Hi All! I am brand new to owning an AG Pool, and to this forum. We literally just pulled our pool out of the box last night (Coleman 16x48). We have the pump it came with....I believe it is a 1,000 gallon pump with cartridge filters. We also purchased a SWG today after reading up on it in this group. We have been filling it up since about midnight last night, and it is finally full! I have been so nervous and overwhelmed about this whole chemical maintenance thing that is involved with our pool! A Facebook group of mom's recommended this site to me and I have been trying to read up all day, but I am still stupidly in over my head LOL!
Okay so, #1. Right now there is just plain tap water in our pool. I do not have a recommended test kit from this site yet, but will work on getting that ordered. So, we used HTH test strips from wall-mart. I did an initial read of our water and here are the results:
TH- 400
FC-0
PH-7.8
TA-120
CA-30-50
I also did the Salt Water Test and it test just under the #1 on the test strip.
I am not sure where to go from here. I have 120 pounds of pool salt, a bag of CA, and a bag of pool shock that they gave me at the pool store today. I can go get liquid chlorine if needed though!
#2. I am so lost on the pump and SWG! I feel like the instructions are useless and mostly just confuse me. I have no idea how or when to run my pump....does it need to run 24/7? I kind of read through some articles on here that say it depends on your FC testing, but initially to get this started, should my pump be running?
#3. The SWG says to place the salt into the pool and allow the pump to run for 24 hours I believe before turning on the SWG....do I add the CA into the water with the salt? What about the pool shock or additional chlorine to start?
#4. Sorry- last one! Can my kids play in the pool while all of the above ingredients are being mixed into the pool?
So sorry for all the questions...I don't want to hire a pool guy because I know they are just going to put loads of chemicals in it, but I just feel really overwhelmed right now!!
Okay so, #1. Right now there is just plain tap water in our pool. I do not have a recommended test kit from this site yet, but will work on getting that ordered. So, we used HTH test strips from wall-mart. I did an initial read of our water and here are the results:
TH- 400
FC-0
PH-7.8
TA-120
CA-30-50
I also did the Salt Water Test and it test just under the #1 on the test strip.
I am not sure where to go from here. I have 120 pounds of pool salt, a bag of CA, and a bag of pool shock that they gave me at the pool store today. I can go get liquid chlorine if needed though!
#2. I am so lost on the pump and SWG! I feel like the instructions are useless and mostly just confuse me. I have no idea how or when to run my pump....does it need to run 24/7? I kind of read through some articles on here that say it depends on your FC testing, but initially to get this started, should my pump be running?
#3. The SWG says to place the salt into the pool and allow the pump to run for 24 hours I believe before turning on the SWG....do I add the CA into the water with the salt? What about the pool shock or additional chlorine to start?
#4. Sorry- last one! Can my kids play in the pool while all of the above ingredients are being mixed into the pool?
So sorry for all the questions...I don't want to hire a pool guy because I know they are just going to put loads of chemicals in it, but I just feel really overwhelmed right now!!