Pool care guides
Plain-English help for the problems every pool owner runs into.
How to Balance Pool Water
Balance six readings in the right order: alkalinity, pH, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, then chlorine last, with a final saturation check. Why the order matters and the calculator for each dose.
How to Clear a Cloudy Pool
Find whether it is chemistry or filtration, and fix it in the right order.
How to Get Rid of Pool Algae
The SLAM method that actually clears a green pool, step by step.
Ideal Pool Chemistry Levels
The target ranges for every reading, and which calculator fixes each one.
How to Shock a Pool
When to shock, which type to use, and how much, step by step.
Hot Tub Maintenance
The short, repeatable routine that keeps spa water clear.
How to Lower pH in a Pool
Acid, the right amount, and why pH keeps climbing.
How to Raise pH in a Pool
Soda ash or free aeration, and which to use when.
How to Lower Alkalinity in a Pool
The aerate-and-acid method that drops alkalinity without crashing pH.
How to Lower Cyanuric Acid
Why you drain to lower CYA, and how to stop it climbing.
How to Open a Pool
The right order to uncover, clean, balance, and clear in spring.
Pool Maintenance Schedule
What to do daily, weekly, and monthly to avoid green-water weekends.
How to Raise Alkalinity in a Pool
Baking soda, how much, and why it steadies pH.
Do Phosphate Removers Work?
The honest take on pool phosphates and what actually stops algae.
How to Get Rid of Black Algae
Break the protective cap, brush hard, and hold high chlorine.
How to Get Rid of Mustard Algae
Why yellow algae returns, and the cleanup step most people skip.
How to Winterize a Pool
Balance, lower the water, clear the lines, dose, and cover.
How to Lower Chlorine in a Pool
Sun, neutralizer, or dilute, and when it is safe to swim.
How to Drain a Pool
When to drain, the real risks, and why partial usually beats full.
Why Is My Hot Tub Foaming?
What causes spa foam and how to fix it for good, not just hide it.
Pool Pump Repair: Common Problems and Fixes
Why a pump loses prime, hums, leaks, or quits, and which fixes are worth doing.
Pool Chemicals: What You Actually Need
The short list that matters: sanitizer, pH, alkalinity, stabilizer, shock. What each does, the order to add them, and what to skip.
How to Clean a Pool Filter
Clean cartridge, sand, and DE filters the right way, when to do it, and what cleaner to use.
Pool Stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid): What It Does
What pool stabilizer is, the level to aim for, how to add it, and why baking soda is not the same thing.
How a Pool Skimmer Works
What the skimmer does, the right water level, why it stops sucking, the weir door, and how many a pool needs.
Above-Ground Pool Decks
What a deck costs, the best material, layouts that work, permit rules, and why it must never rest on the pool wall.
How to Install an Above-Ground Pool
What installation costs, whether to DIY, how to level the ground, what to put underneath, and the startup chemistry.
How to Vacuum a Pool
Manual vacuum step by step, when to set the filter to Waste, priming the hose, vacuuming algae and fine dust, and manual versus robotic.
How Long to Run a Pool Pump
How many hours a day to run the pump, calculating run time from turnover, variable-speed versus single-speed, day versus night, cost, and when to run continuously.
How to Remove Pool Stains
Identify organic versus metal stains first, then clear them with chlorine or ascorbic acid, and keep them from coming back.
How to Backwash a Sand Filter
The step-by-step at the multiport valve, when to do it (the pressure rule), how long to run backwash and rinse, why you cannot skip the rinse, and whether to backwash before or after shocking.
Why Won't My Pool Hold Chlorine?
Diagnose whether it is stabilizer, algae, or chloramines eating your chlorine, then fix the right cause in order.
How to Lower Calcium Hardness
No chemical removes calcium; here is how to actually lower high calcium hardness with a partial drain or reverse osmosis, manage it when you cannot drain, and stop it climbing.
How to Raise Calcium Hardness
Low calcium hardness means soft, corrosive water. Raise it the same day with calcium chloride: how much you need, the ideal range for plaster and vinyl, and why baking soda does not do it.
How to Find a Pool Leak
Confirm it with the bucket test, narrow it to plumbing or structure with the pump-on/pump-off test, then pinpoint the hole with dye. The common leak spots and which repairs you can do yourself.
How to Get Rid of Pool Foam
Foam comes from a surfactant in the water: cheap algaecide, body oils and lotions, or low calcium hardness. Find the cause, clear it fast with a defoamer and a partial drain, and stop it coming back.
How to Heat a Pool
The fastest way is a gas heater; the cheapest is a solar cover plus solar panels or a heat pump. How the three heater types compare, how long heating takes, what it costs, and how to heat a pool for free.
Saltwater Pool Maintenance
A saltwater pool is a chlorine pool that makes its own chlorine. The routine, the chemistry targets, how to run the salt cell, and why pH is the number you chase most.
How to Test Pool Water
Test strips, drop kits, and digital testers compared, what to test for, where and when to take the sample, and how to read the results.
How to Convert a Pool to Saltwater
Almost any chlorine pool can be converted by adding a salt chlorine generator. What equipment you need, the step-by-step, what it costs (about $600 to $2,500), and whether it is worth it.
How to Get Rid of Water Bugs in a Pool
The bugs are water boatmen or backswimmers, and they came for the algae. How to tell them apart, clear them out by removing their food source, whether backswimmers bite, and how to keep them from coming back.
How to Remove Calcium Scale From a Pool
The chalky white or gray crust on your tile is calcium scale, not high calcium hardness. How to tell carbonate from silicate with an acid test, remove it from tile with pumice, vinegar, or bead blasting, and balance the saturation index so it stops coming back.
How Long After Shocking a Pool Can You Swim?
Wait until free chlorine falls back to 1 to 3 ppm, usually 8 to 24 hours after a chlorine shock, and test the water rather than watching the clock. Why the wait matters, how non-chlorine shock lets you swim in 15 minutes, and the wait time for every other pool chemical.
How to Start Up a New Pool
Fill, circulate, then balance in order (alkalinity, pH, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid) before chlorine last. The full startup sequence, the chemicals you need, how new plaster differs, and how soon you can swim.
Why Does My Pool Smell Like Chlorine?
The strong chlorine smell is chloramines, not too much chlorine. It means the pool has too little free chlorine for its contaminant load. What chloramines are, why the smell means you shock rather than back off, and how to clear it for good.
Why Is My Pool Green but the Chlorine Is High?
A high chlorine reading is not the same as working chlorine. The four real causes are high cyanuric acid, high pH, reading total instead of free chlorine, or metal rather than algae. How to tell which one you have and clear the water without draining.
How to Get Rid of White Water Mold and Pink Slime
White water mold looks like shredded tissue paper and pink slime is a pink bacterial film, and neither is algae. Both are biofilms that hide from chlorine, so the fix is to physically break them up, clean the filter that harbors them, and hold a high chlorine level until they stop coming back.
How to Prime a Pool Pump
Priming a pool pump means filling the housing with water so it can pull water from the pool. The step-by-step, why a pump won't prime or won't stay primed, how to clear an airlock, and what to do when it runs but moves no water.
How to Get Rid of Dead Algae in a Pool
Chlorine kills algae but cannot make it disappear. Remove the gray, cloudy dead algae by filtering it out, running the pump around the clock, vacuuming the settled layer to waste, or dropping it with a flocculant. How long it takes and how to do it without a vacuum.
How to Get Rid of Sand in the Bottom of a Pool
Sand on the pool floor is almost never real sand. It is usually a broken sand filter leaking its media through the return jets, blown-in dirt, or mustard algae that looks like sand. How to tell them apart with a finger test, vacuum the sand out to waste, and stop it coming back.
How to Remove Metals From Pool Water
Iron, copper, and manganese stain the pool and turn the water green or brown the moment you shock. A sequestrant only hides dissolved metal; actually removing it takes a metal-absorbing pack, a partial drain with a pre-filtered refill, or reverse osmosis. How to confirm which metal you have, remove it, and stop corrosion and fill water from putting it back.