First pool, might be our LAST...name says it all!

Janet, I'm ahead of ya! I put in about another 1/4 cup of Sanitizer in the sock this morning. According to the size of pool, I should be getting close (but not going over) to the recommended dosage so I won't add any MORE until I'm able to test again. I started low so I could add gradually.

Yeah! I'm so thankful I found this forum BEFORE going to the Pool Store...I've already warned hubby I'll be getting the Taylor test kit for next year! Just can't spring for it with all the improvements we've made AROUND the pool...but the better test kit and some sort of pre-filtering device for sure!

Awesome...happy swimming!! :D :D :D

Guess you're gonna have to change your username...............;)

Janet

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swamp mistress

Yeah! I'm so thankful I found this forum BEFORE going to the Pool Store...

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Everybody should be so lucky to find us before they hit a pool store. Would save a lot of money and a lot of grief for many people!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aylad

Awesome...happy swimming!! :D :D :D

Guess you're gonna have to change your username...............;)

Janet

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yeah, I was think'n bout that....how about Mistress of the Desert Oasis? :D

Gotta tell ya, I saw the neighbor's pool this afternoon, the one that offered to test my water with his strips..seems he had an algae bloom going and today his water looks like non-fat milk. :eek: Think I'll just keep coming here...

Hee hee hee...maybe you oughta take your test kit over and offer to help him out! :D

Or...give him the link to Poolforum.. :)

Janet

SM: Get yourself the Taylor kit now...for the $50 to $70 it will STILL save you its price by the end of the summer.

Hi Janet, just letting you know I received the CYA reagent a couple days ago (sorry, I haven't posted, we've REALLY been enjoying the pool EVERYDAY lately! even having school friends over. :D) I tested water and the black dot is still visable, although it disapeared when the vile was completely FULL, so I might be getting close. I'm taking into account the fact that I keep adding water each time I skim the bottom with the hose attachment. Anyway, after testing I added more stablilizer via sock yesterday morning and will give it a few days before testing again.

Everything else is GREAT, I believe I experienced the ULTIMATE pool water (a beautiful, clear bluish tint) which is now the standard for which I strive for every day. Until that happened, we didn't know our well water COULD look like that!

The last time I added water, i added 1oz sequestrant BEFORE filling, then 1oz algecide the morning after and the water returned to blue. I'm also using exact chemial measurments then waiting to see if ONE dose works as opposed to dumping lots in. Yes, I've learned patience works! :D

I also tried the "sock method" of pre-filtering I read on another thread for removing iron, not sure if it worked since I tried it mid-fill but, it certainly can't hurt, right? Anything to filter those metals! Actually, what made me try it was seeing the nasty, merky hose water spewing forth into my LOVELY clear blue water! Hubby wondered what was wrong when he heard "OH NO YOU DON'T!" as I ran through the house stuffing one of his tube socks with batting. :D

ROFL--you actually made me laugh out loud and my kids are looking at me like I'm crazy.....
I was wondering how it was going, hoping your abscence from here was because you were busy enjoying your pool!! Any pre-filtering you're going to do will certainly never hurt. Don't have any experience with the pre-filters, but remember that high chlorine causes the iron to drop out of solution, so if there's a way to run the hose past a dose of chlorine (like maybe a trichlor tab?) just before it hits the filter, you might be more successful at filtering it out. (Remember when you just started this, that's why you put the chlorine source in at the skimmer--so the iron would fall out onto the filter).

Congratulations on a job well done!!

Janet

See, that's something that didn't "stick" with me the first 100 times I read it...run fill water into skimmer basket & thru filter BEFORE intering pool water...DUH!! I'm slow!

*note to self, remember the above! :D

Congratulations!

I hope the algaecide is Polyquat 60%. Any others may produce problems. The ONLY issue with Polyquat 60% is it lowers FC if you use a lot at once and you need ot add more to replace it.

I love success stories!

Congrats, I'm so happy for you! I couldn't stop reading your thread - what suspense!
I have a similar pool and lots of trees so clearing debris off the bottom is (was) a real chore. I bought myself an inexpensive ($300 on sale) pool robot for my birthday. It sucks the junk from the bottom into a filter bag inside as it moves around the pool. I haven't used the (nylon modified) veturi vac since. EXTRA BONUS - no need to add water to pool to clean.

Hi all! sorry I've not been back to post, August was about getting in last minute vacations & getting ready for back to school for kids and me. With that and lower daytime temperatures, we didn't use the pool as much as I would have liked, but I have definitely learned what I'll need to do for next year (we put the pool to bed over labor day.)

If I had not been so graciouly instructed by all of you on how to keep the water balanced, I think I would have just shot the pool and put it out of my misery (I saw this done on youtube :) Instead, I was able to keep the water clear (most of the time) I had a little trouble with vacations..In the future, I will put a timer on the pump and never, ever use chlorine pucks..as a last resort I added ONE to a floater for a 4 day trip and it threw the water completely out of balance, increased the PH and the cya went thru the roof. I got rid of the floater and added a higher level of bleach, hoping that would tied it over until I got home again. We were only home for 2 days before leaving again for 8 days, the blue donut rebelled.

First, it didn't help while we were gone the wind shredded the original cover, dumping in lots of dirt...we quickly bought a generic cover which was too big to fit snug. According to Bro-in-Law, the wind turned that one into a hot air balloon so to help, he tossed a hose on top..it sunk to the bottom along with the shredded cover... more dirt in the pool. Did I mention we get wind here? With dirt & bugs, no filtration and that darn puck...It was a mess when we got home. But, with all your advice I heard myself say, "self, be calm..just follow instructions and all will be fine." (hmmm...where'd I hear that?) I did, it was.

The smartest thing I did was to take BigDaves advice and buy a vaccum, one I could attach to the filter pump..what a huge difference in bringing the water back around without adding water. I vaccumed twice a day for two days and ran the pump continuously, with bleach it was crystal on day three and we were able to enjoy it again for the last few days of our summer. I was pleased to check the last filter and find it was staying WHITE! a far cry from the sticky brownish/black filters I had at the start.

So would I do it again?...yes, I'm actually looking forward to next year....as long as ya'll are here to help me. I might even be so BOLD as to attempt the ascorbic acid trick of cleaning up stains! :)

Thanks again! and see ya next summer!

Thanks for checking in--and we're all planning to be around for next summer, too. See ya then!! :cool:

Janet

Heck --- we'll be here all winter, too! It gets kinda quiet around here over the winter, but I think at least the mods and probably some of the other members check in pretty much every day over the winter just to see if anything is going on! So pop in once in awhile and say hi! Glad you have had a good swim season.

Hi all! It's been a long time but I see you're still here helping us Intex & well water users! Thank you for that!
I want you to know the first thing I did in preparation for this summer was ORDER MY TAYLOR K-2006 TEST KIT! I couldn't come back here and face y'all with out doing that!

I also ordered a metal pre-filter (iron & maganese) thinking that would solve all my well water problems, hubby hooked it up to a second filter so by the time the water hits the pool it's being filtered 3 times!.. I still got BROWN swamp water. So I sneaked back here in the dead of night and read post after post and decided to try the white tube sock method again, this time a little differently. THREE SOCKS & TWO SHOP TOWELS on the end of the return hose secured to the ladder, running the pump 24/7. The first time I squeezed the sock filter I KNEW this was the answer for me! I took note that the Intex paper filter was barely "off white", while the homemade sock filter was near black in the middle, telling me that the paper filters definitely aren't filtering whatever's in our water. I also think placing the sock filter so the water has to travel downward thru the sock helped the extraction process. Note: this isn't a quick method, but it sure is a CHEAP method for a small 15ft pool! Initially, it took 5 days to take the entire pool from mud brown to Carribean blue, (I learned patience from this forum) but once done it only takes about 18 hours to completely filter new fill water. When needed I add water in the evening, put the sock filter on and by morning it's a slight green tint, by noon it's clear/blue. Not bad, I rarely add metal sequestriant and what I save in buying chemicals I figure I can afford to run the pump overnight occasionally. I was pleasantly shocked when adding ascorbic acid to the rinse bucket turned the socks & towels white again in less than 30 seconds so I can reuse them over and over.

Anyway, I just wanted to stop in and say thanks again for all you do and for making our summer a FANTASTIC one in our little pool!

Hey, welcome back!! I've been wondering how your pool was doing this season, I'm really glad that you checked in with us!! And...congrats on ordering the good test kit--you'll be glad you did.

Interesting that the sock filter is more efficient than the paper filters at filtering out the metals/tannins--we're trying to come up with some uniform steps that Intex owners with well water can follow to deal with the metals, but I'm not sure we had considered the difference in filter media. Have to think on that one some...

Anyway, glad to see you back, and don't forget, we're here all year round!! :)

Janet

I was very suprised when the pool water turned green then brown after using the metal filter, but once I saw I could trap the "color" in the socks I went that route, just replacing the sock filter until rinsing produced little - no color. I took a picture of the rinse water to show how nasty it was, but couldn't upload it.

I wonder if I stuffed the sock filter with those "color catcher" sheets they sell in the laundry isle of the supermarket, if it would help catch color faster, maybe it wouldn't take 5 days at the beginning...hmmm. May sound silly but unless and until we're committed to buying a better/bigger pool, we can't justify spending hundreds on a sand filter. Also, it didn't help that we had to patch about 15 holes just in the air ring and another 6 holes along the sides this year...at this rate next year we'll have more patches than pool!

When I bought the metal filter, I saw an "organic filter", I'm guessing that's the one I should have purchased for tannins.

I'm not sure about the "color catcher" sheets--I'd be really skeptical about using them in my pool until I knew for sure that there's no detergent or other chemical on them that might create a problem with the pool water, but we could always research it and see.

We'd like to see your pics--if you'll email them to poolforum DOT pics AT gmail DOT com and reference the URL of this thread, Ben can get them uploaded for you....

Janet

I just sent 3 pics to Ben..hopefully he'll be able to post them. I took one of my goofy sock filter, one of the gunk I sqeezed out of it, and an "after" picture of the pool water. Keep in mind, the brown water in the bucket is only from about 6 inches of fill water. When I initially started filtering the entire pool those 5 days, the gunk was dark, dark brown like coffee.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4...255B5%255D.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-j...255B5%255D.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f...255B2%255D.jpg