NOOB with a 12' Intex

Lurking for a few days trying to learn about pool setup and maintenance.

Never owned a pool before, and know absolutly zero about maintenance. Bought a 12' X 30" intex metal frame pool. Roughly 1700 gallons.Started with the SS intex pool set-up. Passed the bucket test. So I started to fill. I did a half dose of bleach, filled pool in less than 8 hrs but decided to go ahead and add another 1/4C of bleach. So all thats added to this point is 1/2 cup of bleach.

I know from aquarium that our PH runs about 8.3 out of the tap. Went to walmart and picked up HTH pop-up pool startup and maintenance kit, (comes with stabalizer & conditioner, clorine, and shock and swim) and 6 way test kit. Also have some 6 way test strips that came with the pool...(bought off craislist)

So then I test the pools clorine and PH. PH is high of course and not sure what or how to use the stablizer and conditioner so back to wal-mart. Got PH minus and added 2.5 oz per recomendations, 2 oz clorine and, 2 oz shock and swim. Next morning I test the pool for clorine and PH, PH is down a little and the clorine is high, i use a test strip and clorine is really low??? I add another 2 oz of PH minus and my daily dose of clorine 2 oz. I should mention I also have a 3" floating clorine tab too. So far so good......for maintenance routine this is where it gets a little cloudy for me.

I understand it as daily clorine 2 oz no matter what. Weekly dose of shock and swim. If I follow this then I should have no issues right. But if/when issues arise then take corrective action to remedy.

My questions are:
is my maintenance routine correct?
Why is my test kit and test strips reading different clorine levels. (I cant smell clorine in the pool, like you do with most recreational pools??)
What is the stablizer/conditioner for. Do I need to use it.
I also did a test on the alkalinity level. I think im good there I put 80 drops in and got a red tint, but not a blood red do i keep going till its true red or is the first sign of red is where you stop adding drops and record level as that??
Do i really need a pool cover?..We have regular high wind days where i live...any suggestions?
Do i need to perform any additional tests?
I would prefer to use bleach to clorinate water from here on out. Can I do this in place of buying the expensive HTH clorine granuals. If so what would my daily dose of bleach be?....I will continue to use 3" floater tabs


Thanks in advance for your help.

Whoa! Slow down! ;)

Why did you not just stick with the Super Simple Start up Recipe? That would be so much simpler than what you are trying to do.

Test strips are pretty bad. We don't call them 'guess strips' for nothing. What kind of drops-based kit do you have?

"Shock and Swim" is not something we recommend to use. We will be happy to help you get this going but you will need to decide if you want to try it with our methods or if you want to go buy a little of this and a little of that and add it to your pool. ;)

Welcome to the Pool Forum, by the way!

WaterMom...
thanks for the welcome and for getting back with me.

I thought I did follow the 7 day start up plan steps 1-5. The only thing I deviated from on this part was I used the ph Minus instead of borax because my PH was too high (8.3), so i dont need to add borax to increase PH I needed something to get my ph into the recommeded levels? I am also confused as to why this is "the 7 day plan" I filled mine in an afternoon and added dose of bleach on what was recommended. I saw a thread where someone asked about dose on 1700 gallons and got a reply to cut dosage for 2500 gallons by half so thats what i did.

On the intex pool care plan the recomended products on step 2 were not available to me at the time and i thought the shock and swim and clorine were equivalent. Step three says to add clorine each night (which I have) but have omited the borax because i dont need to raise my PH....yet

I would prefer to go by the methods that are tried and true from this forum rather than from a book "guidline" by HTH. But Im not sure that I am interpretating your instructions correctly. Perhaps reading here and then the HTH guidline has muddied the waters. So to make sure I understand moving forward should I.....

Add clorine with stablizer product you reccomend each night (always) and equal parts of borax regardless of PH and clorine levels. Also add 1/2 dose of clorine/stablizer before each swim?---(step 3 of intex pool care plan)
I do not use shock and swim---EVER

You can see my history from post above and what your saying is omit the "guess strip" and trust the 6 way test.

In short what should i do now. I did fill out the pool chart entry form and I plan to test ph and clorine again once i get home this evening. Nothing has been added today.

Do you have a Sam's Club near you? If so, you would do well to buy some of their Dichlor and use that to start your pool instead of bleach as it will add CYA (stabilizer) as well as chlorine. Without enough CYA in a pool, you will quickly lose your chlorine to the sun. It will also help to lower your pH since it is acidic.

I think it would be best if you would just ignore the Intex pool care plan. It will be difficult to try to combine those instructions with the SS Recipe.

I do have a Sams Club near me but they do not carry pool chemicals. I will order off amazon. I'm trying to understand and get a dosing schedule for the summer though. SO.....

I will buy the Dichlor off Amazon. In the meantime, I will not add anthing to the pool untill it get here.

1. Once it arrives I will begin dosing 1/4C everynight and 1/8C before each swim.
2. I will test PH and clorine levels daily.
3. Once clorine levels start to stablize I will back off on dosing everyday to 2-3 times per week.

Is that correct??

Until you get some dichlor, continue to use bleach so your pool won't turn green! But, bleach is not stabilized so it may be that you'll have to add bleach a couple times a day so you will keep some chlorine in the pool.

Dichlor is stabilized which means it adds CYA as well as chlorine. CYA is kind of like sunscreen for your chlorine; it keeps the chlorine from being lost too quickly to the sun. You should use the dichlor until your CYA gets to around 50ppm and at that point, just switch to bleach. You don't want your CYA level to get too high.

Whether or not you'll back off to dosing only 2-3 times per week can't yet be determined. Each pool is different. If you haven't already done so, take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart which explains the connection between CYA levels and needed chlorine. http://pool9.net/cl-cya/ (Until your registration is completed, you'll have to copy that and paste it into a browser window after you have logged out of the forum.)

You will soon learn how often you need to add chlorine to make sure that your chlorine level never dips below the minimum required or else you risk an algae bloom.

Hope this is helping. Ask more if you need to. That is why we are here. :)

One other comment:

Dichlor additions tend to push the pH DOWN; borax pushes it back up. If your pH is going too high, skip the borax, and use ONLY the dichlor.