Pool startup problems.

[Tander]

Ok, so we have a 15' X 42" steel frame, soft sided pool. Not sure if it's an Intex or what, it's whatever Kmart sells. It was great all last year but this year upon start-up we're having problems. The cover blew off during the winter and I never put it back on for lack of help. I did notice that algae had apparently started to grow in it during the fall and the water had turned a brownish/red by spring. I was told that the color had to do with iron in the water reacting with the algae and that I would need to shock the pool to kill the algae (which I thought would have died over the winter) and let it fall to the bottom for vacumning.

I shocked the pool and the red went away and was replaced by greenish/blue. I thought I was on the way to a clear pool. According to the test strips, the hardness is very high so I need to adjust for that and I am trying to get the pH under control......it is high.

The problem i am having now is extremely cloudy water. I don't know if it is suspended particles or a chemical issue. I don't have a vacumn so I ahave been spending hours with a pole skimmer. I got plenty of crap out, some dark slimy stuff as well as some white stuff. I believe I have most of that out but I can't see to the bottom.

I am lost as to whether I should continue with the filtering and chemicals or just drain it and start from scratch.

Please help and if anyone knows of a decent vacumn that would be appreciated too.

[PoolDoc]

Cleaning up a small Intex like that is a lot of work. Your pool is only about 4,000 gallons.

If I were you, I'd check to see what it cost to drain and refill. If it's too much, we can help you clean up.

[Tander]

Yeah, I'm leaning toward draining it myself. Just out of curiosity, what would you recommend to do to clean it up? I have been needing to rinse and rotate the filter every couple of hours because I get a nasty brown film on it.

thanks.

[PoolDoc]

1. Get a good test kit, and find out what's in there AND what's in your fill water.
2. If you have suspect fill water, do a WHITE bucket test on the fill water.
3. If practical (based on testing, and bucket test), chlorinate the heck out of it.
4. Get high quality Unicel cartridges to replace the low quality (have to clean and then toss) OEM cartridges.
5. See if the goo can be settled and then vac'd to waste using a manual vac and siphon.