Intex Pool - Major Clean-Up After Rainfall (Suggestions?)

[DAMYON]

Numbers:

FAC: 3 ppm
TAC: 3 ppm
Bromine: N/A
pH: 7.4
TA: 100 ppm
CYA: 30 ppm
Calcium Hardness: 250 ppm
TDS: 800 ppm
Salinity: N/A
Copper: N/A (I know better)
Phosphates: 0 ppb

Arguably, my pH could be 7.5 but I'm happy with that. Local water supply's pH is pretty low. I've only dosed it once with the pH Minus dry acid but it's been stable for two months now so I've seen no need to add borate.

I use these products:
- Crystal Care Quick Dissolving Shock (from Academy Sports - Local Store)
- Kemtek Phosphate Remover (Amazon)
- HDX pH Minus (Home Depot)
- Leslie's Ultra Bright Water Clarifier (Leslie's Pools)

[CarlD]

It is actually possible to hose those cartridges down and clean them, but you have to pull them out sooner--I think you are waiting too long. The best thing to soak them is, surprising, electric dishwasher detergent. It doesn't suds up. Some owners of bigger cartridge filters always keep on in the solution and when it's time to swap just rinse it off. The other immediately goes into fresh detergent.

If you're still having cloudy water, you should push your FC up to 15ppm and keep it there until the water is clear. If you're REALLY desperate, you may invest in a Watertech Pool Blaster. It's a rechargeable vacuum that looks like a Dust Buster and attaches to a standard pole. It works as well as any vacuum I've used and I'm on my second. They run between $145-$200. Junk will go into the vacuum rather than the filter.

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership upgraded.

1. You've gotten a lot of the advice you need, but keep in mind that swamp-clearing is slow on ALL pools, but especially slow on Intex pools because of the small filters. It may be worth it to buy the 7,000 gallon of water you need to drain and refill!

2. If you don't drain and refill, go ASAP to Walmart, and get 12 gallons of PLAIN 8% bleach, AND either an HTH 6-way drops kit OR a cheapo OTO/phenol red kit if the 6-way is not available.

3. Go home. Remove the filter cartridge. Turn the pump back on. Add a gallon of bleach. Check it in an hour. If it hasn't gone from green to gray, add ANOTHER gallon. Keep doing that, till it turns brown or gray. Then, sweep the pool and test the chlorine. If the OTO result is not orange or orange tinted yellow (off-scale) add ANOTHER gallon.

4. Once you've done that, put a clean filter cartridge in.

5. Check it in the AM, and report results. Keep your chlorine in at LEAST the dark yellow range.

PS. Your chemicals are NOT OK. When you have algae, your free chlorine should be at LEAST 20% of your CYA level (6 ppm) and that is a MINIMUM.

PPS. Phosphate removers are a preventative, not a curative. Clean your pool up, and THEN add phosphate removers.

PPPS. Good luck.

[Pntbllr233]

I too ran in to the issue with the leaky valve. I noticed it about two hours before I had to be at the airport to leave the country for a week. I have no idea how it happened. The top of the nut actually has some sort of spring mechanism. I can't seem to get it to quit leaking. Would it work to just replace that nut or is there another problem causing this? Did you ever find a solution?

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership upgraded and post moved to correct section.