How do I open my ClearBlue mineral pool?
When you open your ClearBlue mineral pool, you can follow the instructions of your pool builder or pool store. They may recommend an opening kit with products designed to condition the water and get you swimming as quickly as possible.
Opening kits sometimes use a ‘stain and scale remover’ or some other type of sequestering product. We do not recommend using this type of product because it will remove the ClearBlue minerals and neutralize new mineral production for up to 6 weeks.
Rather than the sequestering product, we recommend using a pre-filter that can be attached to your garden hose. This will remove iron and other contaminants at the source, rather than putting them into the pool just to remove them with chemicals. Your local pool store should have them.
It is important to check the ClearBlue cell to see if there is still life left on it. Please see this page for details on when you should change it.
When you plug in the ClearBlue controller, it will power up to the same settings as it had when it was last set. Check that the settings are correct for your pool based on what it says in the manual. If it is off by a couple of points, you can leave it as it may have been adjusted for your specific pool.
Once you have refilled the pool, test the following parameters and make sure they are in range. You can also bring a water sample into your local pool store to be tested. Ask your pool store for the appropriate chemicals to bring the levels into balance:
- pH (7.2 – 7.6)
- Alkalinity (80 – 120)
- Calcium (200 – 300 ppm)
Test the copper level to ensure it is between 0.2 – 0.4ppm. If the copper level is below 0.2ppm, set the controller to Large Dose, and set the number to the value it says in the manual. The Large Dose feature will run on maximum output for the number of hours specified and then automatically switch back to the Ion Action setting.
If your copper is below 0.2ppm, keep the chlorine level at 1ppm – 3ppm until the copper level has ramped back up. Once you have a copper level of 0.2 – 0.4ppm, you can reduce the chlorine use down to one tablet per week.
