Supplies Preparation for Pool Arrival

Hi everyone!
Well it seems my pool is finally on it's way and I'd like to be prepared for when it gets here. I have a few questions as to what type filter and how much salt I should need for the season etc.

15 x 48 AG Metal Frame Intex pool with standard filter/pump 1000 gal/hour
Krystal Clear Saltwater System 700-4000 gal/hour

I've ordered the HTH 6 Way testing kit
5 - 40lb bags of Morton Pool Salt (seems 3 bags needed at start up)
both to be picked up at the time I pick up the pool from the store.

I don't however know what kind of filters this pool uses and have noticed diminishing stock in store via online and would like to order enough to get me thru at least this season and have them here before the pool needs it's first filter change.

Also are there any other chemicals I should pick up that I maybe using on a regular basis?
I plan on unhooking the copper ionizer wire before installing SWS and don't know if I will need to make that up with chemicals.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You're going to need to manually chlorinate the pool without the SWCG until you get it balanced, and then turn the SWCG on for maintenance (trying to use the SWCG to initially balance water is very hard on it, and make it run more than it should, which shortens cell life). That being said, you can chlorinate with plain, unscented bleach and add your stabilizer (CYA) seperately,which means you'll need to pick up both, or you can chlorinate with dichlor powder, which adds both chlorine and CYA. Much of the dichlor being sold these days has "mystery goop" added to it, as Ben and Watermom like to call it, so we're currently recommending either the PoolBrand dichlor sold at Sam's, or the Kemtek dichlor available through Amazon. Also, once you get the SWCG up and running, you're going to find that your pH rises as a result of the operation of the unit, so you'll need to have some muriatic acid (please read the muriatic link in my sig before handling it, though) or dry acid on hand to combat that pH rise.

You may need to do some minor tweaking on your pH and TA at the outset, but we won't know that until we know what your fill water is like. When you get the test kit (do you mean the K-2006?), run a set of tests on your fill water and we can help you go from there.

There's nothing you need to do to "make up" for the lack of the copper ionizer. The purpose of the copper is to inhibit algae growth, but if you keep the right levels of chlorine in the pool, you won't have any algae to grow. :)

congratulations on the pool!!

I see that you've been reading here, have you read Super-simple pool chemistry recipe for Intex type pools: start-up & routine care? Your pool will be about 5000 gallons.

You can do the bucket test from the 7-day start up now to get a head start.

You can skip the bleach only if you get dichlor ahead of time, you'll need about 4 lbs. Don't buy dichlor at wall mart they've been selling it with added mystery chems.

Wait to run the SWCG until you've completed the dichlor startup. You can connect it if you want but don't turn it on.

Ben wrote a nice filter cart cleaning procedure in post #7 of this thread. It includes a link for a high quality upgrade filter for your Type A filer.

My opinion: the most important start-up chemical is a Taylor K-2006 test kit. Next is probably water.;)

You are gonna love having a pool!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aylad

You may need to do some minor tweaking on your pH and TA at the outset, but we won't know that until we know what your fill water is like. When you get the test kit (do you mean the K-2006?), run a set of tests on your fill water and we can help you go from there.

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This is the test kit I have in my cart. I haven't ck'd out yet as was waiting for info from the pro's here. I take it this isn't the test kit I should get?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HTH-6-Way-Test-Kit/17043668

Thank you for the info of using chlorine to balance. The SWCG directions didn't mention this. They say dump 110/120 lbs. of salt and brush bottom of the pool to speed up dissolving process. Then run the filter pump for 24 hours to thoroughly dissolve salt. After the 24 hour pump run to then turn on the SWCG and set the system to desired operating time.

So I shouldn't put the salt in either until I have the correct balance and then add salt and use the SWCG. Once I have the water balanced won't dumping in 120lbs of salt mess everything up or am I not going to need that much because the water is already balanced by the bleach and I'm not using the SWCG and Salt to actually balance my water after my fill? I would assume I will be adding salt to regulate my chlorine level once the water is balanced. I really want to stay away from chlorine as much as possible, it really irritates me and my son. I do understand the SWCG is a chlorine generator, just not as harsh as actual chlorine.

I will def pick up some stabilizer, muriatic acid and a cpl gallons of bleach beforehand.

Yes BigDave I have read http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...p-routine-care. but I need a refresher course. You see my pool was lost in shipping 2 times now in the last month so I got discouraged. It seems it may actually arrive in the next fews days so I am reading reading and reading to the point of my brain hurts! lol

I will def go back to the threads you mention and take notes.
I will also read Ben's post about the filter upgrade. Although I may just stick with the type of filter that comes with the pool (Type A you say?) for this year since the season is almost over and upgrade next year. That decision hasn't been made yet and I may change my mind after reading his post.

I grew up with a pool and just loved it. Now as an adult I am looking forward to seeing my son enjoy it as much as I did. He loves to swim so I think there will be plenty of pleasure for him and his friends and for me in the evenings to wash off the day and relax.

Thank you for the recommendations. I'll get started on those tonite.

That is the right test kit. Are you planning on also ordering a Taylor K-2006 kit? You can also pick up a salt testing kit from the test kit link.

You'll need to check the manual that comes with your SWCG unit to see how high your CYA needs to be--each unit has its own requirements, but that level is designed to help the SWCG function at its most efficient. Addition of salt to balanced water isn't going to mess anything up.

You say that you"do understand the SWCG is a chlorine generator, just not as harsh as actual chlorine"....but you are using actual chlorine to maintain this pool. The only difference is that it's being generated from the salt in the water, rather than being added manually, but it's still chlorine! Actually, chlorine rarely is an irritant--it's usually inadequate amounts of chlorine that are forming chloramines in the water that are the irritants. Hopefully you'll be able to get your pool started off right, so that won't be an issue for you.

Regarding the test kits--if you have to order the hth 6-way and wait for it to be delivered anyway, you could save yourself some time by just ordering the K-2006 and the salt kit instead. You'll need the salt kit either way, and the K-2006 tests for everything the 6-way kit does, and more....we usually just recommend the 6-way for people to use while they're waiting for the K-2006 to arrive.


Janet