18x48 Intex Above Ground Green

I'm new to the whole pool thing. The hubby has taken care of them before but can't this time. I've hooked up the saltwater pump and it isn't saying salt is too high or low. I did however buy test strips and it said my salt was around 1800. I read in our book that it is suppose to be around 3000. Is that correct or a general number? We put a half of a shock treatment in 2 days ago and it seemed to help for a day now its right back to green. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! My saltwater pump is running for 4 hours a day also.

Hi, kylabranch, and welcome to the forum!!

Your best bet is to get your pool clean and clear, using manual chlorination methods (we recommend plain, unscented bleach), and once it's in good shape, THEN use your SWCG for maintenance chlorination.

I'm not a SWCG owner, but you do need to follow your manual's recommendations for salt levels--and they are generally requirements, not general suggestions. while you're at it, you also need to note what CYA (stabilizer) level your unit requires. For most SWCGs, it's around 80 ppm.

To clear up the pool, you're going to need chlorine in some form--bleach, dichlor, cal-hypo--can you tell me the ingredient in the "shock treatment" that you added a few days ago? Why did you add half instead of the whole?

You also really need to be able to test your own water, especially if you have a mess to clean up. We very highly recommend the K-2006 test kit that you can find in the "testkits" link in my sig. But while you're waiting for that one, see if your local WalMart carries the hth 6-way drop kit--it will work for now, too. Run a set of tests, post your results here, and we can help you get the pool under control.

While you're at it, please fill out the info in this chart--it will take you only a few seconds, but will make it infinitely easier for us to give you good advice.
Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

Thank you so much Janet! The shock is calcium hypochlorite and "other ingredients". I have a salt water test kit that I used. I believe it saud ph was too high. I will get a better kit tomorrow.

Kyla, just to let you know --- the Taylor K-2006 is not going to be available locally, only online. Do yourself a favor and go ahead and order it and then pick up one of the cheaper kits Janet mentioned above to use while you wait on your good kit!

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

Kyla

While you're working this out, do two things:

1. Buy several gallons of PLAIN 6% household bleach, and add 1 gallon each evening. No skipping, till you have everything under control!!!

2. If you can't get an HTH 6-way drops kit locally, just get a cheap OTO/phenoll red kit. The HTH 6-way is the ONLY kit we know of that you might be able to buy locally that's really acceptable. (Leslie's might have a K2005 or their private label version -- but then you'll have to buy the K-1515 to make it equiv to the K2006, and it would have been cheaper to get the K2006 in the first place.)