Hi Jan, and welcome! I was new to this forum in 2011. This is a great place to learn about hostas and the people are wonderful! Sometimes I feel like the whole forum is out there with me when I'm wandering through my gardens. Here's my story: In 2006, I bought 6 hostas in the fall for 75 cents each, planted them at the back of the fence and forgot about them. In 2008, I divided an Undulata Albomarginata into 10 hostas to form a border around my pachysandra bed. In the spring of 2010, I noticed that the 75 cent hostas had grown into lovely plants despite the fact that they had been ignored for the past four years. I also noticed that all the other perennials I had planted over the past four years had died! So, I made a trip to the local nursery to get some more hostas to fill in the spots where my perennials had died. It was on that day that I made the startling discovery that those names on the tags like Elegans and Frances Williams meant something. I ended the season with about 70 new varieties. During the fall of 2010, I found this forum and for the next 6 months, I read each and every post. I started making lists and finding nurseries to buy the hostas on my list. On March 28, 2011, my husband drove 60 miles (one way) to pick up some of the hostas on my list. He came back with 11. When the first nursery in our area opened on April 1, 2011, I bought 9 more. On April 2, I drove the 60 miles with my husband and got another 23. Well, before I knew it, I ended up with 96 hostas in our house waiting for the last frost! By the end of May, I had aquired about 180 hostas and swore that I was done buying for the season. I managed to buy 134 more, for a total of 314 new ones in 2011. My kids call me the crazy hosta lady. My son still talks about driving with 40 hostas in the back of the car, accompanied by a chirping cricket for 300 miles! My daughter, a Creative Writing major in college, wrote her final paper about my hosta obsession. She got an "A", her professor was intrigued that people actually collect hostas and will go to great lengths to find a certain cultivar. I don't know how large our gardens are, but the grass in the back is slowly disappearing. We have plans to start planting them in the park in back of us when we run out of room. I love to grow my hostas in full sun, I won an irrigation system in a contest that keeps them cool with misting water during the hottest part of the day. Gesila

keithintx I will post my expert opinion on your post. I did not suggest FC level is low. I do not agree that the pool needs to be drained at this time. This water condition should be managed by an expert technician or CPO. Most experts will agree with me. These values only provide suggestive data that the water is corrosive. These values are most likey skewed based on the corrosive water condition. In this situation I would look at the baylis curve as a starting point to drive my corrective action. The SI confirms the existance of a corrosive water condition. However, the data can be influenced by many factors (chloramines, phosphates and other organics and ions in SOLN) which is why the management of this water condition will require several days of daily testing and management. The reason the white spots and lines are appearing is the result of the following sequence of deterioration: 1.) The corrosive water begins to dissolve the undistrubed deposits in the substrate opening up micropits and microcracks (etching). 2.) As these pits and cracks open up (etching), newly formed white precipate deposits in these voids and helps to actually slow down the attack in these open voids limiting the destruction to 2-3 mm. However, other areas are still susceptible if the condition persists. * studies show that the initial appearance of this destruction is in areas that have either the least or most amount of water circulation (water ejection from slotted eyeballs on the surface of the substrate - high or coves, vertical surfaces, corners of steps - low, etc.) In an earlier comment on this post before having the water analysis I suggested that this appeared to be likely due to effloresence which is clearly not the case given the water conditions.

Quote: "Why are your CYA levels climbing from your inline chlorinator. The pucks in the chlorinator should not be strong enough to make your CYA climb to levels that you need to drain your pool. Plus I've heard that CYA will evaporate out over time. So I can't see why this is occurring in your pool." CYA does not evaporate and does not get used up. The only way to get rid of it is to do a partial drain and refill. This is the classic known problem with inline chlorinators, at some point you WILL have to drain and refill if you use one. It may be once a season or it may be every three years, it depends on how much splashout and rain you get. Trichlor pucks try to give your pool everything it needs including CYA, so even when your pool reaches max CYA levels the pucks just keep feeding more and more in. Once the level reaches 100 chlorine becomes ineffective. If you go over to TroubleFreePools.com you will read many stories of people who have a sudden algae invasion that they can't get rid of no matter how much shock they dump in. They are always told to get full tests run and post the results, and usually it's a high CYA level that's the culprit. If someone made pucks with no CYA, the problem would be solved! I don't understand why they don't, but maybe it's because the CYA is also needed to bind the puck together or something. Quote: "As for chlorine vs SWG, no matter what you're still going to have to shock your pool" If you get a high quality test kit and make small adjustments when they are needed you will rarely if ever need to shock your pool. Ours has never been shocked. We check TC/ PH/ TA every 2 to 3 days and conduct a full range of tests one a week. There are many people over on TFP that are using BBB and have never shocked. Quote: "As for chlorine vs SWG, no matter what you're still going to have to shock your pool so you can't get completely away from adding chlorine." There's a misconception that chlorine versus SWG is "either/ or". If you have an SWG you still have chlorine in your pool. The SWG generates chlorine using the salt that's been added. In fact the target test FC levels are the same for both. Quote: "As well, stay away from limestone in a pool regardless...its too weak of a stone. I have chunks of it falling off my house just from rain" Isn't that the truth! I put some around our Koi pond 6 years ago and it gets very little foot traffic. I have been amazed at how easily it sluffs layers, one piece of it has almost completely disintegrated!

Thanks, tresw. When we first decided to be pool owners, we thought we would maintain it ourselves. First, I thought we'd keep our "start up guy" till after the salt was added (30 days after fill). That day was our first 'mud slide'. We had to wait to add the salt until it cleared. Then we dedided to keep him until we had it at an easy "maintenance" level. We've had it for 3 months and it's had one "interesting problem" after the other! I think I should get one of those test kits and test along with him...see if I do have a handle on it or not. I'm so afraid of letting it get away from me and having some real mess in my yard! It would be a sad summer.... (BTW...this morning the remote reads "inspect cell"...so I guess you really CAN'T trust the SWG!) Thanks, Kathy