I am a newbie here and with pool

[raptureready1953]

This is my first pool. Purchased at walmart. 16' x 3 1/3 ft. It came with no help what so ever. I know absolutely nothing about pool care except for what I have read here, and read in my start up kit, purchased seperatly. The new pool is Intex above ground vinyl pool. I am not sure on the gallons, but I think it is closet o 3500 ? Does that sound right? I started it up with 5 of the clorox tabs, and 5 tblsp of Shock. Is that enough? How much plain bleach can I use from now on, and do I need borax? How much baking soda?

My ph level is high. According to the test strips. Free chlorine looks good. That is all I know. Havent swam in pool yet. Too cold but sure cant wait. Thanks for the help.

Sheila

[raptureready1953]

I forgot to click for answer to be sent to email...sorry..

[duraleigh]

Hi, Sheila,

Lot's of nice folks here will help you keep your pool clear.

Your pool is 4,500 gallons.

Stop back by Wal-Mart and get the HTH 5-way test kit. (about $15) It will test for chlorine, pH, Alkalinity, Calcium and CYA. Post those test results back and folks will help you. Without those results, tho, we'd all be guessing.

Test strips are just too unreliable to help you (or us) much.

[Watermom]

I'm guessing that the side of your pool is 3.3 ft and the water level is probably 3 ft. Does that sound about right? If that is the case, your volume is more like 4500 gallons. We really need some testing result numbers to be able to help you. Test strips are not very accurate and we don't have much faith in them. Go to Walmart and buy the 5-way drops based test kit and then post your results here. In a pool this size, every 2 cups of plain, unscented 6% bleach will raise your chlorine level by about 1.5. I don't know what clorox tabs are. What type of shock did you use? Post back with more info and someone here will try and help you get started. Welcome to the forum.

EDIT - looks like Duraleigh posted while I was typing. It seems we have about the same idea, though.

[raptureready1953]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply. I am using Aqua Chem 1 " stabilized Tablets

active ingredients trichloro-s-triazinetrione available chlorine, 90%

then the shock is aqua chem shock plus which says sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione 3.5 tsps per 500 gal. of water.

I will go to walmart probably on Mon to get the test kit. Will reply back. In the meantime, I hope my pool does not get covered in algea. Took 4 days to fill it, and would hate to have to drain it and start over.

It looks like red substance on the bottom is trying to form? I do not know... I went out and swept it.

Thanks again.

[Watermom]

Until then, just try and keep some chlorine in there. Try and keep it between 3-5 or so and that should keep the algae at bay for a few days at least.

[raptureready1953]

thanks !!! I have to buy the kit though to tell where the level is at. I have the strips that just say ok, or low or high. Going to try to go to walmart later. Or send dh. Thanks so much everyone.

[CarlD]

OK, You started at the right place!

I hate to tell you this but you won't be using those tri-chlor tabs too long. They will saturate your water with Cyanuric Acid, aka, CYA,aka Stabilizer. In your WalMart test kit you can test for CYA--when it's 30ppm you are good, when it reaches 50ppm, you need to stop using those tabs. They are also VERY acid so plan on using Borax when your pH drops

Your "shock" is merely Di-Chlor powder. It's not too different than Tri-Chlor tabs, but it doesn't put as much CYA into the water and aren't nearly as acid. I'd almost rather see you chlorinate with that than the tabs. Chlorine is chlorine, but the different chemicals toss in different side effects.

You CAN (and most of us do) use laundry bleach for your chlorine AND your shocking. It has virtually no side effects--it's that only chlorine system that can say that.

1 quart of regular bleach will add about 3ppm of FC to pour pool. (generally a good amount).

1 quart of ultra bleach will add about 3.3ppm of Free Chlorine (FC ) to your pool.

All shocking is, is raising chlorine levels to burn off stuff. "Shock" is really a verb in pool care, not a noun. There is no such chemical as "Shock"--it's just hype for various types of chlorine salts.

We used and loved our Intex EasySet 15'x3' donut for 3 years. I learned SO much on it!

And, I guarantee you, on a hot day, laying back in a floating lounge chair with a cool drink listening to the ball game or fav music, it's JUST as nice as floating in the fanciest pool in the world!

Go to these stickies and read them--they will help I hope:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1113

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1652

[raptureready1953]

Ok Here I am, back with the results. Free chlorine...ok, had to look at colors. .. to me there was no colr change, if there was a color change it was in the ideal range?

Total active bromide..same, very little color change.

Ph Test between 7.6 and 7.8 that was between Ideal and add acid. OK here is my problem of not understanding...acid and alkaline? do I add soda for high acid, or do I add soda for alkaline? I dont get it and I feel dumb.

total alkalinity was 200 ppm, and have no idea what that means or what to do with it.

Water hardness was at 350 ppm....

Stabalizer, ok, it said to fill to line with pool water, then to the next line with the stableizer till you dont see the black dot when looking down into the tube, well I got it filled all the way to the top and still saw the black dot.

CYA, I did not see anything on my card for that. thanks in advance for all the help. Going to go read the stickies. thanks.

[Watermom]

Do you have a number for FC instead of just ideal? We really need a number.

Just ignore the bromide part of the tester. You have a chlorine pool - no bromine.

Your ph is OK between 7.6-7.8. As far as when to add baking soda, that is when your alk is low. Don't feel dumb. We all had to ask the same type of questions when we first started.

Your alk is a little high. Read the sticky at the top of the alk forum about lowering that. Not critical right now. Get everything else stabilized first and then worry about it.

Water hardness is OK at 350, but I wouldn't use any cal-hypo to chlorinate with since that will increase it further. Just stick with bleach.

Try your cya test again. Add pool water to the first line, then add cya test reagent to the second line. Mix and let it sit a couple of minutes. Then, hold the tester at waist level and look straight down on it from the top as you slowly pour the sample in. As soon as you can't see the black dot anymore, stop and read. If it never goes away, then you have less than 30 ppm of cya in your pool.

Hope this helps.