Chemistry & Water Balance
How to Lower Pool pH Safely
High pH scales your equipment and eats up your chlorine's effectiveness. Here's how to bring it back down with muriatic acid or dry acid, without overcorrecting.
How Often Should You Test Pool Water?
A simple testing rhythm for every season: how often to test at baseline, when to bump it up in summer, and why a hard rain changes the schedule.
How Much Chlorine to Shock a Pool
The breakpoint chlorination formula behind pool shock, in plain numbers: how the dose is calculated from your combined chlorine reading and what that means in actual gallons or pounds of product.
Green Pool to Clear: A Step-by-Step Recovery Timeline
A realistic day-by-day plan for clearing a green pool with the shock, filter, brush cycle, plus how to know when it's actually safe to swim again.
Free Chlorine vs. Combined Chlorine: What's the Difference?
Free chlorine is what's actually sanitizing your pool; combined chlorine is used-up chlorine that needs to be shocked away. Here's how to test for both and what the difference means for your water.
Calcium Hardness Too Low: Why It Matters and How to Fix It
Low calcium hardness doesn't turn water green or cloudy, but it can slowly etch a plaster pool's surface. Here's how to spot it and correct it with calcium chloride.
Calcium Hardness Too High: Scaling Signs and Fixes
High calcium hardness shows up as scale on tile and rough, cloudy water long before a test confirms it. Here's how to read the number correctly and the two real ways to bring it back down.
Best Time of Day to Test Pool Water
Sunlight and swimmers can shift a reading within hours. Here's the testing window that gives you the most trustworthy, comparable results.