Hi all, this is my inaugural first post here to the forums. I found this site by searching various pool related help topics on google.
Just as a quick introduction to let you know where I'm coming from....I am a 100% complete newbie to pools. Two weeks ago, I didn't know any more about pools than I did about performing brain surgery. I was aware that both of these things existed, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
Several weeks ago, A friend of mine offered to give me an inexpensive Wal-Mart pool. He bought it last year as a cheap way to see if his kids would actually use a pool enough to warrant spending a significant amount of money one a good one. They used it almost nonstop last summer, so they began construction of their new pool earlier this summer, and offered me this one. I'm not much for pools honestly, but my wife is. We swam in this pool once or twice at my friend's house last year and it was enjoyable enough that I figured it would be worth putting up if I could get into it for free. The pool is an 18'x4' "Summer Waves" above ground model. It uses a paper cartridge filter and by my math, holds about 6700 gallons. I spent a week prepping the site where the pool needed to go, which was in itself way more work than I had bargained for. Had I known what would be involved to level out what already appeared to be a level spot, I never would have taken this pool. But after several days I had reached the point of no return and would either end up with a pool in my yard or a big muddy mess, so despite my better judgement, I carried on and got everything ready to go. We put up the pool Monday afternoon. We got it all set up and it was a bit dirty. Apparently he didn't clean it very well when putting it up for storage last year. It had a fair amount of sand all over it, some dead grass, and some lightly discolored areas...probably just from being stored in a shed all winter. I spent about an our with a brush and some simple green getting it cleaned out. Rinsed it down and used a shop vac to get most of the dirty water out. Looking back...I should've spent much more effort getting it perfectly clean. But I got it good enough given the temporary nature of the pool, and began filling. After about an hour and a half I got in and waded around before dark. It was shin deep at this point and was looking great. Water was clear, pool looked clean. I was happy and went to bed. I figured that it would be full by about 2am, so I set my alarm for 1am to get back up and turn the water off. I wanted to make sure I didn't overfill it accidentally. At 1am It was really only about half full but I turned it off anyway and went to bed. It was dark out, so I didn't notice what the water looked like at this point. I got up Tuesday morning and was disappointed to see that the pool looked like a lagoon. It was about 2.5-3' deep at this point and you could not see the bottom. The water was a murky aqua color. Not green like some pools I've seen pictures of, but definitely greenish-blue and not even remotely clear. I was disappointed but went on to work, and spent most of my day searching about what to do. I started reading and became hugely overwhelmed. There are so many abbreviations I don't understand, and so many chemicals I see recommended. I'm already starting to see dollar signs here. I asked my friend for advice...he said he never experienced anything like this. His routine was to always keep a chlorine tab handy, shock the pool every week or two, and test ph and chlorine levels every few days. His pool always looked crystal clear doing this. I picked up some shock on the way home (the stuff he used...Clorox Xtra Blue) to put in as soon as the pool was full. As I waited for it to finish filling, I used the test kit he had given me. I'm sure this is a cheapo kit and you guys will recommend a better one...but this is what I had at the time. The tester showed a chlorine level of practically zero (no surprise..I hadn't even finished filling yet) and a ph of 7.4. My tester does not test for anything else, although there are at least a dozen other levels that can be tested I've seen here. I finished filling the pool last night, turned on the pump/filter, broadcast half the bottle of shock (per the instructions on the bottle for this size pool) and went to bed. I hoped to see a drastic difference this morning but it looks the same. Pump has now been running for just over 12 hours. Chlorine and ph are both now showing way high....higher than the tester goes. I added 6oz of Clorox algaecide about an hour ago because I found some in the kit my friend gave me. I'm working from home today so I can keep an eye on the pool, but at this point I'm not sure what else to do. I know the "correct" thing to do is order an expensive test kit and spend hours of homework learning about pools. I'll be honest...I'm not sure I'm willing to do that. Summer is only going to last another 2 months here. If I spend another 3 weeks and several hundred dollars trying to get this thing in decent shape, it completely defeats the purpose of putting this pool up. If that's what I'm faced with I may just take it down and give up. But before I do...can anyone recommend what I should try next? Maybe some light reading a new guy could understand? Some cheap chemicals, or something easy I can try?
Thanks for reading my novel, and I appreciate any input
Just as a quick introduction to let you know where I'm coming from....I am a 100% complete newbie to pools. Two weeks ago, I didn't know any more about pools than I did about performing brain surgery. I was aware that both of these things existed, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
Several weeks ago, A friend of mine offered to give me an inexpensive Wal-Mart pool. He bought it last year as a cheap way to see if his kids would actually use a pool enough to warrant spending a significant amount of money one a good one. They used it almost nonstop last summer, so they began construction of their new pool earlier this summer, and offered me this one. I'm not much for pools honestly, but my wife is. We swam in this pool once or twice at my friend's house last year and it was enjoyable enough that I figured it would be worth putting up if I could get into it for free. The pool is an 18'x4' "Summer Waves" above ground model. It uses a paper cartridge filter and by my math, holds about 6700 gallons. I spent a week prepping the site where the pool needed to go, which was in itself way more work than I had bargained for. Had I known what would be involved to level out what already appeared to be a level spot, I never would have taken this pool. But after several days I had reached the point of no return and would either end up with a pool in my yard or a big muddy mess, so despite my better judgement, I carried on and got everything ready to go. We put up the pool Monday afternoon. We got it all set up and it was a bit dirty. Apparently he didn't clean it very well when putting it up for storage last year. It had a fair amount of sand all over it, some dead grass, and some lightly discolored areas...probably just from being stored in a shed all winter. I spent about an our with a brush and some simple green getting it cleaned out. Rinsed it down and used a shop vac to get most of the dirty water out. Looking back...I should've spent much more effort getting it perfectly clean. But I got it good enough given the temporary nature of the pool, and began filling. After about an hour and a half I got in and waded around before dark. It was shin deep at this point and was looking great. Water was clear, pool looked clean. I was happy and went to bed. I figured that it would be full by about 2am, so I set my alarm for 1am to get back up and turn the water off. I wanted to make sure I didn't overfill it accidentally. At 1am It was really only about half full but I turned it off anyway and went to bed. It was dark out, so I didn't notice what the water looked like at this point. I got up Tuesday morning and was disappointed to see that the pool looked like a lagoon. It was about 2.5-3' deep at this point and you could not see the bottom. The water was a murky aqua color. Not green like some pools I've seen pictures of, but definitely greenish-blue and not even remotely clear. I was disappointed but went on to work, and spent most of my day searching about what to do. I started reading and became hugely overwhelmed. There are so many abbreviations I don't understand, and so many chemicals I see recommended. I'm already starting to see dollar signs here. I asked my friend for advice...he said he never experienced anything like this. His routine was to always keep a chlorine tab handy, shock the pool every week or two, and test ph and chlorine levels every few days. His pool always looked crystal clear doing this. I picked up some shock on the way home (the stuff he used...Clorox Xtra Blue) to put in as soon as the pool was full. As I waited for it to finish filling, I used the test kit he had given me. I'm sure this is a cheapo kit and you guys will recommend a better one...but this is what I had at the time. The tester showed a chlorine level of practically zero (no surprise..I hadn't even finished filling yet) and a ph of 7.4. My tester does not test for anything else, although there are at least a dozen other levels that can be tested I've seen here. I finished filling the pool last night, turned on the pump/filter, broadcast half the bottle of shock (per the instructions on the bottle for this size pool) and went to bed. I hoped to see a drastic difference this morning but it looks the same. Pump has now been running for just over 12 hours. Chlorine and ph are both now showing way high....higher than the tester goes. I added 6oz of Clorox algaecide about an hour ago because I found some in the kit my friend gave me. I'm working from home today so I can keep an eye on the pool, but at this point I'm not sure what else to do. I know the "correct" thing to do is order an expensive test kit and spend hours of homework learning about pools. I'll be honest...I'm not sure I'm willing to do that. Summer is only going to last another 2 months here. If I spend another 3 weeks and several hundred dollars trying to get this thing in decent shape, it completely defeats the purpose of putting this pool up. If that's what I'm faced with I may just take it down and give up. But before I do...can anyone recommend what I should try next? Maybe some light reading a new guy could understand? Some cheap chemicals, or something easy I can try?
Thanks for reading my novel, and I appreciate any input