First pool, just need some advice

[Codyw725]

Hi, I'm a brand new pool owner and just looking for some advice. I purchased a small 12'x30" intex pool from Walmart and it's 1,400 gallons and came with a 540GPH pump that I've been running about 4 hours a day. I bought a beginner pool maintenance kit that has shock treatment, 1 inch chlorine tablets, ph reducer and ph increaser. I also purchased a 3 way tester. I filled my pool up 5 days ago and have monitored it every day. The first day I filled it up I put the recommended dose of shock treatment in the pool and put two of the 1" chlorine tablets into a dispenser and have it floating in there (the bottle said 1 tablet treats 700 gallons per week). Today (5 days later) I noticed these very small white crusty things floating on the surface (they aren't scaled, they almost look like calcium buildup on small strings). I'm trying to figure out if this is just from the chlorine slowly dissolving or what. Pollen right now is crazy too and coating everything so wondering if that is part of it. My test today showed ph at 7.8, chlorine at 1.5 and total alkalinity at 190. I put in a small dose of ph reducer to help bring down the alkalinity this evening. Does all of this sound like I'm on the right track? Remember it's my first pool so constructive criticism is welcome.

Also, once I use up my chlorine tablets I'm thinking about switching to bleach. Is there any issues with doing this? Also my 3 way test kit only tests for chlorine, ph and bromine. Should I invest in a better tester or is it fine since I've only got a 1,400 gallon pool?

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! What is the active ingredient in the shock treatment, and in the tablets? Your pool is so small you can track how high the CYA should be by keeping track of how much was added. The advice we give for really small pools is a little different than for a pool of 5000 gallons or more, since it is probably cheaper to drain and start over if things get out of hand. That being said, take a sample of the water to a pool store, have them run a complete set of tests, and post the results here. Do not buy anything they recommend until you get some feedback from us! We need to know your CYA and CH levels. If you have hard water your calcium (CH) may be too high.

There is a test kit called the TF 50 which is a smaller version of the TF100 we usually recommend. It has tests for CYA, FC, CC, CH, TA, and pH. Once we know what your CYA and CH are you can tack their input to know their level without testing, so I wouldn't say this kit is required for you, but if you intend to move up to a bigger pool someday it would be good practice to know how to test for these values and learn how chemistry changes affect the pool.

You can certainly use liquid chlorine/bleach in your pool. It is the best way to chlorinate without adding CYA or CH to the pool.

 

[Codyw725]

So how much bleach do I add to the pool to keep my chlorine levels around 2-3? I've got about 10 of the 1" chlorine tablets left then I'm switching over to bleach