Hi, I am Jade a new above ground pool owner. We just bought a 22ft INTEX POOL and also a swg to go with it. I am new at maintaining pools and wanted to know if there's anything special I need to do. We are filling it up as we speak. I just ordered a Tf-100 test kit today so it's on the way. We are going to throw a big birthday bash for our soon to be 1yrold son. Anything I need to know on how to get the chemicals set right and so on! I know I'll be asking a lot of questions and reading a ton! Thanks in advance and advice is welcomed!
New Pool Owner!
- Thread starter Jadej1612
- Start date
Welcome Jade, and it sounds like you are off on the right track straight away.
Just keep reading, start with the ABC's in Pool School and read further as you can absorb it. Once you understand the basics, it really is very easy, and you'll find out there is no great mystery to keeping a pool clear and safe. Enjoy the forums.
Just keep reading, start with the ABC's in Pool School and read further as you can absorb it. Once you understand the basics, it really is very easy, and you'll find out there is no great mystery to keeping a pool clear and safe. Enjoy the forums.
My pool is about full. Do we need to get the levels correct before we swim? Put bleach in it? Put the salt and then setup swg? Still waiting on test kit.
So results are TH-0, Chlorine (FC)-0, pH-6.8, TA-40, CYA-30-50 by test strips waiting on kit...... So how much bleach do I put in and when can we start the salt water system? Salt water has been in for three days and the pump has run for 24 hours...
Those strips are useless. Unless you specifically added stabilizer or powdered chlorine, your CYA level is zero. It doesn't occur in nature and it isn't in drinking water. If the readings were believable...you should raise the pH with Borax or washing soda from the grocery store or pH up from the pool store. Right now it could get rough on eyes and skin. And with zero CYA, you want to target 3 FC. After you add stabilizer (CYA) that target level will change.
You can turn on the SWG any time now; the salt should all be dissolved and well mixed by now. Don't expect it to maintain the chlorine level without stabilizer.
Have you read the ABCs?
Pool Chemicals and how to add them
How to use Poolmath
I have read those articles but I still need help. I know those strips are useless but the test kit is taking a week to get to me. I have all the chemicals in my garage and we're ready to swim! Was seeing if we could speed up the process. How much bleach are we supposed to do? This first time around ill need my hand held I want to learn correctly since we have a 1 year old going in the pool. 
Welcome to TFP 
What chems do you have in your garage?
As Richard mentioned, with zero CYA, add about 3ppm FC.
Use PoolMath to calculate doses (link in menu bar at top of each page).
In PoolMath, add the pool gallons at top, then in the FC "now" column put "zero" and in "target column, put "3" ,
then select the % bleach/liquid chlorine you are using.
For your pool gallons, and using 8.5% bleach, I get 46 ounces to take FC from zero to 3.
You need to add about 60 ppm CYA via sock method. If you don't know how, post back and someone will be around to help.
This should be done first. Confirm/retest/adjust pH.Richard320 said:
What chems do you have in your garage?
As Richard mentioned, with zero CYA, add about 3ppm FC.
Use PoolMath to calculate doses (link in menu bar at top of each page).
In PoolMath, add the pool gallons at top, then in the FC "now" column put "zero" and in "target column, put "3" ,
then select the % bleach/liquid chlorine you are using.
For your pool gallons, and using 8.5% bleach, I get 46 ounces to take FC from zero to 3.
You need to add about 60 ppm CYA via sock method. If you don't know how, post back and someone will be around to help.
Ok so our test kit just came in and we redid tests. FC-0, Ph-6.8, CH-25ppm, TA-30, CYA-0 So now which direction do we go?
Okay we are going to do the sock method for cya. How much do we put in the sock? Also, how do we convert solid to oz. for stabilizer and ph plus and ph minus and stuff like that?
Okay we are going to do the sock method for cya. How much do we put in the sock? Also, how do we convert solid to oz. for stabilizer and ph plus and ph minus and stuff like that?
poolmath tells you.
It will say something like Add by weight or by volume of stabilizer.
The volume is the kitchen measuring cups way to measure.
Just curious as to why over 50ppm for CYA? I thought the range should be 30-50ppm...
Because in your initial post you wrote, "We just bought a 22ft INTEX POOL and also a swg to go with it."
The recommendations for a SWG pool are different from a bleach pool.
Sorry to mix in. I'm not OP of thread. I was just reading through the thread and just got confused for a min about the CYA level. I must have missed the mention of the SWG. Thanks Richard!
Tf100 test kit says 60-80 for swg??? Readings this morning are FC-5ppm, cl-br- 5 10, Cc-0.5, tc- 5.5, Ch-25, TA-30, cya-0, salt is 2900. So what do I focus on first? I know FC is too high, ch is low, TA is low, Cya is low, salt is almost there.... So where do I go from here?