Help! Have a 10x30 Intex pool. How do I care for it.

[Val3ria]

We bought the 10x30 Intex pool @ Walmart. It's set up, filled with water, been swimming in it for a week. Water staring to look cloudy. We don't have a test kit and don't know how to care for it. Only thing we been doing is shocking it every night and running the filter for 2hrs. Well, needless to say it's failing. I started searching for ways to get help and came across your forum. I want to go with BBB method. Please help!

[Watermom]

Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum!

What kind of shock have you been using ---- dichlor or cal-hypo?

Do you have a test kit?

What is the source of your fill water --- a well or city water?

Have you put anything else in the water other than the shock?

Repost with the requested info and I think somebody here can help you get this pool going correctly! :)

[Val3ria]

Yes we bought a test kit. It's HTH 6 way test kit. HTH Ultra Complete Shock. The chlorine level is not even showing it's clear and the PH is above 8. What do we do. My kids have been waiting patiently to swim and I'm scared to let then in the pool. Please help.

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Sorry, it's city water. And we been putting borax, and bleach little at time, about 1/4cup.

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership upgraded.

Read the Super Simple recipe page -- it's an easy start for freshly filled pools, and will take you step-by-step through your first couple of months: http://pool9.net/ssr/

[Watermom]

We normally would recommend adding some muriatic acid to lower pH. But, if you will use the dichlor in the recipe that Ben linked above, it may lower your pH enough that you won't need the acid since dichlor is acidic. It would be a good choice for your new fill as it will add chlorine and needed CYA.

For today, go ahead and use bleach. Since you report no chlorine and the pool getting cloudy, I suspect you may be on the verge of an algae bloom. I am going to suggest that you go ahead and shock the pool this morning up to about 12ppm. Go ahead and add a quart of bleach this morning and run your pump 24/7. This evening, test the water and see what your chlorine reading is and also tell us what the condition of the water is. Test the chlorine first before testing the pH. If the chlorine reads above 5ppm, you won't get an accurate pH reading with your kit. If that is the case, you can mix a 1/4 cup of pool water with 1/4 cup distilled water and then run your pH test with that mix.

Do you have Sam's club nearby where you can go and get the dichlor today?