Pool Newbie

[JRA410]

Just wanted to introduce myself and share my early experience. I purchased an Intex 15 x 42 metal frame pool back in June. The first day it was swimmable was around June 17th. We did pretty well to start off with. We managed to keep the water clear by using test strips, using shock and 1" chlorine tabs to treat the water. I was able to get in it every day and throw out the leaves and debris that got in there. The pump we had kept it pretty clean, though the first one that came with the pool stopped working and we had to ask for a replacement. Then, we had a week of rain and thunderstorms a couple of weeks ago and I had to stay out of it. We had massive amounts of algae, leaves, and debris after. After several days of adding clarifier and algaecide, brushing up the debris to keep it where the pump could get at it, and letting the pump run several hours a day, we finally got the water clear. We tried to use the garden hose vacuum that came with the pool. It got the leaves and bigger things, but all it did was spread the small stuff around. We just got the V-trap vacuum system and I hope it will do a much better job. We also got a 1,500 gph pump... it just came today... and we couldn't install it yet because we had to order the adapters to make it work with the fittings on our pool. We placed the order tonight and I hope they get here quick and I can keep the water balanced until then. I'm excited to see how much of a difference it makes! The 1,000 gph pump did OK until we got backlogged on the cleaning. It would do well at start-up, but would loose pressure after running a few hours. We also found that we've had to wash and replace the filters a lot! I bought two Unicell type C filters (Thanks to another post here on this forum) and we've alternated one in the pump and one ready, cleaning them in between with the garden hose. There is still a bit of small debris on the bottom, which I hope will be eliminated once we get the new pump and vac system running. We are very new at this and would welcome any bits of advice anyone would be willing to share. Here is a picture of the pool and deck taken back around the 4th of July.

 

[supertune]

Hi JRA410 and welcome to TFP!
Looks just like my starter pool... a 15' x 48" Intex frame pool!
I got it setup in April '10.
It was my first experience with pool care, just shocked it, though it was fine, got green, got it back with the pool store testing, but was never happy with it, never seemed to be clear since the day we filled it. Spent lots of $$ at the pool store that year.
Took it down to re-level, refilled and started the pool store cycle all over again...just felt like they didn't help educate me, they just wanted me to keep bringing in a sample every week, and felt like I was in the dark and guessing what was next.
I couldn't go through this again... just get rid of it!
(well I did get rid of it, thanks to TFP...to get a BIGGER one!)
So I decided I would try and learn about pool water chemistry, Google'd it and ended up here at TFP.
Was the best thing that could of happened for me.
After some reading here I realized I needed a professional test kit.
Go here and read from Pool School:
pool-school/pool_test_kit_comparison

Because I was always battling algae, I bought the TF-100 with the XL option.
My TF-100 kit is my Snap-On tool of fixing and preventing any problems I have and will not have! A must have tool IMO.
http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html

Once you have a proper test kit with good readings go here and read and follow these instructions:
what-we-need-to-know-to-answer-your-questions-t10341.html
This is what I did and got a unbelievable amount of help, right then I knew I was in the right place!

I also upgraded my pump/filter system.
Read here about what I did, my posts start at the bottom of page one and continue through the post.
custom-pvc-pipe-adapter-for-intex-pools-t28971.html

Chuck

 

[JRA410]

Thanks so much for sharing!!!! I will definitely check out the links you suggested.