Quote Originally Posted by donovan.lambright View Post
I'm going to use the Intex Recipe that Ben posted as our starting point and will stick to that and the BBB system. We have a Sams Club membership and I'll get the dichlor there, as outlined in the Recipe.
I'm finally back from all my various gallivanting around, and can focus for awhile. I actually think simply draining and restarting has a high chance of success if you simply avoid 100% of unnecessary chemicals and 100% of voodoo chemicals. Dichlor alone is very, very unlikely to cause problems. I have not seen any data that suggest borax might be -- it's used in bath salts -- but I would try to check that in the tub, before you put it in the pool. Washing soda *is* an alternative. You'll need to use muriatic acid to lower pH, rather than sodium bisulfate.

But, if you start doing so from scratch, you can run your pool with dichlor, borax, bleach, and muriatic acid . . . and have a VERY low risk of problems.

I would also recommend taking the time to rinse out your pool, after you drain it, to make sure you've removed all of whatever the irritant was. And, you'll want to spray down the sides, as it drains, to eliminate the chance of some of the material drying on the sides. Also, flush your filter and lines, rinse them out, and replace your filter cartridges.

I just thought of another possibility: 'plasticizer'. PVC, used to make vinyl liners AND Intex vinyl pools is naturally hard (like pipe). 'Plasticizers' are added to make it flexible. They (a) instrinsically tend to bleed out of plastics, and (b) are often more expensive than the base plastics. A company like Intex probably has several suppliers of vinyl material in China. And quality control has notoriously been an issue with Chinese manufacturing. It's possible that Intex has gotten a batch of vinyl from a supplier that cut corners on the plasticizer. And it's possible that the substandard plasticizer is the source of your daughter's problems.

To test for this, I'd recommend starting up ONLY with bleach -- ignore pH. Get the pool sanitized, and filled. Operate it for maybe 3 days with NOTHING but bleach added in then evening. Then, let her keep her legs only in it for 15 minutes or so. If it IS the plasticizer, there's a fair chance it will show up as irritated legs (Not good, but better than irritation all over her body.)

It you do find irritation this way, I'd call Intex and ask for a replacement. Their customer service department has been VERY good about replacing doubtful products.

If you do NOT have a problem, I'd add things in, one at a time:

1. bleach
2. dichlor
3. borax and muriatic acid
4. Unicel cartridges (better filtration)
5. polyquat (tub test, first!)

Those 5 items should be ALL you need. And, if you also get a cover, you should be able to go on vacation without returning to a pool swamp, if you can use polyquat AND a cover.

When you add in an item, I'd recommend doing a 'leg test first' followed by swimming the next day. I'd also recommend a fresh water rinse immediately after swimming, at least until you have established that you have a 'no problems' pool. That way you'll minimize irritation if it does occur. Also, several sorts of issues can be 'trapped' in swim suits. So, I'd recommend using the smallest swimsuit your family is comfortable with, and rinsing IT carefully after each use.