Water boatmen and water quality, HELP !

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M

Miskatonic

0
Jun 12, 2015
15
alicante, spain
Hello, we just set up our above ground pool (finally) a couple of weeks back and the water is nice and clear BUT we get groups of water boatmen in the corners of the pool and occasionally the odd backswimmer.

I don't really know anything much about balancing the PH or suchlike and some help would be appreciated. the intex manual says nothing about this and when i consult some websites they just give me masses of tables that look like i'd need a phd in chemistry to understand them so i'm looking for simple, straightforward advice.

is there a kit i should be using or basically what should we be doing to make the pool unliveable for these buggers but okay for humans ? If I can take some readings then I can try but we got the bundled intex test strips and to say they're wildly inaccurate would seem to be an understatement.

I would really like to have the pool set up to run perfectly so we don't have to contend with these twits swimming around as my wife will not go in the pool with them there, especially when the backswimmers are around, and scooping them out (and squishing them) just seems to lead to more taking roost in a day or so.

I have an intex sand filter and a salt water/chlorine generator which doesn't really seem to be very effective so i've taken to putting in chlorine in powdered form. In the (very badly explained) intex manual it gives filtration times "with muriatic acid" but doesn't say how much of this should be used. this is just hyrdochloric acid, right ? (i know that much chemistry, i think, or maybe i'm wrong on this, too !)

So, yes, basically I need a crash course in pool balancing and if any of you can think of a kit or something helpful for us to get so we can fix this issue up and have clean, bug free water it would be very much appreciated !

Thanks a lot in advance for any forthcoming help, I'd love to not have to squish 10's of these twits every day !

(also, probably best to note, I DO hoover the pool semi-regularly and i skim every day sometimes twice and it's not remotely dirty from what I can see)
 
Here's a good place to start: Pool School - Getting Started

Then read the ABC's of water chemistry.

Just starting off, only concern yourself with 3 things, in this order:

1) pH - keep in the the range of 7.2 to 7.8. Use muriatic acid to lower or borax to raise it. Both are available from any big box store.

2) Cyanuric acid (CYA), aka stabilizer. Target 30 ppm. Available anywhere you can get pool supplies, including Wal Mart.

3) Free chlorine (FC). Target 4 ppm and do not allow to drop below 3. Maintain by adding regular laundry bleach daily. Use only unscented and not the splashless kind.

Test strips are worthless, as is most pool store testing. You need to get a good test kit and perform your own measurements. We highly recommend either the TF-100 or K-2006, because they both provide a FAS-DPD chlorine test that is required in order to follow our method. Most locally available kits do not have this type of test, and can only measure FC up to 5 ppm. This test measures up to 50 ppm.
 
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