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I'm getting a new liner in my 18x36 inground pool. I plan to fill (30,000 gal) of water with my hose. My question is: Should I wait until the pool filter and heater are running to start adding any of the following (bleach, borax, or baking soda)? I'm pretty sure I'll just have to wait, but I wanted to do whatever I could ensure that the pool is close to being ready as soon as it is full.
Regarding well water. Before you fill the pool with it, do a complete test of that well water, hardness, pH, alkalinity, iron. Well water may be high in pH, alcalinity, hardness, and iron.
And to do that free - take it to your local pool store in a sanitized container, you may have to ask to have it checked for iron, but it should not be a problem.
Just don't walk out with a trunk full of chemicals you don't need.
30K gallons is a lot of water out of a residential well. Most well pumps would take a very long time to get the pool full. You can deplete the well to the point it would stop producing clean water for a few days if you pump too rapidly.
I'm hoping the well won't give me any problems. We've done this before (about 4 years ago) and everything was fine. What do you think about adding any chemicals while the pool is filling up?
If the pH is way low I guess I'd think about borax while filling but otherwise just wait until you get enough level to fire up the pump to adjust chemistry. On the well, I'm curious when you did it 4 years ago did you run multiple hoses to keep the pump from cycling or what? That would give you maximum flow and least strain on the well pump but may pump the well dry or at least kick up a bunch of silt. When I did mine 9 years ago the pool looked like mud but luckily I did it in November so it had the Winter to settle out. Well pump was 20+ years old at that time and it still going strong in 2007.
Al
I don't know much about pumps, but the well/pump/septic are now 9 years old. The one thing that the well guy told me when we hit water was that we hit a good vien with high pressure, so maybe that helps. I wonder if I should fill for a day and take an 8 hour break then start again.
In regards to the chemicals, I would wait until the pool is full enough to run the pump and filter before you add any. With regard to the well pump, I've had a 35,000 gallon pool for 5 years now, and I have filled it completely 3 times in the first 4 years of operation (I won't go into the multiple reasons here!). Anyway, it takes 3.535859 days to fill a 35,000 gallon pool with a 365 foot deep well ( I'm sure every well is a bit different). The trick here is to run at least 2 hoses so that the pump never cycles off. The hardest thing on a pump is starting/stopping. You may have to pause on filling during shower times, and laundry times (due to lack of water pressure), but otherwise just let it run. My well is now 15 years old, and is still running just fine. Good luck.