New Intex Easy Set 15' x 48" owner - first time pool guy

[burmjohn]

Hi all,

First I'm a first time pool owner (soon to be, its being delivered tomorrow!). I saw a great deal on eBay and grabbed the Intex Easy Set 15' x 48" pool. Its the perfect size for my rather small yard on Long Island. I was debating for a few days on which size to get, but this seemed to be the perfect trade-off between size and space consumed in the yard.

Why did I get a pool? I've owned a home for 6 years now and this is one of the main reasons I wanted a house.... So I can have a great backyard to hang out in, bbq, party and play. In addition I have a 1 yr old daughter and my wife is off during the summers. I'd love for her to become a water rat like I was as a kid, she starts her "swimming" lessons in two weeks.

Anyways, after researching I decided to go with the intex because of the low barrier to entry. I figured if it didn't end up working out the worst case I'm out a few hundred rather then a few thousand. From what I read these pools are great starter pools and my neighbor two houses down has one as well, and loves it.

Sooooo that brings me to this forum. Luckily I found this forum and another one literally right after I placed an order from Amazon for some chemicals. I read enough within the first 2 hours of finding forums to cancel my Amazon order before they were able to ship it yesterday

I had ordered tablets, a dispenser, and a few other chemicals not knowing what I have learned in the past 24 hours.

What I did order was the following, and I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track now or almost there. Actually some of this stuff got delivered today already after i changed my order yesterday at Amazon.

1. TAYLOR K-2006 Pool Test Kit
2. INTEX Pool Easy Set Filter Cartridge Type A - I know these are crap from what I read so far... but I got a good deal on a 12 pack, and will swap, clean, throw out when needed. And I prob end up upgrading the whole system next year with one of the better sand based pumps when I catch them on sale.
3. Kem-Tek Algaecide - I was going to cancel this, but opted not to.
4. Kem-Tek Shock / Dichlor
5. Kem-Tek Chlorine Stabilizer / CYA

My "Beta" plan for the pool start-up so far is as follows and will more then likely be modified base on some help / guidance:

Based on the # of gallons 3736 I'm going to add ~46oz of 6% bleach to bring up the levels to 6 ppm over the course of filling the pool...
Test after an hour see where I am... then the next 4 days test and add the Dichlor....
After that 4th day make sure the CYA is between 30 and 40 and Chlorine is at around 4 and PH is around 7.4
Test daily, and adjust as needed.. Eventually getting up to a cya of roughly 40.

I just saw the thread that PoolDoc had put up "Super-Simple pool chemistry recipe...." - > http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...p-routine-care I may end up going that route but I was a little worried about the cya level (now that I know what that means) when using the dichlor for 7 days as noted in that thread. However, since I ordered the better test kit I should be able to keep an eye on it (although it takes up to a week to see the results of cya?)
I 100% understand the importance of keeping the FC level up in the range needed for the cya level you have as well.

Anyways any advise is appreciated, and I already saved some cash and headaches finding these great resources on the net. I have also spend a few hours reading about the BBB approach, which is essentially the route I'll be going after getting that initial start-up phase completed. I know a 15 foot pool is rather small by most standards, however I think its a great start to getting in the game.

One other question I had, since these intex pools come with that crap 1000 gph pump / cartridge system should I be running this thing 24/7? I don't have a problem doing so if needed. I do have a whole techie kind of setup at my house so I can set this up on my timer system to turn on / off multiple times throughout the day as needed too. In addition do you run your filter while you are using the pool? P.S. if there is a better pump that is not to expensive I'd be willing to jump on it. I thought I saw something about a 1500 gph pump that used the same filter system as well.

Any tips for setting this pool up? From what I read so far level ground is a must (which I have) and to spread out the pool as much as you can so there are no wrinkles.

Thanks in advance.
John

Pool: AG Intex Easy Set 15' x 48"
Pool Size: 3,736 gallons
Filter Type: Cartridge
Pump: Standard 1000 GPH