Think i may need help soon!

It's actually a really good thing that I decided to stop draining last night and left a little bit of water in the pool because apparently the wind came up enough to blow my chairs off of my deck and had the pool been empty it would have screwed everything up and we would have had to reset everything before we could even get started...whew! Feel like things are going my way a little bit more now LOL
 
I haven't had a chance to get in yet this morning to work with things but looking over the side most of the product is now finally settled to the bottom and I can see through the water a bit now. Over my lunch hour I will be starting the siphon again and sweeping product towards it. It looks like the efforts I made yesterday paid off pretty well because there are not big piles of product now on the bottom but there is still some.
 
Pool is simply a liner hanging from a frame there are no metal sides on it at all. I plan on draining it until most of the product if not all of it has been removed. If it ends up completely empty that should be no problem as I will immediately begin refilling it. With this particular pool the only issue with draining it is if the wind comes up and starts trying to drag it around so that is the only real concern I have it this time honestly. By the time I get it completely drained it will basically be as it was the day we put up the frame and hung the liner before we started filling
 
We ran the siphon hose under our fence and really the only casualty is the back corner of our yard inside and outside the fence for several feet is pretty soaked. If any got to the neighbor's property I would be surprised and if they even noticed it I would be even more surprised because it's on the back corner of both of their properties and neither one of them go out there very much. It remains to be seen if the chemicals kill the grass or not, if it does I'm pretty sure it will all grow back next spring :)
 
ta2dwonderwoman said:
I'll be doing is buying a brand new pump most likely that is big enough to handle this pool regardless of what I have to do to it.
That will make your life easier for sure. It is widely accepted on this forum that Intex woefully under-sizes their pumps. I have upgraded my pool to the same pump you have, and found it to be a pretty good fit for me--while you have nearly twice as many gallons to filter.

However, those B type cartridges don't capture the really fine silt/dust that can make the pool cloudy. You may find that you just can't get your pool completely clear, even though the chemistry is all OK. Or, it may be clear in the morning after the pump has been off all night, but as soon as you start swimming it clouds slightly due to the layer of very fine particulates (dust, silt, dead algae, whatever) that settled to the bottom while the pool was still.

One trick I use is to wrap a filter in a couple layers of good quality paper towel, hold the ends on with rubber bands, and run it for a couple hours. A lot of the fine particulates will get trapped in the paper towels rather than passing through the filter and going back into the pool. It kinda wrecks the filter (collapses the pleats so water won't flow through it as rapidly) but that filter can still be rinsed and re-used for the same purpose. I have a designated "polishing" filter that I do this with. I have found those B type filters are quite durable -- I rinse my filters every couple of days, and re-use them for a couple of months. It is more work, but will give you a clearer pool until you upgrade your pump/filter to something good.
 

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That will make your life easier for sure. It is widely accepted on this forum that Intex woefully under-sizes their pumps. I have upgraded my pool to the same pump you have, and found it to be a pretty good fit for me--while you have nearly twice as many gallons to filter.

However, those B type cartridges don't capture the really fine silt/dust that can make the pool cloudy. You may find that you just can't get your pool completely clear, even though the chemistry is all OK. Or, it may be clear in the morning after the pump has been off all night, but as soon as you start swimming it clouds slightly due to the layer of very fine particulates (dust, silt, dead algae, whatever) that settled to the bottom while the pool was still.

One trick I use is to wrap a filter in a couple layers of good quality paper towel, hold the ends on with rubber bands, and run it for a couple hours. A lot of the fine particulates will get trapped in the paper towels rather than passing through the filter and going back into the pool. It kinda wrecks the filter (collapses the pleats so water won't flow through it as rapidly) but that filter can still be rinsed and re-used for the same purpose. I have a designated "polishing" filter that I do this with. I have found those B type filters are quite durable -- I rinse my filters every couple of days, and re-use them for a couple of months. It is more work, but will give you a clearer pool until you upgrade your pump/filter to something good.



Thanks! I usually put in a new filter every week so now that I know it's okay to just rinse and reuse them maybe I'll back off that a little bit. I try to keep my pump running 24-7, but I haven't seen what that's going to do to my electricity bill yet. We are pretty lucky because we don't really have any trees very close to our pool so we get almost no leaves up until the final shedding of the trees in the fall and even then we don't get that many. And for the most part it's just my husband and I swimming so we don't have a lot of people going in and out of our pool so that helps. I already make it a point to sweep and get anything that I can at the bottom of the pool on a daily basis and then once a week I sweep it really well and vacuumed it and change out the filter. I like the idea of putting something over the filter to help it catch fine particles... and yes I do feel the pool store of misguided me but I also think that if I had a proper pump/filter setup i may have been able to recover without the drain and refill... but with everybody's guidance I will be starting with a brand-new fill done the tfp way!
 
I am about 4-6 inches of water left in pool, will be going out in about an hour and a half (5pm central) to work on getting as much swept up as possible and out the siphon hose! I assume that whatever residue is left will be diluted down as I fill the pool, and any that settles will be vacuumed up the first time I vacuum thoroughly. that all being said, here is my plan for the refill process based on what I have been told and what I have learned over the last 48 hours...and man, that's A LOT (I think?) ... please let me know if I have misunderstood anything at all:

start the water running, do a poolmaster test kit on it to get as close as I can on my FC, PH, and TA, - input those numbers for my "now" column in poolmath...for my "goal" column, I want to shoot for 16-20ppm FC, 7.5 PH, 40 CYA and for TA, I am not sure but I think I saw that it is mainly to be used when adjusting PH so maybe not something I need for the fill and shock process? I will also input that I am using 10% pool essentials liquid chlorine in the 128 oz jug...then calculate. it will tell me how much chlorine and CYA I will need...I can add a bit of bleach every little bit when I get a few inches of water until it is all added in by the time it is full...when I have 1ft of water, suspend a lb of stabilizer in a sock and refill it as the pool fills and it gets dissolved until I have added the recommended amount. then...when all full, take more readings and adjust PH to 7.6 and keep FC levels at 16-20 for a day by adding more chlorine and then on the next day, I can allow the chlorine levels to start falling...

at what level does my FC need to be in order to be safe for swimming as I bring it down to 6?

I feel like I have missed something or gotten offbase somewhere, but I have time to get it figured out before I actually begin to fill... thanks to everyone for everything so far...I promise to be less of a problem child once I am up and running and understand the TFP way of doing things!
 
Wow well done!! Very much on track for the start-off shock.

Just two tips I noticed. One is pH which will read high while the FC is high, so you need to simply test your fill water and know the total amount. You can add it proportionally as the pool fills, but not at the exact same time as the chlorine. Always remember never to mix chlorine and muriatic acid in any way. So we just wait 15 minutes between adding to be super safe.

The other is TA. Could you use your kit to test TA of your fill water. Just let it run for a minute or two and grab a sample. You can use the same water for your "now" pH test.

- - - Updated - - -

The water will be safe for swimming at all times. The directions I'm providing will not include anything that makes the pool water chemically unsafe. You do need to be able to see the bottom for safety, nonetheless.

- - - Updated - - -

Safe swimming rules are:
You can see all of the bottom of the pool
FC is at or above the minimum FC and up to shock level FC for your CYA per Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart
And the pH is between 7.2 and 7.8
 
I agree. Test the pH and TA of your fill water now. Don't worry about testing FC in the pool until you plan to add chlorine.

As for FC, I would only add to 5ppm until you are able to put CYA in there. You will also be able to measure about that amount with your kit. Then, when you can add CYA, squeeze the sock like a crazy person until it all dissolves. Then you can bump FC up to 16. Too much FC too early is hard on your liner.

Report your fill-water pH and TA as soon as you get them.
 
Ta2: you can also start dissolving 30ppm CYA in a bucket. Still use the sock, but that could get you started on the dissolving process. The hardest part is softening the granules in the beginning. When are you going to be starting the refill?
 
My ph on the fill water is 7.8 and my ta is 210. I hope to start the filling process tonight so that the pool is not sitting with no water in it overnight in case the wind comes up again... when you say 30 PPM cya I'm not sure how to interpret that by weight? Might have to go look into that one a Little Closer
 
My ph on the fill water is 7.8 and my ta is 210. I hope to start the filling process tonight so that the pool is not sitting with no water in it overnight in case the wind comes up again...

If i put in the following into pool math - first number is now second number is goal:
Fc 0/16
Ph 7.8/7.5
Ta 210/100
Cya assume 0/40

This is what it says to add:
19 oz muriatic acid
53 oz stabilizer
205 oz 10% liquid chlorine
 
Excellent, it's really helpful and much better doing the numbers with PoolMath yourself. No one cares about your pool more than you!

I think Marian's suggestion is to put 3/4 of the CYA in a plastic pail filled not quite full with water so you can stir it and the CYA starts dissolving (30 ppm of the 40 ppm total).

1/4 will go in via the sock method.
 
I am in a situation right now where I may not be home tomorrow to take care of all of the chemicals on this as it fills. Can someone give me an idea of the schedule that I should be using to get these chemicals in? I need to be able to print this off and give it to my husband to have him do it for me if I'm not home and it can't all be done before we go to bed tonight which I'm assuming is a no because there won't be enough water in it, and I'm also assuming that we can't just let it fill up and add everything after it's full
 

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