I may be way off base with this comment, but am going make it anyway. Keeping my mouth shut (hands off the keyboard) isn't a strong point of mine. :) Do you have a waterfall or a stream? I ask because there was one spot in my stream where the water would slowly leak out, just a little at a time but enough to lower the pond. This happened more than once. The original problem was that I didn't have enough overhang of liner at the top pool. The two causes of the leak were: 1. The liner would slip down just a little 2. Creeping jenny would cause just enough of a damming effect at the first waterfall that the water level would rise in the top pool. And.. because there wasn't enough overhang, the water would go over the edge of the liner in that one spot. So.. there's my comment. I hope you solve your leak problem. That is so annoying and potenially a serious situation for your fish, not to mention the extra work if you have to replace the liner. Thanks for posting about the cornmeal. I hadn't come across that thread before. I will do a search on it as I have a friend who used a cheap plastic liner and is concerned about leaks. This may help her. Annd

Portable auto-fill valves exist than can be set on the deck and dangled into the pool, fed with a garden hose. They cost less than US$100, or less than US$25 in parts if you want to construct your own. The only disadvantage is having a hose lying on the deck, a possible trip hazard, but it is much cheaper than trying to retrofit one in an existing pool. I constructed the one in the photo for around US$25, using ordinary PVC pipe fittings, a Kerick Valve MA052 PVC Mini Float Valve (US$17 from Amazon.com), and a brass 3/4-inch FPT to female hose adapter. The black container is a re-purposed plastic nursery pot with drain holes in the bottom, secured to the pipe with a couple of UV-resistant black nylon cable ties to keep the automatic pool sweep hose from tangling with the float. A brick keeps it from moving. Not seen in this photo is the garden hose that supplies water from a nearby hose bibb. The float is secured to the valve with a wingnut, so fine-tuning of the water level is possible by changing the angle of the float — no tools needed. Since the valve is above the water level, a backflow preventer is unnecessary; there is a natural air gap between the valve orifice and the pool surface. During the hottest part of the summer the water just dribbles or drips from the valve to keep the pool level constant. During the rainy season it gets take out of the pool and is stored away.

"Mineral sanitizers" will have no effect on the "feel" of the water. "Mineral sanitizers" will NOT reduce the amount of chlorine or other sanitizer you need to keep in your water. Manufacturers of "Mineral sanitizers" will not be able to provide you any meaningful science to back up their claims. "Mineral sanitizers" are extremely effectice at transferring your hard-earned dollars to the coffers of the manufacturer of the "Mineral sanitizer" while providing no benefit to you. Facetiousness aside, You will probably get responses from people here that will tout the benefits of these systems (Nature2, Frog, etc.). They'll tell you how they only have to keep 0.5 or 1 ppm of chlorine in the pool because they have these systems. There are at least 2 problems with these claims. First, the amount of chlorine residual you need to keep in your pool is mainly a function of how much CYA (cyanuric acid, aka stabiliser) you have in your water and of chlorine demand (which is a function of bather load and other organics in your water such as leaves). Second, no one can maintain a consistent level of chlorine at or below 1 ppm in their outdoor pool. It just can't be done unless you use relatively high levels of CYA, in which case you need more than 1 ppm of chlorine, or unless you test and adjust the water several times a day, which no one is going to do. Do yourself a favor, maintain a level of chlorine appropriate for the level of CYA in your water. The below linked table gives you that information. Here's another thread with a ton of information on Nature2 and similar systems: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=405 Here is a link that might be useful: Ben's Best Guess Table

Build it now. We built our late last year and have a 2.5 yr old and a 2 month old. The 2.5 year old is already swimming under water and jumping in and we started teaching back in April. Prior to that we exposed him to the pool in the hot tub over the winter. If you will teach, then do it now. By the way, good instruction video on youtube check out Samantha from Sharks and Minnows swim school. That's what I used and its been great. We are already floating the 2 month old around the pool and he loves it. Pools can be dangerous so the sooner you teach how to float and get back to the steps/edge the better. I could imagine what we would have done this summer without our pool. We spend all day just about everyday out there whether in the water or not. Good luck