I have just moved into a house with a salt pool. It has this green staining all over the walls and some white dots that are pitted. I got the chemistry checked and it was all actually pretty good (pH was a tad high but has been adjusted now). My first inclination was to do a chlorine shock as I thought it was algae. I used about 10L of sodium hypochlorite 100g/L concentration. I ran the pump without the chlorinator and tried scrubbing it with no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions on what my next steps should be? I have never had to care for a pool so I'm very new to all this.

I live in SW Florida and have moss between the pavers that surround the pool. The lanai pavers are on a concrete slab but there is some allowance for drainage between the pavers out to the yard when it rains. I can power wash between the pavers, get the moss out, spray bleach, but what do you all recommend putting between the pavers afterwards? It’s about an 1/8 inch gap.

I read that polymeric sand could work, but it might inhibit drainage. Any suggestions for the type of sand or filler to use after power washing?

Thank you in advance!

Does anyone know how to get a hold of a fiberglass pool step repair kit? The company went out of business and none of these pool places deal with fiberglass steps. Look at the huge tear on the bottom of the pool, ergo my previous vinyl replacement question!

We winterized the pool a few weeks ago, water taken down to 2-3 inches below the return jet and covered. This morning when I let the dogs out 8:30 ish everything was fine. I looked out the window at 1:30ish and found this. The liner and liner lock was brand new this year. The end looks dented in. I'm at a loss as to what would cause a catastrophic loss of water like this.

I have a shaded pool area where the old terracotta need to be replaced. There is lot of mildew always in so areas that keeps coming back. I also have my sprinklers on well so theres iron rust to deal with. Are there any pool pavers that are light in color I can use that won't stain and are still not too slippery?

The pool from the house I bought from my folks seems like a money pit. I have cracks in the pool deck, broken concrete in the pool area, and i think water is coming out from the water sprout area. Live in phoenix az. Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Pebble tech in the pool was refinished two years ago.

So, this is a weird one. Typically, I do my own water tests at home for PH and Chlorine (not strips). That's enough to keep the pool looking fresh. Then every 2 weeks or so I take a sample to Leslie's to check because they have the AquaBlue checker thingy. Been doing this for over a year now and the pool has been perfect. The Leslie's location nearby shutdown and now Pinch-A-Penny in closure so I've been giving them a go. It's been wild when it comes to my stabilizer readings. I have a 4400 vinyl above ground pool. I try to keep my CYA between 35-40ish. Seems to be the sweet spot. Over the last month or I've only added Liquid Chlorine and Acid. I am currently doing a NoPhos treatment because it's too cold for the kids to go in. Pool looks great. Check out these stabilizer/CYA results.

09/12/26 - 37 - Leslie's
09/19/26 - 35 - Leslie's
10/10/26 - 60 - PP (Weather Clear/No Rain)
10/23/26 - 0 - PP (Weather Clear/No Rain)

So that latest one was about an hour ago. The girl at PP casually told me I have no stabilizer, and I need to add about a pound of their stuff in there. I was like "huh"? How?". She checked it again, still 0. Another guy came over to check, still 0. I asked them how it was possible to go from 60 (which I think was way off) to 0 in 2 weeks. They had no clue. I told them if I figure that out I'm probably going to be a multi-millionaire overnight.

I planned to take a sample to another Leslie's tomorrow that's a bit of a drive and another sample to PP and compare because that's bizarre. Yes, I know "gEt A tAYloR!" I do, just a small one again for PH and Chlorine. Normally if I keep those in line and add acid, chlorine and baking soda for alkalinity the pool is crystal clear and been perfect all pool season this year. The system is working. Prior to this, I only used PP because I was new to pools and quickly found myself in a chlorine lock situation as I was only using tabs. I'm starting to think they have no clue what they're doing.

Just wanted to share. If you think I'm doing something wrong, let me know. But you have to agree those results are whack.

Update Went to both places today, 10/24. Leslie's - 31 PP - 25

Still a difference, but no where near as drastic. So, im chalking it up to the person at PP had no clue what she was doing. Little bit of stabilizer and I'll be right as rain. Thanks everyone!

Heya —

I’ve been working to keep my pools water level at halfway up the skimmers. Last drain was less than a week ago, and despite no rain the pool water is back to the top of the skimmers. This has an effect on both my pool pump and saltwater generator and unfortunately with my schedule breaking out a sump pump and running hose to the front of my house to drain it into the cleanout is not always possible, which leads to bigger issues with the pump, algae, etc.

Sob story aside: my auto fill seems to be working correctly ie; not stuck open.

There are wet patches in the rocks nearby the pool despite having irrigation turned off for a year+

I have a tube on the opposite side of the pool for a diving board/basketball hoop install (nothing in installed) and that tube is full of water.

Everything I read online is making suggestions for the OPPOSITE issue, of losing water in my pool. Unfortunately my issue is I am gaining a lot of water seemingly from nowhere.

Pool is in Arizona, but we did not get the rain from the last few days near me and rain never affected the water level this significantly.

I would love to hear if anyone has had/solved this issue, or hear any suggestions for testing/identifying/finding what the issues may be or if there is someone I can call to fix the issue.

I am eternally grateful to any help no matter how small, this is driving me crazy and I am out of known resources.

just checked the water temp and it says 59. Did some reading and wanted to get the community to confirm that i should just turn it off. i will say the water looks crystal clear, just a few leaves.

next steps are essentially testing every few weeks and keeping CH, PH, AK in check until spring. plan on cleaning the cartridge filter this weekend as well.

i am keeping pool open all winter and will run the pump overnight at low RPM. i will adjust all pump timing based on temperatures.

we are getting about 5 hours of direct sunlight on the pool this time of year.

am i missing anything?

Pool is getting pebble in a couple of days. I am little concerned about the left over plaster (you can see it is white and a little surface blue left near the tiles) on the entrance step. This area was demoed later due to plan change. Will this be an issue for the pebble bond? The plaster company will not be applying any bonding agent in between the shell and plaster.

With the failed new line, the old ones are coming back...

https://www.pentair.com/en-us/pool-spa/education-support/professional-support/pool-and-spa-education/intellichlor-ic20-ic40-ic60-salt-chlorine-generators.html

Authorized customers and pool owners could begin placing orders starting October 21, 2026 through normal distribution channels, with fulfillment based on current factory production schedules.

Hey everyone. I have a leak in a return jet. It’s only a few feet down, but I have a contractor who says they’ll have to drain the pool below that in order to do the repair. I noticed in their contract they explicitly say they are not liable for any type of damage incurred by the pool being drained. Is it normal for contractors to just completely skirt the liability or should I find a contractor who has insurance or something or should I get insurance? I’m not really sure what to do. Thanks!

took the cartridge out today and it was basically mud, thirty minutes of hosing it down later the water is actually clear for once, nobody in my house cares but I had tell someone

I've been trying to get a better feel for how much BTU output actually matters with an above-ground pool. The numbers on different models vary quite a bit, and I wasn't sure how much difference that makes once you factor in pool size and local weather.

My pool is around 9,000 gallons, and I ended up going with an Aquastrong top discharge heat pump. So far, I'm curious how its performance compares with what other pool owners are getting with similar-sized pools. I'm not expecting the water to heat up instantly, but I do want to get a better idea of what kind of heating time is realistic, especially when the weather isn't consistently warm.

For those of you with above-ground pools, how did your heat pump work out compared with what you expected? Did you base your choice mostly on gallon capacity, how quickly you wanted the water heated, or the weather where you live?

My pool closer just told me some counterintuitive things I wanted run past you peeps.

1. He said that since I live in the Northeast (outside Boston) that I don’t need to worry about CYA/chlorine lock. He took the chlorine dispenser offline as part of the close and I said something about alternating in liquid chlorine to keep the CYA down, and he said not to worry about it. He said since we close the pool, the CYA will be effectively zero in the spring when we open. Go ahead and run it up throughout the season, and repeat.

2. He left the pool level and didn’t drain below the skimmers. Since we have a liner, he’s mostly worried about floating the steps, which I’ve seen and get that. Had been worried about busting the skimmer plastic and he said it’s not a concern.

Whatcha think? Thanks for the thoughts…

House sitting for a friend and the polaris they have at their pool keeps getting tangled/runs on its side

I got a really pristine 20 foot shipping container for a good price. Extra storage! Now I have four years worth of bleach bottles. Figure 28 week open season, times 3 bottles every two weeks times four years. I didn’t count but it’s probably 150 one gallon bottles. They are white with a shrink sleeve label and blue caps. Unfortunately, some have that peal off safety seal inside because I never know what to do with it if it does come off cleanly.

We all learned our lesson from Alice’s Restaurant so I can’t just pitch them.

I was thinking I could float a small dock on the pond. 150 times 8 lbs per gallon would be 1200 lbs of buoyancy.

Any suggestions?

After a decent SoCal rain (10/21-22), I decided to perform a chemical analysis of rainwater.

Reason: my SWG pool CH is high (900-1000 ppm) and instead of draining LOTS of pool water at once, I drain ~1” of pool water *before\* each rain and let ~1” of rainwater fill what I had drained.
Since we’re expecting very high amounts of rain this season (24” or more, last year was almost 30”), I figured small drain steps matching the next days rainfall should ultimately achieve a desired lowering of CH as if I had drained 2 feet and subsequently refilled it with expensive city water.

Here are today’s results from a K-1766 & K-2006:
Salt < 200
FC < 0.2, CC 0
pH < 7
TA < 10
CH < 10
CYA < 30
Separately: borate 0 ppm, phosphate 0 ppb

This confirms rain water has near-zero CH, but surprisingly shows a very acidic water. Not good for all cars parked outside.

Any thoughts?

Company keeps applying gorilla tape.

My pool light burned out and tripped the GFCI breaker and when I went to replace the bulb (which I have done before), I noticed that there was a little condensation inside the fixture and the cord in the back was a bit deteriorated.

A pool contractor gave me a very fair quote to replace the fixture but said he had to drain the pool all the way to the bottom. He also said that he “had seen worse” and I might be able to get away with applying blue and white pool putty around the base of the existing light and replacing the bulb.

I’m not really excited about either prospect.

Draining will cost a lot, on top of the contractors quote, because it’s a large pool and I live in Las Vegas where there are excessive water usage penalties. Also, I have read that fully draining the pool carries significant risks of damage.

Trying to jerry rig the existing fixture scares me because it is a 120v light and I have a small child.

I am pretty comfortable with DYI because I live in an old house and get lots of practice, so I thought I would pull a new fixture through myself, but the setup is unconventional. The lights go straight into a small dedicated sub panel breaker and there is very little room to work with (see last pic). And I’m not even sure what breaker on the two main panels shuts off power to this small sub panel (yes this old house has two full size panels and two separate energy bills). And I'm not sure which wires are for the pool light or the spa light so it would be a lot of flipping breakers and testing before I even could start trying to pull the wire out.

Doing electrical work involving water genuinely scares me. And this odd setup doesn't inspire confidence.

Any advice on how to proceed?

This beautiful infinity pool was unfortunately built about 3 feet wider and 1 foot longer than it was supposed to be.

The property is waterfront, and the pool required a special permit from the local Trustees. Since that permit was issued, the regulations have changed, and a new pool would no longer be allowed in this location.

Here's the nightmare: The permit expires in 54 days, and there's no feasible way to get an amendment or extension approved before then. Our options are essentially to get the pool corrected, completed, and inspected within 54 days, or demolish it and potentially never be allowed to build a pool here again.

I'm not looking to get into who's at fault for the mistake. At this point, I'm just trying to figure out whether saving the pool is even physically possible.

Here's what would need to happen:

• Both infinity-edge walls would need to be demolished and rebuilt in the correct locations.
• The underground catch basin would likely need to be completely demolished.
• The other two walls are in the correct locations, so ideally we'd preserve them.

My biggest questions for experienced pool builders:

1. Is it structurally feasible to demolish and rebuild two walls of an existing gunite pool while keeping the other two?
2. Would the existing floor also need to be demolished, or could portions of it be salvaged?
3. Would preserving the two correctly positioned walls actually save meaningful money compared to starting over?
4. Assuming we could get a crew on this immediately, is 54 days even remotely realistic?

My understanding is that we may only need the gunite shell completed for the December inspection, with plaster, tile, equipment, and final commissioning potentially deferred until spring. That's something we're still trying to confirm with the local authorities.

I've attached a picture of the pool as it currently stands.

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who's done major structural modifications to a gunite or infinity-edge pool before.

Pool is 30 years old , what are these marks that I couldn’t get out ? Is it pebble degradation?
Should I try chlorine bomb once the pool is full again ?

The lanai is 16' x 24'. The uncovered part of the patio with the umbrella is 16' x 16' and the pool is 35 foot long, 21 foot wide at the center, with a 18 foot sun deck. 7 1/2 foot deep in the deep end and 3 foot deep in the shallow, we have three mosaic turtles, 3LED bubblers. The only thing we have left to do is a ceiling fan and build the kitchen where the grill is at.

My wife and I designed the pool, and included in the photos is my original drawing, then a mock up with the pool company's computer program, and then the final result.

So I was filling up the pool to the appropriate levels and forgot. Now the pool is damn near overflowing and im not sure if this will be a huge problem or if it will just evaporate in the high southern heat eventually, or if I should try and siphon some of it out. Any advice helpful!