Backyard chemistry, made clear

Get Your Pool Crystal Clear Without Guessing at Chemicals.

Free calculator tells you exactly how much chlorine, acid, or shock to add, by your pool's actual gallons and test readings.

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Freedosing calculator

Free chlorine & salt dosing calculator no signup required

✓ Chlorine, salt & spa pools✓ Standard industry dosing charts✓ No signup to calculate

Sound familiar?

Pool care shouldn't eat your whole weekend.

When free chlorine, CYA, pH, and alkalinity pull in different directions, guessing gets expensive fast.

Green Pool Panic

You woke up to a swamp and every forum says something different. Is it low free chlorine, combined chlorine, or CYA lockup?

Chemical Guesswork

"A cup of this, a splash of that" is how pools stay cloudy. The pH and alkalinity see-saw deserves measured moves.

Wasted Money

Overdosing shock and acid burns cash. Underdosing burns your whole weekend. Add only what your water needs.

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Free fridge-door plan

The 10-Minute Weekly Pool Care Schedule

A simple rhythm for clear water, delivered as a printable PDF.

Test FC and pH twice weekly
Target FC 1–3 ppm, higher with high CYA
Keep alkalinity around 80–120 ppm
Know when to shock (and when not to)

Keep the answer on hand

The ClearCove Pool Care Handbook

Plain-spoken instructions for the moments that turn a calm Saturday into a pool emergency.

Opening & closingAlgae recoveryCYA managementSalt systemsCloudy-water troubleshooting

Free digital handbook

Free • instant • no signup

Pool Chemical Calculator

Enter today's test readings. Get a practical starting dose in seconds.

Your pool

Enter today's test readings. Get a practical starting dose in seconds.

Volume unit Pool volume Current free chlorine ppm Target free chlorine ppm pH Alkalinity ppm CYA ppm Chlorine product

Status—

Chlorine —

Muriatic acid (31.45%) — rough estimate toward pH 7.5

Baking soda — rough estimate toward 80 ppm TA

Approximations vary with product strength, temperature, borates and test accuracy. Add chemicals separately, follow labels, circulate and retest. Never mix chemicals.

Who keeps this current

ClearCove Pools

Written and maintained by ClearCove Pools, a pool owner who got tired of guessing.

ClearCove Pools publishes free pool care guides and chemistry calculators for owners who would rather understand their pool than guess at it.

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Straight answers

Pool chemistry FAQ

What's the difference between free and combined chlorine?+

Free chlorine is sanitizer still available to work. Combined chlorine is already tied up with contaminants. If combined chlorine climbs above about 0.5 ppm, oxidizing is usually due.

What should my CYA be?+

For most outdoor chlorine pools, 30–50 ppm is practical. Salt pools often run closer to 60–80 ppm. Higher CYA requires a higher FC target.

Why does pH keep rising?+

Aeration, a salt cell, fresh plaster and high total alkalinity can push pH upward. Lowering alkalinity gradually can slow the climb.

How much shock for a green pool?+

It depends on gallons, chlorine strength, CYA and algae severity. Raise FC appropriately, brush, filter continuously and retest often.

Can I swim right after adding chemicals?+

Follow the product label. Circulate additions and wait until pH and chlorine return to a safe swimming range. Never swim when you cannot see the main drain.

Is liquid chlorine or tabs better?+

Liquid chlorine adds sanitizer without CYA. Tabs are convenient but add CYA and are acidic. Choose based on the side effects your water actually needs.

Your clearest swim starts here

Stop guessing. Start swimming.

Run the numbers now, then keep the weekly routine on your fridge.

Use the Free Calculator Get the free schedule →

Every ClearCove Pools guide

How to Lower Pool pH Safely and Correctly Lower pool pH with muriatic acid (liquid, 31.45% strength) or dry acid (granular sodium bisulfate), added in small doses with a retest between each one

Pool Deck Repair Cost: Resurfacing Price Guide 2026 Pool deck repair costs $100 to $750 for a simple crack or spot fix, $750 to $2,500 for typical wood deck repair, and $1,500 to $10,800 for a full concrete

Variable-Speed Pool Pump Benefits: Worth the Cost? A variable-speed pool pump's main benefit is running your filtration at a much lower RPM most of the time, which cuts energy use by roughly 70% to 90%

How Often to Clean a Pool Filter (and How to Do It) Clean a pool filter whenever the pressure gauge reads 8 to 10 psi above its clean baseline, no matter the filter type. On a routine schedule, that works

Above Ground Pool vs Inground Pool Cost: Full Comparison An above-ground pool costs $1,500 to $15,000 fully installed; an inground pool averages around $66,000, with a total range of roughly $14,000 to

Pool Leak Detection and Repair: Cost and How-To Guide A pool losing more than about a quarter inch of water a day, after accounting for evaporation, likely has a leak. The bucket test settles it in 24 hours

Cloudy Pool Water Fix: Causes and How to Clear It Cloudy pool water almost always traces back to one of five causes: low or chemically locked chlorine, an out-of-range pH or alkalinity, poor filtration or

Pool Heater Cost: Gas vs Heat Pump Pricing Compared A gas pool heater costs $1,500 to $4,500 installed, with $250 to $400 a month to run. A heat pump costs more upfront, $2,000 to $6,000 installed, but runs

Pool Liner Replacement Cost: 2026 Pricing Breakdown Replacing an above-ground pool liner costs $500 to $2,500 installed. An inground vinyl liner runs $3,000 to $5,500 for a standard rectangular pool, or

How to Close a Pool for Winter: The Full Closing Checklist Closing a pool for winter means balancing the water, shocking it 2 to 3 days early, adding a stain preventer, then algaecide before winterizing plumbing.

Pool opening checklist: spring startup, step by step A spring pool opening checklist runs three phases: prepping equipment, testing five chemistry numbers, then balancing chemicals in a specific order.

How to remove algae from pool walls without damage Algae removal from pool walls without damage means matching bristle to surface: nylon for vinyl and fiberglass, steel only for plaster or gunite.

Salt water vs chlorine pool: the real difference and cost In the salt water vs chlorine pool debate, a salt system still uses chlorine: electrolysis converts dissolved salt into the same sanitizer as tablets.

Pool resurfacing cost: 2026 price guide by finish Pool resurfacing cost ranges from $4 to $10 per square foot for plaster up to $30 for tile, or about $5,700 to $11,600 for a standard 16x32 pool.

Green pool cleanup: the breakpoint chlorination guide Clearing a green pool takes 1 to 5 days of breakpoint chlorination depending on severity, with DIY costs from $50 to $300.

Pool pump replacement cost: what owners actually pay in 2026 Expect $700 to $2,000 installed in 2026, almost all of it variable-speed since federal rules phased out single-speed pumps.

Pool chemistry kit guide: strips, drop kits, and testers Test strips run about 0.3 to 0.5 ppm off, while FAS-DPD drop kits land within 0.1 to 0.2 ppm, closer to lab-accurate results.

Pool shock 50 lbs: the bulk buying guide and chlorine math A 50 lb bucket of cal-hypo runs $200 to $270 and covers 20 to 40 treatments, cheaper per dose than buying single 1 lb bags.

Pool chemical calculator: the dosing math explained Every pool chemical calculator, ours included, runs the same underlying mass-balance idea: (pool gallons ÷ 10,000) × (ppm change needed) × the chemical's

Copper algaecide for pools: how it works and staining risk Copper algaecide kills algae by disrupting the enzyme systems inside the algae cell, and it works faster than most alternatives against stubborn strains

Pool chemical for alkalinity: baking soda and acid dosing Sodium bicarbonate, plain baking soda, raises total alkalinity at a rate of about 1.5 pounds per 10,000 gallons for every 10 ppm you need to add.

Best pool stain remover: identify the stain, then treat it There is no single 'best' pool stain remover because stains fall into three chemically different categories: metal, organic, and mineral scale.

Algaecide for mustard algae: shock kills, keeps it dead Algaecide alone will not kill mustard algae. The chlorine shock does the actual killing by pushing free chlorine past the algae's waxy outer coating; the

Chemicals needed to open a pool: the spring checklist Opening a pool takes six chemical categories: alkalinity increaser, pH adjuster, calcium hardness increaser, stabilizer (cyanuric acid), sanitizer, and

Acid Wash Pool Cost by Size (2026 Price Guide) Acid washing a pool runs $300 to $700 on average. See real cost by pool size, what drives the price, and when you actually need one.

Pool Chlorine Tablets: Dosing, Cost, and the CYA Problem Pool chlorine tablets add steady sanitizer but also cyanuric acid. See the real dosing math, tablet costs, and when CYA buildup forces a drain.

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