16' Intex pool filled with green / brown water.

Greetings fellow pool lovers. I live in NH even though I am jerzegurl. I recently bought an Intex pool 16x4 and it holds 6,000. Since we live in country and have a well we decided to have the local Fire Department fill our pool. It was probably a big mistake. My pool water was filled with pond water.. and it is awful. For the record this what I have done so far.. I put in 8 gallons of shock, and got a high (purple reading) on the PH in a red and yellow drop test kit. I added PH Minus 3 16 oz. containers.. but nothing was going down.
I read where the purple reading on the PH is from too high Chlorine content.. so I did a test with neutralizing the chlorine with peroide and it came out I had to raise the PH.. I am confused..

My water is green, it used to be brown.. so I take it is an improvement. Wondering if I have metal in the pool. I need help.. I want to have my grandchildren over on the 5th..

Glad I found this forum..
Thank you...

I hate to say this but I think it is unlikely that your pool is going to be cleared up by the 5th. These little Intex pools are really hard to clear up.

You need a better test kit. The test kit that we think is by far the best is the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy). Not available locally but you can get it through this link that takes you to Amazon: http://pool9.net/tk/

What are the ingredients in the shock that you put in the pool?

You are right that your pH reading is invalid due to the high chlorine reading. With the kit that you have, any time the chlorine is over 5ppm, your pH test is going to read falsely high. (With the Taylor kit, the pH test is accurate with the chlorine up to 10ppm.) Get a gallon of distilled water. Take a 1/2 cup of pool water and 1/4 cup of distilled water. Run the pH test with that.

Since you have used peroxide in the pool, I'm going to ask PoolDoc to offer you some advice. He'll better know the consequences of that.

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Brown => green is not an improvement.

That might mean that dirty pond water warmed up and became algae-filled pool water. Of course, it might be something else, but it's unlikely that pond water has significant levels of metals. Of course, if the fire department tanker was badly rusted, that's another story.

Doesn't matter: trying to clean up very cloudy pool water (green OR brown) in an Intex pool is a weeks-long project if you have the standard Intex filter.

Your best bet?

Cut your losses and dump it!

Fill what you can, follow the Super Simple Recipe, and treat it as a splash pool till you can get it filled with clear water. Do *NOT* let it turn green! The Intex pump & filter systems are barely big enough to maintain clear water; they are NOT big enough to clear swampy water in your lifetime.

Super Simple Recipe here: http://pool9.net/ssr/

. . . membership updated.

thanks.. I did not put peroxide in the pool. I took a cup of water out of the pool and then added 1 tsp peroxide to it. Great idea on the distilled water. However I am heartbroken. We are draining the pool.... not because of the water but because we need to move it..

I had my land leveled and a bed of sand put down for the pool.. When we were putting it up I kept telling my husband and grandson to move the pool over more.. since there was a big circle the contractor drew to put the pool and it was out of bounds on one side.. No one listened to me. So a heavy rain came and one of the metal poles starting sinking making the pool lopsided. Thank you for your response.. I appreciate it.

Sand is not idea for bedding pools, unless you are on dead level ground, with no way for the sand to move.

Limestone sand is much better, if that's available in your area, but even that can't be used if there's a possibility of a current washing it away.

Also, many folks use dug-in pavers under the poles.

Good luck.

PS. Read the SSR, and make SURE you are ready to start that, the minute water enters the pool. If your water is of questionable quality, it's especially important to get the Unicel cartridges.