First Time Pool Owner-Need Help

[jmichiaels]

Hello! My husband and I bought a pool and just finished filling yesterday. It’s a 24’ round intex with a 52” wall height. We bought a saltwater system for it since we heard maintenance was so much easier but haven’t put any salt in yet because we were told to shock first.

We have roughly 14,000 gallons of water and shocked with 2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine as instructed. The pump has been running since adding the chlorine and I just tested the water with the strips that came with our pool. I’ve attached the pictures. It looks like our free chlorine, pH, and alkalinity are all high but our calcium hardness is in normal range.

Do we need to add any more chemicals or reduce free chlorine or pH before we add our salt and run our SW system? We’re new to this and I can’t find anything on the internet relevant to it. Help would be majorly appreciated!

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! Yes, new water needs some treatment right away to prevent algae, but I'm surprised yours looks so cloudy already. Did you fill from a well or city water? It does look cloudy green right?

The first thing you will need to do is dump those test strips. They are horrible. You want to obtain a TF-100 (link in my signature) or Taylor K-2006C test it. That's very important. Also be sure to save our Pool Care Basics to your FAVs for future reference.

New water needs at first:
1. Stabilizer (CYA) to a minimum of 30. Normally salt pools we recommend 70, but your water is cloudy, so let's discuss that more before increasing the CYA more than 30.
2 - FC on day one to about 3 ppm using liquid chlorine. Once the stabilizer is added, balance the FC to the CYA as noted on the FC/CYA Levels.
3 - Adjust the pH anywhere between 7.2 - 7.8. If it's high use muriatic acid to lower.

 

[jmichiaels]

Welcome to TFP! Yes, new water needs some treatment right away to prevent algae, but I'm surprised yours looks so cloudy already. Did you fill from a well or city water? It does look cloudy green right?

The first thing you will need to do is dump those test strips. They are horrible. You want to obtain a TF-100 (link in my signature) or Taylor K-2006C test it. That's very important. Also be sure to save our Pool Care Basics to your FAVs for future reference.

New water needs at first:
1. Stabilizer (CYA) to a minimum of 30. Normally salt pools we recommend 70, but your water is cloudy, so let's discuss that more before increasing the CYA more than 30.
2 - FC on day one to about 3 ppm using liquid chlorine. Once the stabilizer is added, balance the FC to the CYA as noted on the FC/CYA Levels.
3 - Adjust the pH anywhere between 7.2 - 7.8. If it's high use muriatic acid to lower.

Thank you!

Yes it does look cloudy green. We have ordered the TF100 test kit but it hasn’t arrived yet so we used the strips in the mean time. We filled with our hose (well water).

So the first thing we need to do is adjust the pH? So we would add the muriatic acid, correct?

Right now the only thing we have added to the water since filling is 2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine to “shock”. Should we add the pool salt and start running the filter/pump or wait until the water is balanced and then add?

 

[Texas Splash]

We filled with our hose (well water).

That explains it. Well water is a bit unpredictable and often contains iron. Yes, use muriatic acid to lower the pH, but be careful. Those test strips are really bad and you don't want to try and make too many adjustments based off of those color blocks.

As for chlorine, use our PoolMath APP to help you determine how much chlorine to add (about 3 ppm) per day for now. I know you have a SWG, but I'm hesitant to rely solely on that due to the condition of your well water. We need to ensure the water isn't full of organic materials (algae) and to do that you'll need your TF-100. So for now, just add that little bit of chlorine each day until the kit arrives.

You might also consider placing some polyfill in your skimmer to see if it will grab any iron. The more iron you can filter out now the better.