PROCESS: New Pool - Add Salt - Run Pump (What is it?)

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M

MnHotRod

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Apr 28, 2012
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Ok, we set up our 16-foot round Intex pool and I added three 40 pound bags of salt. We have an Intex 2650 and I want to run the pump for 24-hours but do not know what setting to have it on. What is the difference between Filter, Rinse, Circulate and etc. After backwashing the new sand until the window looked clear, I ran the pump on filter and got in the pool to mix up the salt crystals. I pushed the water around in a circle using a little flip board we bought for the kids. I did this for about 20 minutes, trying to run around the pool too to get things mixed up. All the crystals are gone from the floor. I never thought to look at the pressure when I first started the pump. And I think that is an important step in learning a new system. I didn't think to read up on these details as I was so concerned with pool school that I neglected to research the pump and and sand filter.

Sorry for the lengthy message. Any tips or reading where I can find this out.

Oh, and maybe I'll go grab the manual as I wait to get blasted.

Love the site. Will share photos of our setup soon. We have a pretty steep hill and managed to build some great retaining walls to hold our pool.
 
Filter is the normal mode.
Backwash runs water backward through the sand and out to waste.
Rinse runs water through the sand normally but out to waste instead of to the pool.
Circulate skips the filter and returns the water to the pool.
Waste pumps the water directly too waste skipping the filter.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone ;)
 
Thanks for the descriptions.

Doesn't answer my question though. After setting up the pool for the first time, and adding salt for the firtst time, what do I run the pump on to mix the salt into the water? I'm thinking CIRCULATE rather than FILTER as I would want to mix the salt in versus filter it out.
 
The salt doesn't get filtered out. It's too small to get filtered out when in solution. I would recommend filter. Have you added any bleach/chlorine yet. That is very important. You don't want algae to start growing. Check out pool school its at the top of the page to the center on the right.
Filter should be the setting you use 99% of the time. the other 1% is Backwash and Rinse.

The basics are nasties are in the pool, chlorine kills the nasties, the filter catches the dead nasties. When the pressure rises on the filter (5-8 PSI depending on the filter) it time to flush out the dead nasties. Use backwash, that back washes the nasties out the waste pipe. Then Rinse, cause you don't want them back in your pool. (Follow directions that came with your filter setup). But that's the basic idea.

CYA is sunscreen for Chlorine. If your pool isn't inside you need some at least 30 but never more than 100.
 
Thanks for the response.

No, I have not added any bleech yet but I was thinking I should. I should be getting my test kit tonight and can add chlorine after some testing. Maybe I will create a startup guide for setting up a SWG pool as I have yet to find one that walks through the process. IE: Calculate how much salt, add salt over two days time running pump, add bleach and check FC. Or something like that. If it exists, I haven't seen it.

While reading some of pool school, the only thing I noticed was adding bleach if you needed to shock an SWG pool as the system was not strong enough to do it itself.

If I have no test kit, and my pool is 5061 gallons, any rough guess on amount of bleach to add while waiting for the test kit to arrive? We have city water so I made the assumption that there would be some amount of chlorine already in the water. My bad maybe.

UPDATE: Tracking says my Taylor K-2006 is out for delivery. After the test I'll add bleach to get to 5ppm FC. Maybe post some numbers in the other section to get some advice.
 
yes add some soon!
When I added my salt (morton solar salt for water softners it's cheaper than pool salt) it took a whole 30 minutes to dissolve.
this link is your friend: http://www.poolcalculator.com/
in the upper right corner enter your pool size

need about 52 oz. of bleach.

Also without CYA the sun will break down the chlorine in minutes. Wally world sells it in pool care. Called stabilizer. You'll need at least 3 lbs. Add the stabilizer to an old sock. (Think it will be like a tea bag). it will dissolve in a few days. you can speed the process by squeezing the sock with the CYA in it.
 
Yep, I used the crystals recommended in one of the Pool School tips section.

The test kit was just delivered. I will shoot home over lunch, add the bleach and stabilizer if I can find that at Wallyworld. I'll do a test before adding chemicals and see if I can get some numbers.

Thanks for the tips! Keep them coming.
 

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You can pretty much assume that FC and CYA are 0 in your pool currently. So, using poolcalculator you can find out how much of each you should add.

Remember that the CYA may not show up on the test for a week ... so save your reagents as the K2006 does not come with very much for the CYA test.

It would be worth testing the pH, TA, and CH to see if those require adjustment ... note that the CYA tends to lower the pH as well (you can see how much in the "Effects of adding chemicals" section of the calculator.
 
A SWCG maintains the chlorine level for you once you've added the salt. Treat it like a regular pool then modify for SWCG. (increase CYA, may have to lower TA, but that's about it for the differences). A SWCG takes away the daily maintenance of having to manually add chlorine.
 
Great responses. I added 40 pounds of salt, half a jug of bleach and 3 cups of stabilzer in a sock over the lunch hour. Will check levels tonight around 10pm then again in the morning. Will hold on CYA test until next week. Thank you for the support!

UPDATE: Thanks to you guys I am now a TFP Lifetime Member
 
I should post this elsewhere but I will put it here for now. Checked levels tonight at 7pm.

POOL: Intex 16-Foot Round Ultra Frame
PUMP: Intex 2650 (56671EG)
SWG: Intex SWG 54601EG

TEMP: 74
FC = 5
CC = 0.5
PH = 7.6
TA = 15.5
CH = 13
SALT = 3630
 
First time I have ever done testing. If the mulitplier was different for TA and CH, that could be my problem. 31 drops for TA. 26 drops for CH.

UPDATE: Found instructions online. Looks like the multiplier for TA and CH is 10. TA looks high. Can that be right? Maybe I should run the alternate test for CH when PPM is high?

TA = 310
CH = 260
 

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