About Chlorine Corner

From One Very Green Pool to Your Backyard

I’m Nadia Caldwell. I’m not a certified pool professional — I’m someone who bought a house with a neglected pool in the Southwest, turned it green exactly once trying to “wing it,” and got completely obsessed with water chemistry after that. Over the years I’ve helped enough neighbors and friends chase down their own cloudy water and algae blooms — everything from a 500-gallon spa to a full backyard pool — that I started keeping notes on what actually works versus what’s just folklore.

Test Before You Treat

That’s the rule this whole site is built on. Most pool problems I’ve diagnosed — mine and other people’s — came from someone dosing chemicals at a problem they hadn’t measured. “Shock every Sunday” isn’t a plan. A strong chlorine smell doesn’t mean the pool is clean — it usually means the opposite. Cloudy water isn’t one problem; it’s five different problems that happen to look alike. Every guide here starts with what to test, what number you’re looking for, and only then what to add.

How My Guides Work

Exact doses for actual pool volumes, the order of operations that keeps chemicals from fighting each other, and honest talk about equipment — which test kits are worth owning versus the strips, when a salt system makes sense, what a variable-speed pump really saves. I’ve made most of the mistakes I write about, usually right in my own backyard.

What’s Covered

Openings and closings by season, algae recovery without draining, water balance (pH, alkalinity, stabilizer, hardness — in the right order), equipment troubleshooting, and spa care, which follows different rules than pools despite what the bottle says.

Funding note: this site shows ads and some product links are affiliate links that earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Recommendations come from what held up on my own pool and the ones I’ve helped friends fix — not from whoever pays.

Get In Touch

Fighting a stubborn algae bloom or a number that won’t move? Contact me here.