It lasts way longer than liquid chlorine. I get liquid chlorine and muriatic from wherever it is cheapest and in stock - Ace, pinch a penny, texsun, Home Depot, sometimes Leslie's. Trichlor pucks I get at Costco once a year when they have them.

Get a good at home test kit because it is a lot more convenient than going to a pool store all the time.

My final and most important piece of advice - the PoolRx. I've owned several pools and started using the pool rx two years ago and literally never have algae problems anymore. You must keep chlorine above 1 at all times, and if you do that poolrx is magic - I have 21000 gallons and use the black poolrx (blue one is for up to 20000 gallons) and it has lasted almost a year without needing to reload or replace it.

Have a Glacier Chiller on our pool. Our pool is full sun all day with dark blue mini pebble finish. It can lower the temp from 95/96 to 86-88 peak temps. I generally just run it non-stop Friday to Sunday as super cheap to run.

It definitely works though, and a favorite spot for everyone to sit is in front of the return where the cool water comes out every 30 second or so.

Worth the money spent on it to me.

What does it cost to run?

Thank you for all the feedback.

I made an account at trouble free Pool and got the app.

I have a pole and basket/brush. I guess I can start with that for the spa.

I have a PoolRX plus on order now.

I'm not sure on the order of the inline chlorinator but I'm not really planning to use it. I'm hoping that the IPS vidapure maintains the ph and chlorine well.

I'll look into the aerators. There seems to be a lot of options but they sort of all look the same. Any recommendations?

Should I run the pump during the day or night? Seems like I can get a little cooling at night with the right accessory?

Has anyone tried a solar water heater?

Sea Speed said:

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I only run my pump a couple hours per day and damn the water stays nice and I have never had any issues with growth or other funk. My pool is pretty small though.

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****, I run mine 12 hours a day. small pool, too. and water is pretty darn warm (i have small water feature)

Costs ~$1.50-$2/day if you're running it 24 hours.

I run mine non-stop from 12am Friday to Sunday afternoon, and don't notice it on the electric bills.

We have a small water feature as well. I run mine 2 hours a day or if we want it on while swimming a little extra. I try to run it as little as possible and the pool has stayed spotless all summer. Its pretty incredible actually. I know it is probably blind luck but the thing has been pretty easy so far. Pool cleaner only costs $25/week as well but I know that isn't sustainable.

I'm in Houston and at first I ran my pump at night and had issues with keeping chlorine levels high enough during the day, and switched to running it during the day and it seems to do better.

In the early days of a pool it is critical to brush your pool surface often and check your chemicals often. It's way less costly to make minor edits to pool chemistry early on to stay on track than get way off and have to dump lots of stuff to get back into balance. You'll be relieved when you hit winter and maintenance effort and cost go way down. Texas heat and pollen in particular can really jack up your chemistry.

On the poolrx - tell your Leslie's person each time your water is tested that you have a poolrx. Pool chains love selling phosphate reducers to people with high phosphate counts…but with a poolrx you absolutely do NOT have to treat for phosphates! Seriously. And if you talk to people at Leslie's only listen to the really experienced people, they often have junior employees that literally have never taken care of their own pool before.

You don't need to treat phosphates regardless.

Keep the pool chemistry correct always! Chemicals are much cheaper than a replaster job.