Necessary Chemicals for Maintaining Intex-Style Pool?

[dchannes]

All this is new to me. I bought the HTH 6 way test kit and these are the results:

Intex style above ground, 15' round...the box says it's 4000 gallon.

tested 7/18/12 2pm

Chlor: 3/6
Ph: 7.2
Alk: 280
Hardness: 40
Cyanuric acid: off the chart. It's not cloudy at all.

Other notes:
The water is a cloudy blue/white color. I can almost see the bottom.
The pump has been running all day. The filter was cleaned this am and the output is strong.
This is well water with high calcium content.
There could possibly be some iron in it. Generally, it not a problem here in south central Missouri.

Chemicals on hand:

Transchem Muriatic acid
active ingredient: Hydrogen chloride 31.45%

hth 1" chorinating tabs Trichloro-a-Triazinetrione 92.4%
hth pH minus
hth Super algae guard
hth Super concentrated clarifier
hth metal control

I also have an open sack of pool salt(30lbs left). (My wife says she put 50 lbs of salt into the pool).
Sorry this is such a nightmare. But I need to know if you think this water is savable. Thanks, DC

[aylad]

Hi, DC,

I absolutely think your water is saveable--there's not really that much wrong with it!! Do you have a working pressure gauge on your filter, and is the pressure rising any as the filter runs? Do you see any claring of the water throughout the day?

Your CYA is zero, if the water isn't cloudy at all--and will remain zero until you actually add some to the water. You'll need to do this to keep the sun from burning all your chlorine up. In the meantime, you need to test and add chlorine a couple of times daily, just to make sure you keep a residual in the pool so the algae can't get started. The trichlor tabs will help, but check first and make sure they don't contain copper (read the ingredient list well!) If they add copper to the pool, don't use them. There are trichlor tabs out there that don't use copper, and they are okay to use. Your alk is high, and if your well water is high in calcium content, that may be precipitating the calcium out of the water. When you cleaned the filter, did you rinse a bunch of white water out of it?

I'll let Ben advise you on removing the calcium, but if you can drop the TA, using muriatic acid, that may well help. Until your registration is upgraded, you won't be able to follow a link, but if you'll log out of the forum, go to the main forum page, under the section that deals with alkalinity and calcium, the first sticky in that forum talks about removing calcium. The next one under that deals with lowering TA, which you'll use the muriatic acid for.

I would return the pH minus (you have muriatic acid for that), the algae guard, the clarifier, and the metal control back to the store and get your money back. Use that money to order a really good kit, like the k-2006 linked in my sig--that's going to make your poolkeeping MUCH easier!

Your water's not in bad shape--it just needs a little tweaking, and that's what we're here for!

Welcome to the forum!

[dchannes]

Thank you so much!
I don't have at pressure gauge on the pump.
There HAS been some clearing in the last 2 days. I can hold the skimmer to the bottom and still see the blue outline of it.
Btw, the pool has been closed for 4 days now and until further notice or until I get this thing figured out!
And I rinsed the filter about 30 minutes ago and white water DID come out of it.

So I guess right now, until I acquire the proper stuff, I need to just keep it from getting worse.
The hth 1" Trichlor tabs don't have the in-active ingredients listed anywhere on the bottle. I called them but they were closed...which is weird. It says they are open 8 to 10pm eastern time and it's only 7pm there now.

Again, thanks. And I will continue my studying. I printed out bunch of stuff on the Intex pools from Ben. I'll post again tomorrow.

[Watermom]

Also, please read the using muriatic acid safely page linked in Janet's signature above.

You should also get a gauge on your filter. They are cheap. When you buy it, also get some Teflon tape.

Adding my welcome as well!

[dchannes]

Yes Ma'am! I WILL be careful! It is useful, but dangerous. I've used muriatic acid before and the gas is dangerous to breathe as well as the liquid. It can really hurt you. I appreciate the warning. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Where do I put the gauge? At the bottom of the filter canister there is an 3/4" threaded outlet. But it's before the pump, so I assume it could only measure suction. After the pump, there's a flex hose, 1 1/2" in diameter that comes up and outlets into the pool. To put a gauge there would require some plumbing modification but I guess I could figure that out. Is that where it needs to go?

Thanks for the welcome! I never thought about this before now, but I'm beginning to realize that this pool game is a serious hobby. Actually, MORE than a hobby for you all. What? A passion? :) I'm glad it is. I appreciate the tiresome help.

[dchannes]

Oh, another thing, I can't navigate to anything in here under anybody's signature. It won't let met me!

[aylad]

There should be a place for a pressure gauge--you shouldn't have to do any modifications to make it work. Do you still have the directions for the pump/filter?

You'll be able to follow the links in the sigs right now by logging out and then accessing them from a post either Watermom, Ben, or I have made in any thread. Once Ben upgrades your registration, though, you'll be able to follow them without logging out. It's a temporary inconvenience, but part of a system Ben has put in place to discourage spammers/hackers from the forum. We're trying to keep this as safe a place as possible.

Did you try the bucket testing on your water to see about removing the calcium?

Janet

[dchannes]

My line of work for many years was housing construction. Everything from the foundation on up including electrical and plumbing. I also has worked as a sales clerk in a couple different plumbing supply stores. I wish I could post a picture link to show you the pump. My dear wife has misplaced the directions for the pump. However, I have closely inspected the unit and there is no visible threaded port to accept a pressure gauge. That said, I DO think I can find the parts necessary to install on inline on outflow side of the pump.

Mdw said she remembers reading that the pump is rated at 1000 gal/min.

I vacuumed the pool today and had to rinse the filter about 6 times. That's the first good vacuuming it's had. The water was almost totally clear when I started but in the process stuff got stirred up and it's cloudy again. I put a cleaned filter in and have the pump running.

I've have the chlorine level today at (according to the 6-way hth), between the 3/6 and 5/10. I super shocked it yesterday with the hth cal-hypo and put 4 1'' tablets in the filter basket. I added 2 1" tabs an hour ago the others were gone. I'm letting the kids get in later to keep things stirred up and will clean the filter after. I plan to then let the pump run til bed time and in the morning vacuum again.

You guys have given me hope about this 4600 gals of water. I don't have the borax yet. We live 12 miles from Walmart and don't get to town everyday.

The pH is hovering at 7.2 But the hardness is 350. I checked the water right out of the tap and it was 310. I thought that was strange. I read this was ok for vinyl pools.

My thought was to keep the TC high until I get the pool clean then back off. You think that's okay?

My house is campaign headquarters right now for a friend who is running for Congress and it's crazy here. :)
Thanks for the help.

David

[aylad]

The cal-hypo is probably what raised your hardness. With it that high, I wouldn't use any more cal-hypo, because of the milky water problms it can cause. The tabs will eventually add CYA, but it's going to take a long time--you might want to consider adding CYA (stabilizer) separately so that your chlorine will be better protected from the sun. (WalMart sells it in the spa section--check the ingredient label--you're looking for cyanuric or isocyanuric acid).

A pH of 7.2 is okay for now, just make sure the trichlor doesn't drive it down. You're not using a lot of it, though, so I don't think it'll be a problem for you. If this were my pool, I would pick up a few gallons of plain, unscented ultra bleach while you're at WalMart and use that for shocking, rather than the Cal-hypo. Your plan to keep the TC high for now is good.

What is your TA? Sometimes, if the milkiness is due to calcium, bringing the TA down a bit will help, if it's high....

Janet

[dchannes]

Dern. I didn't check the TA today but on a whim, my instincts told to put 1/2 cup of muriatic in the water... so I did. I will stop the cal-hypo. Tomorrow I will to town and get the CYA and 20 mule team borax. Thanks, Janet. I can't imagine how tedious this must be for you. This is an art form apparently!

[Watermom]

You can either use Photobucket, Picasa, Flickr, or the like to post a picture or email them to poolforum@gmail.com and reference the URL of this thread.

[PoolDoc]

membership upgraded AND thread moved so you can post again. (Sorry!) -ben

[dchannes]

Thanks Ben! Can you point me in the right direction for lowering my TA? I know you said it was a pain in the "patoot".

[aylad]

Here ya go...
http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/lowering-swimming-pool-alkalinity-step-by-step.html

Janet

[dchannes]

OK, I went to Walmart and the only product I could find that had cyanuric acid in it was a 4lb bag of "hth 3-in-1 startup" for salt pools. The ingredients list is as follows:
1,3,5-TRIAZINE-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-TRIONE (Cyanuric acid) 77%
Hexametaphosphate - 17%
Aluminum Sulfate - 5%
MAGNESIUM CARBONATE - 1%

I also got the @0 Mule Team Borax and have the liquid bleach for shock. However, I did see some straight trichlor shock, but I didn't buy it yet.

The readings are: TC: 1-2, pH: 7.2, TA: 290, TH: 360, CYA: still see the eye clearly.

Any suggestions?

[PoolDoc]

What a mess! Stabilizer + SHMP + alum + magnesium carbonate. No wonder people's pools are so messed up!

If you can get the 24lb pack of PoolBrand dichlor at Sams club, do so. Otherwise, you may need to get it from Amazon:

Kem-Tek Stabilizer 4lbs (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000LNY2AU/poolbooks)

[dchannes]

Thanks. I was waiting to here back on this before I opened it and put any in my pool! I figured as much. The crooks want all the $ they can get out of us. I know now why you have such rigorous firewalls on this forum. To keep the pool chem sales people OUT!

You may have seen my previous posts but I'll repeat. I had a big algae problem. Which I stopped. Then, I had a cloudy pool. I did use algaecide. I won't do that again, though it DID kill it. All I'm using is trichlor right now. I stopped using the cal-hypo shock. The pool cleared up and all the dead stuff went to the bottom. One thing I've figured out is with this pump I've got, you have to move REAL slow with the vacuum. Otherwise, you just stir it back up again. Also, I realize this takes lots of patience!

The TA is at 290. Hardness is off the chart. But the pH is stable at 7.2 and TC is around 4.

I don't know WHY you guys do this, but thank you!

I will get the dichlor eventually.

[Charlie_R]

If you have an ACE hardware close by, you might be able to get HTH stabilizer and conditioner. Careful reading of the label shows Cyanuric acid, sulfuric acid, and water as the ingredients. At least the store here in town carries some pool stuff.

[PoolDoc]

If sulfuric acid is a listed ingredient, it's not plain stabilizer, but some OTHER kind of goopy blend!

[Charlie_R]

That was from the CAS # list, the other list on it shows CYA 96%, inert ingredients 4%. I assumed that the CAS list would follow the other, as being 96% CYA, with the other 2 making up the 4%. no other chemicals listed.

Sorry.

[dchannes]

where's my last post and Ben's post? It was here yesterday.

[aylad]

Look in the right hand corner just above your post, and you'll see the links for pages 1-3--I think the missing posts you're looking for were probably on the bottom of page 2?

Janet

[dchannes]

Hi there! I think my pool water is finally getting under control. I have been very diligent about vacuuming, not using cal-hypo but keeping the trichlor level high. My readings this evening are:
TC: 2-4, pH:7.2 and steady for 5 days, TA: down to 230, TH: 350, CYA: still less than 30(There's some cloudiness which tells me it's coming up). Due to what though?

The water is clear.

Now, I took Ben's advice regarding jetting the water to help bring the alkalinity down. It's working! I had a submersible pump. I put it in the pool and attached a short hose to it and tied it to the ladder pointing it at the water of the pool about 8" off the surface. It created a lot of bubbles. I ran it all day today. It brought the TA down quite a bit! I down remember what the numbers were but over 300, and now it's at 230? Wow.

Plus, I stopped a lady at Walmart from buying cal-hypo shock for her pool today. I told her to just use unscented bleach, she'd be better off and to join this forum.

Thanks

[Watermom]

If you are using trichlor, it has CYA in it. That would be what is bringing your CYA level up.