Easy-Set Metal 15'x3' AGP Chemical Needs

[rydeacowboi]

Howdy,

Last year I know I bookmarked one of the topics which listed out exactly which steps to do first and it was specifically for smaller pool owners like myself. I'm pretty sure it got blown away.

In any event, we just put up the pool and filled it. It's an easy-set type pool but rather than having the inflatable ring kind where the pool rises as it gets full, ours has metal poles for legs and metal poles around the top to form the ring. It's 15' round and 3' feet deep.

The problem I have is primarily due to pool chemicals not accounting for those of us with little pools. My filter is (sigh) the kind that's made of paper and it needs to be changed every 2-4 weeks. My pump is also not one that generates a lot of bubbles and doesn't push the water around a heck of a lot. Skimmer? No such thing.

SO.... that being said, we just filled the pool and there's no chlorine because I haven't added any yet. I did buy some muriatic acid because the ph is usually high and this year is no different. I'm guessing it's at least 7.8 and teetering toward 8.2 (those shades of pink are hard to gauge sometimes).

We have very hard water here and although I left the water softener hooked up for half of the fill-up, my husband shut it off half way through. Unfortunately I couldn't really tell the hardness reading tonight since it was getting dark. Although I've heard hardness levels don't matter much on my kind of pool. ??

The alkalinity is about 350ppm.

Does anyone know about how much muriatic acid I should put in before I add my bleach?? And, for that matter, does anyone recall the ratio of bleach I'm supposed to put in? I believe we have about 3800 gallons. Right now the water is still clear since we just filled it a couple days ago but I know it won't take long to get yucky if I don't add my chems soon.

Thanks!!
Kim

[Watermom]

3 oz. of muriatic acid will decrease your ph by 0.2ppm. One quart of 6% bleach will raise your cl by about 4ppm. Don't wait too long to get some bleach in there or you'll have a green pool. Hope this helps.