First time pool owner - My Intex 16' x 48" AGP build log

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orion2001

0
Jul 25, 2015
22
NY
Hey folks,

Been lurking for a while and recently purchased an Intex 16' x 48" Ultra Frame AGP. My wife and I wanted to install this closer to our house, but we have a pretty steep grade (14" across 18 ft). We made the mistake of hiring someone with no real experience with leveling ground off of Craigslist, and while he managed to get all the sod off and dig up some of the ground, his leveling was really poor. So my wife and I then had to spend almost 1.5 days just carting out dirt and leveling as best as we could. With our soil being pretty clay like, it was hard work, though the nice thing is that it compacts nicely and is very firm underfoot.

Here are a couple of pics of the process.

1. My wife spreading out sand across the level base. We used a 2x4 staked into the center of the circle (18' diameter) with a level taped at the end and rotated it around to get a level base. It was still a LOT of work with the base soil, but was easy work with the thin top layer of sand (~ 0.25" or so).
Leveling ground.jpg

2.Our final level base with ~ 0.25" of sand
Level ground.jpg

3. Assembled pool
7difDkT.jpg


4. Another shot of assembled pool
t2TBWvF.jpg


The pool is all setup and ready to go. We do have 2" high paver stones on which the legs will be placed to help prevent any settling as it will distribute the weight on each leg over a larger, more uniform surface. We are really pleased with the leveling job so far.

I did have a couple of questions I was hoping to have some help with.

1) Filling the pool: I have the TF-100 kit ordered and it should get here on Tuesday. I did want to get started with filling today though. I can use pool calculator to determine how much bleach to add along with the CYA (which will likely take a week to dissolve in). What should my approach to dosing bleach in the meantime be? Should I dose 1/10th of the total dose when the pool has a few inches of water and keep dosing more as it fills up till I hit the total recommended dose?

2) My pool will get many hours of sunlight. How much chlorine in ppm should I assume will be burnt up over the course of a day so I can dose some extra accordingly over and above the recommended total dose based on pool calculator? How do I figure out what maintenance dose of Chlorine to use in the interim while the test-kit gets here?

3) Any other tips while filling up the pool in terms of pool chemistry?

4) This will be transitioned to a SWG system (the Intex 2650gph pump + integrated SWG) in a few days. For now, I'm just using the 1500gph pump that came with the pool in the interim period. It will serve as my backup pump in the future. Anything in particular I should do with this in mind?

5) Do you think I need to build a retaining wall on the high side? The total height of the vertical section is ~ 14". Not sure if that will be necessary or if I can get away with leaving things as is.

6) Any suggestions on what to do around the base to prevent weeds/grass growing all around the pool? Should I just dump a bunch of sand around legs and liner to prevent weeds or could that hurt the liner? Any other suggestions?

Thanks a lot for all the awesome information on the forums! Looking forward to hearing from more experienced folks!
 
orion2001 said:
I did have a couple of questions I was hoping to have some help with.

1) Filling the pool: I have the TF-100 kit ordered and it should get here on Tuesday. I did want to get started with filling today though. I can use pool calculator to determine how much bleach to add along with the CYA (which will likely take a week to dissolve in). What should my approach to dosing bleach in the meantime be? Should I dose 1/10th of the total dose when the pool has a few inches of water and keep dosing more as it fills up till I hit the total recommended dose?

Just wait until the pool is filled and your pump is running to put in the bleach. You want the pump to circulate and dilute the bleach.

2) My pool will get many hours of sunlight. How much chlorine in ppm should I assume will be burnt up over the course of a day so I can dose some extra accordingly over and above the recommended total dose based on pool calculator? How do I figure out what maintenance dose of Chlorine to use in the interim while the test-kit gets here?

2 to 3 ppm probably. Just add 1/2 gallon of bleach a day until your test kit arrives.

3) Any other tips while filling up the pool in terms of pool chemistry?

Check the pH of your fill water and adjust accordingly. You want to be around 7.5

4) This will be transitioned to a SWG system (the Intex 2650gph pump + integrated SWG) in a few days. For now, I'm just using the 1500gph pump that came with the pool in the interim period. It will serve as my backup pump in the future. Anything in particular I should do with this in mind?

Easiest to get your FC maintained with bleach first. SWG's are good for maintaining levels but not generating the initial 5 ppm you need. You can go ahead and add the salt as you need 24 hours for to dissolve anyway.

5) Do you think I need to build a retaining wall on the high side? The total height of the vertical section is ~ 14". Not sure if that will be necessary or if I can get away with leaving things as is.

Don't know...I have an IG

6) Any suggestions on what to do around the base to prevent weeds/grass growing all around the pool? Should I just dump a bunch of sand around legs and liner to prevent weeds or could that hurt the liner? Any other suggestions?

We put down weedex and river rock. Knowing that once or twice a year, we'll need some roundup to maintain.

Thanks a lot for all the awesome information on the forums! Looking forward to hearing from more experienced folks!
Click to expand...

See inline
 
robertmee said:
See inline
Click to expand...
Thanks! This helps a lot.

With regards to amount of chlorine dosed, using the pool calculator (~5100 gallon pool volume) 1/2 gallon of bleach equates to ~ 8.5ppm of FC. I am also planning on having a sock stuffed with 2lbs of CYA to get CYA up to approximately 50 once it all dissolves (which results in a target FC value of 6 based on the TFP chart). The plan would be to bring it up to 70 later on when I transition to the SWG.

Given that I will have very low CYA initially, I assume it would be okay to dose ~8.5ppm of FC each day as a lot of it will be broken down in the sun (I will try to have the Intex summer cover on when not in use to prevent FC from being dissipated instantly)?

Then when the testkit gets here on Wednesday, I can test everything and post here for further advice. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?
 
Sounds reasonable. I wouldn't be too concerned with overdosing FC, just don't go crazy with bleach. Even with 0 CYA, your shock level of FC (below is safe to swim) is 10. But you're adding 2 lbs, so that'll be roughly 30 to 40 and you can assume for FC purposes that it's in there at that point even though not completely dissolved. And hopefully, you'll only be doing this blind for a couple of days.
 
Sounds good. Do you think it would be okay to get in the pool when we have it full or should I wait till the kit is here so I can verify FC level before jumping in? The latter approach of course is perhaps the more prudent one, but after many days of back breaking work, we really really want to enjoy the fruits of our labor as soon as the pool is full :).
 

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Time for a quick update. Took ~ 12 hours to fill the pool with 2 hoses. Removing wrinkles from the liner was a PAIN! But I think we ended up doing a decent job. The only thing we're a bit annoyed about is that the process of wrinkle removal ended up making the sand base below a bit lumpy in places and we did not have the foresight to try and even that out before we had too much water in the pool.

Added ~ 60oz of bleach last night for a target 8ppm of FC. 2lb of CYA in a sock already suspended on the ladder to aim for a target CYA of ~ 40. I also added in 60lbs of salt for ~ 1500ppm of salt. Need to add another 60lbs in preparation for switching to my SWG which got delivered today. In other good news, my TF-100 kit is getting here a day early! So I'll have it today and will be doing some tests. Curious to see how low FC goes with the brutal sun exposure that my pool gets all afternoon/evening.

When would you folks recommend my switching to the Sand Filter + SWG? My current pump is a 1500Gph Intex light weight, but it seems reasonably capable for now. Should I wait till my CYA is at ~ 50 - 60 and showing up in tests with a decent amount of FC before switching? I do know that from the Pool School tables, I should be aiming for higher CYA with the SWG, but lower CYA when using bleach. So what's the recommended approach to managing the transition?
 
Me personally I started with lower cya and bringing up after getting a feel for the swg needs. You can do the opposite you'll just use a little more bleach with the higher cya. Just be sure you monitor your FC for the immediate future even with the SWG. These systems aren't closed loop. They don't adjust output based on FC levels. They simply produce chlorine at a given rate based on pump duty cycle and SWG output percentage. But it has no idea how much FC you lose due to sun, bather load, organics, etc. So you may find you still supplement with bleach from time to time until you get it all dialed in.
 
Re: First time pool owner - My Intex 16' x 48" AGP build log

You can turn on your SWG as soon as the 2nd dose of salt is dissolved. Most people recommend waiting 24 hours after you add it, but I usually just dump it in and stir it up, then flip the switch.

I have the same pool, and with my CYA at 50, I'm running my SWG 6 hours/day right now to maintain an FC of 5 ppm.
 
5) My pool is the same with about a 16" drop. The soil has held up perfectly for the last 4 months including plenty of heavy rain. You can leave as is without any problems. I'll put a wall of some kind in eventually only for aesthetic reasons.

6) As mentioned weeds grow in sand, plus it will stick to feet, toys ect and end up in the pool. On the low side we just put the sod back down around the pool and it looks nice. On the high side I with the 16" drop I just dumped a few bags of mulch. Probably would have used something more permanent like river rock but next year we'll get a bigger pool and I wanted something cheap and easy to remove.
 
Re: First time pool owner - My Intex 16' x 48" AGP build log

robertmee said:
Me personally I started with lower cya and bringing up after getting a feel for the swg needs. You can do the opposite you'll just use a little more bleach with the higher cya. Just be sure you monitor your FC for the immediate future even with the SWG. These systems aren't closed loop. They don't adjust output based on FC levels. They simply produce chlorine at a given rate based on pump duty cycle and SWG output percentage. But it has no idea how much FC you lose due to sun, bather load, organics, etc. So you may find you still supplement with bleach from time to time until you get it all dialed in.
Click to expand...
Yup, that sounds like a plan. I do plan on monitoring FC like a hawk and adding in bleach to supplement till everything stabilizes and I get a handle for my pool and FC consumption in the sun, etc. My solar cover is coming in today, so that should help reduce FC consumption in the sun as well.

jeffchap said:
You can turn on your SWG as soon as the 2nd dose of salt is dissolved. Most people recommend waiting 24 hours after you add it, but I usually just dump it in and stir it up, then flip the switch.

I have the same pool, and with my CYA at 50, I'm running my SWG 6 hours/day right now to maintain an FC of 5 ppm.
Click to expand...
Great to know as a point of reference! I think I might have to wait 24 hours in any case. They were out of solar salt so we ended up with water softener salt (no additives and 99.6% purity) which have much larger crystals. I think it will take many hours for some of the larger crystals to fully dissolve.

krazykrames said:
5) My pool is the same with about a 16" drop. The soil has held up perfectly for the last 4 months including plenty of heavy rain. You can leave as is without any problems. I'll put a wall of some kind in eventually only for aesthetic reasons.

6) As mentioned weeds grow in sand, plus it will stick to feet, toys ect and end up in the pool. On the low side we just put the sod back down around the pool and it looks nice. On the high side I with the 16" drop I just dumped a few bags of mulch. Probably would have used something more permanent like river rock but next year we'll get a bigger pool and I wanted something cheap and easy to remove.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much! This is very good to know. I think our larger concern at this point is our twins (18 months) falling into the gap between the pool and the raised ground accidentally and hurting themselves. We're thinking of putting up a temporary fence that blocks access to the pump at the back and the raised side of the pool. Out of curiosity, how do you trim the grass growing around the liner? I'd be worried that a string trimmer would do damage to the liner?

- - - Updated - - -

Another question related to the Intex Sand Filter + SWG combo. Is the consensus to disconnect the Cu terminal on the SWG? Not to keen on messing with it, but don't want to create issues with staining etc either in the long run.

PS - Just wanted to post to gloat over the fact that all our back breaking leveling work has really paid off. There is absolutely no discernible tilt to the water level in the pool! :D
 
Disconnect the copper bar n get to it. Enjoy the pool!
 
Re: First time pool owner - My Intex 16' x 48" AGP build log

Ok, Test kit is in and I just got my water test results. Input would really be appreciated!

FC - 13.5
CC - 0.5
CH - 200 - 225 (seemed right between 8 & 9 drops)
TA - 160
pH ~ 7.4

A couple of concerns/comments
1) We are still waiting for our skimmer net + pole and pool vacuum. The pool was open today and we already had a bunch of dead bugs on the surface and on the floor. My wife managed to get most of the big guys out by wading inside but we still have a few on the floor. It will likely be a couple more days before we have a vacuum to get on top of this - So I am a bit concerned about these providing a base for some organics for algae growth

2) The FC is likely higher than my supposed target of 8 from yesterday since I didn't account for the fact that the pool wasn't fully topped up for ~ 5100 gallons, but was around 6 inches lower than the max. In addition, I eyeballed half of the bleach bottle for 60oz, but might have poured in something more like 70oz

3) CYA is still in a sock for estimated CYA of 40-50 in a week or so. Did not test now since it isn't recommended.

4) We received a solar blanket (12 mil) today and we will likely trim to size and install it tonight. That should hopefully lower bug contamination but will increase water temp.

5) Salt is currently around 1500, will likely bring it up to ~ 3000ppm over next couple of days in preparation for hooking up my SWG + sand filter pump (currently using 1500gpH Intex pump+filter)

6) I am topping up ~ 5 inches of water to fill pool so the FC number will likely drop a bit.

So given all of the above, what should my next steps be?
Should I still add in the ~50oz of bleach tonight? Or should I wait to bring the 13.5 FC down a bit? I am a bit worried about the CC and the potential for trouble due to not having a vacuum on hand.

Any other suggestions? TA seems to be higher than recommended. Do I need to worry about that now or just focus on FC, CC and understanding the pool dynamics over the next week or so?

- - - Updated - - -

krazykrames said:
For trimming I just get within an inch or whatever I feel comfortable with. The grass next to the pool I just pull by hand, pool isn't too big, only takes a few minutes.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that sounds like a plan.
 
Since this is a new fill and you've kept chlorine in it if the water is clear I would hold off anymore bleach and go ahead and do your OCLT test tonight. That will tell you for sure if you've kept organics away. If it doesn't pass then SLAM...should be a short slam if at all. If OCLT passes let your fc drop down to 7 to 8 and don't let it drop below 5 until you get the swg going.
 
Thanks Robert. Unfortunately I've come down with a fever and my wife's schedule won't allow her to do the OCLT on my behalf. Would it be okay if I test daily and ensure FC of 7-8 and CC < 1 till I'm able to do the OCLT? Would I run the risk of letting any organics get a foothold?

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
 

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