And learning so much!
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And learning so much!
Great! That's what we like to hear! While you are at it, be sure you read over on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. Lots of good info there as well!
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Thanks for the link. I will check that out, too!
I am still limited to just this part of the forum, so I'll. share my story (so far) here.
We bought an Intex 15'x42" Easy Set this week, along the starter set of chemicals specifically packaged for "Intex or similar" pools, conveniently on display next to the pool. We found a nice level spot and proceeded with setting it up and filling it with (da da dummmm) well water. (You see where I'm going with this already, right? Well, I didn't!) It filled up nicely and looked beautiful.
I opened up the starter chemicals to find that there was little guidance on the containers, and what instructions were there were geared toward maintaining a 10,000 gallon set up, rather than initially filling a 3,284 gallon pool.
So, I started googling and reading, and found the Super Simple Recipe. Great! The pool was full, but had no chemicals in it, so I decided to start with the bucket test before adding anything. I did it and passed, so I went ahead and added the initial bleach dose to the pool.
A yellowish cloud immediately stared to spread, and only got worse as time went on. It was perfectly clear, but yellow/brownish and certainly NOT inviting. I scooped a bucket of it out using the same (now empty and clean) bucket I'd used for the bucket test - it looked fine in the bucket!
Since it looked fine in the bucket, I thought the color I was seeing might be from settled particles on the bottom. I ran the net along the bottom and agitated it, and nothing changed. I used the net to lower a bright white measuring cup to the bottom, and it appeared yellow. I figured that meant that the water (not the bottom) was that color, but it was only detectable at a certain depth. My bucket had been too shallow (about 3 gal.) and not perfectly white (it was off white, apparently enough to disguise the color change.)
I started reading more and more of this forum, and considering my options. I came across discussions of using softened well water to fill a pool. Some posters were against it, as it cannot handle the volume needed for filling a pool. Some were for it because it removes the iron. We do have a softener. Why hadn't it worked? I figured the hose spigot plumbing branches off before the softener, so the water wasn't softened.
I started poking around the basement and tracing pipes, and learned two important things: the hose spigots did not branch off before the softener (which is good, because I was imagining a series of connected hoses from my washing machine hookup in the bathroom through the window and across the yard!), but the softener was out of salt!
I filled the softener and set it to regenerate. In the meantime, I repeated the bucket test in a cooler that had a much bigger capacity than the bucket, and a perfectly white interior. (bonus: sanitized cooler!) The unsoftened water turned color immediately, as it had in the pool, and I could see it this time.
After the regeneration finished, I rinsed out the cooler and repeated the test. The water remained perfectly clear! The first victory had been achieved.
We drained the pool and rinsed it out, then started to refill it. At 6", I added the first does of bleach (as per SSR), and held my breath. NO REACTION! As I sit here typing, it continues to fill and looks great. We are going to stop it when it's about 1/2 full and regenerate again (just to be safe), then finish filling it.
Thanks to everyone whose words I've read here over the last few days. It has kept me sane. Otherwise, I'm sure we have a chemical cocktail mess out there by now.
I was afraid you were going to say............ it turned yellow again!! Glad that wasn't the ending of your story. Sounds like you are on your way. Let us know if you need any help. We'll be here and glad to assist you as you get this new pool going. :)
Thanks again!
You're welcome!
Picked up my 6-way hth test kit this morning and and excited for my little chemistry experiment tomorrow morning. Once I post some numbers, I'll ask for some guidance on what kind of schedule to follow. I'm assuming it will basically be the SSR.
Now all I need are some warm days so that we can go in the pool without risking hypothermia. The well water comes out at a brisk 54 degrees, and is only up to about 61 at this point!
I will add a signature as soon as I can access it.
I've been using my HTH kit. (After reading here that it will get me through about 6 weeks, I've decided not to order the "real" kit until next summer because that's about how much pool time we have left and I don't want to order it just to have it age over the winter.)
I've been adding one dose (1/2 c for my 3,284 gal pool) of dichlor each night and when each group swims. There has not been much swimming going on because it has been unseasonably cool, and the water temp is in the 60s.
Here are my results:
Mon. 9/28
Chlorine 5
PH 7.2
Alk 60
Hardness - no change/negative (I only tested this on the first day to see what would happen. I filled the pool with water that went through a softener so I was pretty sure this wasn't necessary.)
CYA - I did not do this test (and still haven't) since it was a new fill.
Tues. 9/29
A.M.
Chlorine Bright orange and off the (limited) chart on my test
PH 7.2
Alk 60-70
Repeated Chlorine and PH test in P.M. just because of high chlorine result in A.M.
Chlorine 5
PH 6.8
(Added a dose of borax for the first time with nightly dichlor. Also covered the pool overnight to try to retain some heat since the temp was going down at night.)
Wed. 7/30
Chlorine orange again - estimating 25 by the color chart here
PH 7.2
Alk 60
(No one swam Wed. Too cool! Added beach at night instead of dichlor because the small pack I found that met the requirements listed here for buying dichlor had run out the night before but my pool boy ;) didn't mention it until it was time to add it again tonight.)
Thurs.
Chlorine light orange, still off my chart though
PH 7.2
Alk 70
Water has looked great all week.
How am I doing? Any suggestions? Should I cut down my dose of dichlor to avoid the high reading I got the last few mornings?
Yes, if you are getting orange chlorine readings on your OTO tester, then you do want to cut the dose down. That is way too high for a pool with such low CYA. Maybe try 1/3 of a cup and see what that does.