startup chemicals

[BrianD]

I just filled my 15' by 48" pool with well water and need to know what chemicals I need to start with. I checked it with the cheap Walmart test strips and it does not even register. The test strip is for chlorine, ph and alkaline.
Thanks,
Brian

[PoolDoc]

**Caution -- I'm assuming you are NOT filling with well water, or with water that had lots of iron or manganese present. If this assumption is incorrect you need to avoid swimming, and add only 1/8 gallon chlorine doses, and then post info about your water source here. **

#1 - Go to Walmart and get 12 gallons of plain 6% household bleach, 2 boxes of borax, 2 - 4 lbs of stabilizer (conditioner, sun saver = cyanuric acid = isocyanuric acid) and a cheap OTO / phenol red test kit.
#2 - Test your pH and record the result.
#3 - Add 1/4 gallon (~5 ppm in your pool) of bleach immediately. Make sure the pump is running. You can swim after 1 hour.
#4 - Put the stabilizer in an old sock, tie it, and hang in front of the pool return -- it will take several days to dissolve.
#5 - Add 1/4 gallon tonight.
#6 - Report the pH readings here.
#7 - Check the pool before each swim - if the chlorine level is not above 2 ppm, add 1/8 gallon of bleach and wait 10 minutes.
#8 - Continue with the evening doses, until you begin seeing chlorine levels 'holding' during the day. This will begin to happen as the CYA dissolves.

[BrianD]

Uh oh. Yep I filled it with well water. Never heard anything about not using it. Heck, I thought it was better.

BTW, I added 3 quarts of bleach about 4 hours ago and just checked it again and still nothing registering on the stick.
Avoid swimming really? I take a bath and drink this water everyday.

[PoolDoc]

Yeah, if you want to keep the water from turning green, you have to get chlorine in it before you put people in it. There's more to it then that, but I'm not going to try to do the whole "sanitation and oxidation' spiel right now.

Regarding well water, it may, or may not be better. If it's a well in limestone areas, it's every easy. If it's a well in iron shale or some some other metal containing strata . . . it's a mess.

If you do NOT have a softener *AND* your toilets are not stained brown from iron or manganese, we're probably OK. BUT, you still need to do the other stuff on the list.

It is much, MUCH easier to keep a pool, than it is to clean it up. That goes double on the small pools like yours, which almost always are coupled with undersized filters.

If you want to swim in it right now, if you can add polyquat to the list of things for your pool (see www.poolsolutions.com/gd/polyquat.html) that will allow you to 'keep' the pool in the period time between getting an adequate stabilizer level and now. If you buy polyquat, you'll need to go to a pool store -- the stuff is no longer sold at Walmart, etc. All those stores have been 'seduced over to the Dark Side", and sell only 'goop' for algaecides. Be sure you've written done the first few syllables of the chemical name and go ONLY by that, not by brand or product name.

The problem is, the very sunny weather most of the country is having strips chlorine from unstabilized water very, very quickly. And the hot weather means swimmers are adding lots of people goo in the form of sweat, body oils and lotion. It's an ideal recipe for a swamp, if you don't get your chems right, right away.

[BrianD]

Thanks for the help Ben. I do not hav a softener and my toilet tank is not brown. I do have green deposits in my shower tho, I have always been told that means lime? So, I need to follow your recommendations in your first post, correct?

[PoolDoc]

Lime deposits are scaly. If they are colored, the color came from something else.

It could mean copper, but probably won't be a problem for your pool. Go ahead and follow the original recipe, but when you add your first dose of chlorine, use only 1/2 and watch for any color change in the pool water. If there's no change after 30 minutes, go ahead and add the 2nd 1/2.

However, if you have a skimmer, add the bleach through it. (Pump running!)

[CarlD]

We've had an unusual spate of new Intex owners filling with iron-laden well water so we are all a little sensitive to it. I figured with all the bleach you added and no report of brown water, you might be one of the lucky ones. Looks like it!

Happy swimming!

Carl

[BrianD]

I guess I am lucky (for once) my water is crystal clear. I got a sock with cya and have been adding bleach to keep my chlorine level within range but my ph and alkaline are not even registering. I'm still using the cheap 3 way test strips. What is next?
Is the test kit on Amazon worth the extra money? Walmart has a kit for about $15 the Amazon kit is $50. What is the difference?

[Watermom]

The kit is definitely worth it. It will test chlorine levels up to 50 I think whereas the cheap kit from Walmart will only test levels up to 5. It will also test for CYA. Most cheap kits do not. Test strips are unreliable and inaccurate.

If you truly have no pH reading because it is so low, then you are most likely damaging your pool and possibly equipment. Readings below 7.0 are acidic. You must get your pH above 7.0 ASAP.

At the very least for today, go to Walmart and pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops.) It will not replace having a good kit, but at least with it, you can get a pH reading which you desperately need ASAP.

[BrianD]

I bought the cheap oto kit and my ph is 6.8, chlorine is fine. I have been adding bleach twice a day.