Draining our pool, need to start over...help

We put up a 12' X 36" Intex type pool last week, filled with well water. We did nothing ( I know big mistake, we thought each other were going to take care of it...) but add a floater with HTH 1" chlorinating tabs (sanitizing ones), in 5 days it turned green overnight. We vaccummed and poured some shock in and it was still green today, so we are draining it now.
Do we use the guidelines for the kiddie pool maintenance or the ones for an Intex 12' or larger I found on a forum?
We are planning on scrubbing the pool out, turned our rust remover and water softner back on and then plan to fill it again. Should we do anything else? do we need to do the well water test if we have a rust remover and softner? we have aquacheck test strips right now. I know this will be easy, but seems so confusing right now. thanks

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

Do yourself a favor and get a good test kit, not the strips. Strips are not accurate enough for you to manage a pool, especially one with metals in it. Log out, look in the second section of threads on the forum home page, and open the subforum called "Pool chemistry for Intex-type pools". Then open the first sticky, called "before you fill your Intex-type pool with well water!". That sticky will answer most all of your questions...but if it doesn't, feel free to come back here and post them. Managing a pool with iron in the water can be tricky, but it's not that hard if you understand what you're doing.

A good test kit is going to be a necessity, though. Take a look at the testkit link in my sig--we highly recommend the K-2006.

Read these threads:
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?17055 (Intex pool care recipe)
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?17166 (Incomplete guide to well water in Intex pools)
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?16946 (Bucket test to see if you actually have metal problem)

After I scrubbed out the pool with some bleach and leftover pool water, I refilled it and it filled yellow/green, not cloudy at all and there is NO slime. Is this algae? does it have to be cloudy to be algae? or just green? I followed the 7 day bleach plan for the Intex start up pools adding bleach and borax.

The ph was 6.2 and chlorine 3-5 (all I have right now are the strips) then I added 4 doses of borax, ran the filter all night.

Today I scrubbed the pool and vaccumed. The water is still yellow/green and completely clear, NO slime.

The ph is 6.5 and chlor reads 10+ on my strips. I added 4 doses borax ran the filter for 10 minutes then added 4 doses of bleach. filter is still running...what do I do next? Is this algae. The water was clear when I did the well water test before I refilled the pool.

I am ordering the right testing kit, but don't I need to take care of this before I get the strips? Won't a week be too long to let this sit? Thank you for your time and great site, my husband keeps wanting to dump a bottle of store bought algaecide in the pool, but I keep telling him that the answers are here and to be patient!

1. Keep your chlorine in the 5 - 10 ppm range.

2. Keep adding borax -- 2 - 3x per day, till your pH is ~7.4 or 7.6

3. BRUSH your pool.

4. Yellow-green water can be from a stained liner. Put a couple of vitamin C tablets on the area of the liner where the water appears most discolored. If the liner changes color, you have stains.

5. As long as you get the pH up, and keep the chlorine up, you should be fine till the kit arrives. (You can swim, now!)

So..what causes a stained liner?

What gets rid of stains? Will brushing the pool get rid of the stains?

If the chemicals stay out of balance will the liner stay stained?

The entire pool is the same yellow/green color, no difference anywhere.

If the chlorine stays in the 5-10 range isn't that too strong to swim in for children?

What will I do differently when the kit arrives?

Really appreciate your knowledge!

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Originally Posted by ekjan

So..what causes a stained liner?

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Usually, metals. Most often either IRON from well water or old rusty distribution mains, or COPPER from ionizers, algaecides, or corroding pool heaters. Occasionally, organic material such as oak or hickory leaves will leave stains.

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What gets rid of stains?

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For metal stains: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?7923

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Will brushing the pool get rid of the stains?

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Can help prevent them; usually won't remove them.

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If the chemicals stay out of balance will the liner stay stained?

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Water 'balance' (pH + TA + CH) is not closely related to stains. Low or high pH is.

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The entire pool is the same yellow/green color, no difference anywhere.

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Vitamin C test will tell if it's a stained liner, or yellow water.

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If the chlorine stays in the 5-10 range isn't that too strong to swim in for children?

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No. Dermatologists TREAT children for a variety of skin conditions with 'bleach baths' of 50 - 100 ppm free chlorine with ZERO stabilizer.

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What will I do differently when the kit arrives?

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Test the pool, and tell us what you find. You can prepare by watching these videos: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?17157

Thanks for the links to stain removal. One more question, Do I have to remove the stains? Is it harmful to just leave it as is? I would rather not deal with more chemicals. Will it stain clothes/suits? Is is harmful to health to swim in it? We have a lot of iron in our water, I guess we bathe in it, but not drink it. Thanks again.

You can leave the stains and it won't hurt a thing.

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Originally Posted by ekjan

Will it stain clothes/suits?

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Probably. Wear old suits. You can remove the stains . . . but you have to use "more chemicals", like Iron Out (sodium hydrosulfite + sodium sulfite -- do NOT let anyone with asthma near that product!)

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Is is harmful to health to swim in it?

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Stains: not in the least. But cloudy water can mask a variety of problems INCLUDING a swimmer who needs help. But, if it's clear and the sides are free of 'slime', the stains themselves are not any risk at all.