"Elmo" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:26:31 -0700 (PDT), ransley wrote:

Do you pay someone to test the pool

I test it myself every few days and once a month I bring a sample to the
pool store for detailed analysis. The phosphates are a tad high but the
chlorine is dead on correct (at 4ppm).

I have a power washer (which wasn't meant for underwater use) which I
might
try. Plus I might have to buy the very expensive algaeside and/or
phosphate
reducers.

I wonder which is better in the long run:
- Killing the algae (it will come back) ...
- Removing the phosphate (it will come back too) ...

Any experience to share?

Yeah....pool supply places like to test your water so they can sell you
stuff. Some of it isn't really needed.

On the algae I've always kept the chlorine in check, shock weekly and scrub,
but there maybe some product that keeps it down effectively. Regular pool
cleaning usuually does the trick. I'm havng trouble with black algae but
that's because my pool is old and pitted. That stuff is a bit@h to get off.

I'd use swimming pool grout for your tiles, but like has already been
mentioned, get all the algae off first. At the close of this season I'm
getting a Dremel to cut all the bad grout out.