New 15' x 48" Intex pool

[AggiePool]

Howdy! I have a new 15' x 48" Intex pool and I am trying to get my pool set up for the summer. Have been reading through the posts and trying to figure out what I need to do. Do I shock my pool by using stabilizer? I understand about chlorine levels dropping while in full sun, but I'm not quite sure if the stabilizer is what I need to keep that from happening.

Any help is appreciated!

[aylad]

Hi, and welcome!!

You use chlorine to shock, and maintain chlorination of, your pool. This can be in the form of bleach, dichlor granules, cal-hypo powder, or trichlor tabs. When shocking, we generally recommend bleach because it's much easier to calculate the dose and doesn't add anything unwanted to the pool. You need the stabilizer in order to keep the sun from burning off your chlorine, so it will stay in the pool to fight bacteria and viruses.

You will need to be able to test your own water, in order to stay out of the clutches of the pool store--if you don't already have a drop-based kit, we recommend the K-2006 that can be bought online at a good price through the link in my sig. Or, if your WalMart carries the 6-way hth drop kit, that one is okay, too. If you'll fill the pool, tell us the source of your fill water, and post a set of test results, we'll be happy to help you go from there!

[AggiePool]

Thanks for the welcome! I ordered the 4 lb Kem-Tek stabilizer and think I need to do the sock thing in front of where the water comes back into the pool from my filter. Can we swim before the stabilizer dissolves completely? And I believe I still need to add chlorine periodically (but less and less often hopefully) until that completely dissolves? I accidentally purchased (and used) some HTH 1" chlorine tablets so I cannot return the package. So I ordered a floating dispenser until I use those tablets up and will then switch to bleach.

I'm not sure how to answer the question about the source of my fill water. I am not in a city and not in a municipal water district, but don't have a well either.

I have a 4-way hth kit right now and will be ordering the K-2006 soon. I got my pH down to a steady 7.6/7.8 range, which is good (but with expense of HTH pH Down product unfortunately). I added the chlorine tablets to get the chlorine reading to 1.5, but that didn't last very long before my test came back with 0 since I don't have stabilizer in the pool yet. So my pool keeps yoyo-ing up and down on chlorine and feels slimy/looks cloudy. I threw 2 cups of 2.75% bleach in the water on Saturday about 30 minutes before my son got in the pool and let him get in with another reading of 1.5. I was hoping that lasted the whole hour he was in there. :-)

Hopefully this helps you! I haven't figured out how to really read the Best Guess Chlorine Chart yet - probably b/c I haven't been able to keep my chlorine at any kind of readable level. Thank you for any help you can provide.

[aylad]

Hi AggiePool,

Somehow this thread got to the bottom of the list and I missed it until now....I'm sorry!!!

Did you add CYA to the pool? How's it going so far?

Janet

[Watermom]

I must have missed it, too. How did that happen that we both did?

Sorry 'bout that!

[AggiePool]

Howdy!

My CYA was way too high - 100 ppm - so I decided to drain the pool and start over. Ugh on the water bill! Anyway, I tested today after balancing for the last couple of days and here are my results.

CYA - 10 ppm or less (still waiting for it to all dissolve)
FC - 50 ppm
CC - 0 ppm
pH - 7.6
TA - 170 ppm
CH - 130 ppm

I periodically take my trichlor dispenser out because my chlorine is so high, but I was finally able to vacuum all the algae off the bottom of the pool. My main issue right now is cloudy water. Not any particular shade (green, yellow) - just cloudy. I'm not quite sure how to fix that or if it is an effect of my high chlorine. All suggestions are welcome!

I filled out the Pool Form so hopefully it adds my details to this post. :-)

Stefanie

[Watermom]

What kind of chlorine are you using other than trichlor tabs? How often and how much at a time are you adding? Surely your chlorine reading is not really 50ppm. Try that test again.

List exactly what all you have put into the pool. Also, run the alk and calcium hardness tests on your fill water.

[AggiePool]

Not sure what was up with the chlorine test (I actually saw that number twice over two days), but now it is down to 0 ppm again. pH is still at 7.6

TA on my fill water is about the same - 180 ppm
CH is also about the same - 120 ppm

The following details are from after I refilled the pool. I have the 1" trichlor tabs that I'm using and I put three in every other day when the first three have dissolved. On the 6th I noticed the chlorine was down to 0 so I added the last 2 cups of bleach I had. I added about 1/2 lb of KemTech stabilizer on the 7th, so that makes about 1 lb so far. I also lowered my pH with one small box of baking soda (can't remember how much that was). The water was really cloudy yesterday after we were in (I noticed the KemTech had dissolved really fast because my kids swim in circles to make a whirlpool). The pool was clearer this morning, but still cloudy.

Any suggestions?
Stefanie

[BigDave]

What kind of chlorine test do you have?

[aylad]

Lowering pH is done with muriatic acid (read the link in my sig) or dry acid. Baking soda raises alkalinity. Yours is already high, so I wouldn't add any more. Odds are pretty good that your cloudiness is either dead algae from the last bloom that just needs time to filter out, or possibly algae that didn't get killed off. Try measuring your chlorine at night after the sun is off the pool, and then measure it again in the morning before the sun hits the pool. Compare those two numbers, and it will tell you if you have algae still trying to bloom (there will be more than a 1 ppm difference in the numbers).

Janet