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

[mbar]

I love success stories!

[BigDave]

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.

[swamp mistress]

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!

[aylad]

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

Janet

[Watermom]

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.

[swamp mistress]

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!

[aylad]

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

[swamp mistress]

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.

[aylad]

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

[swamp mistress]

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.