I bought the intex swg and thinking about opening the pool within the next few days or weeks. The weather is in the 80s here but supposed to be in the 60s next wk. I know I have to test the water. Yesterday I tested PH which is 7.2 and FC which is 0 so I know to add shock to the pool. When I connect filter, do I connect the swg too but just not start it? Should I add salt right away or can I wait a couple of days before I do that? When I shock to pool what do I use to keep the FC up until the water is balanced to run swg?
First time opening the pool and now I have a SWG
- Thread starter mastiffs08
- Start date
You really should have the pump/filter running for a few hours before you test your water. With no circulation at all, the tests may not be accurate.
So get your water circulating, then test. Then set about balancing the water as you normally would. You may or may not need to shock. What does your water look like? What is the water temp now?
Whenever the need calls for shocking your pool, you should always shock with liquid chlorine so you don't wear out the SWG.
When the water is properly balanced, you can go about the process for the SWG, adding the salt, upping your CYA (higher for an SWG), etc.
I don't see why you can't hook up the SWG when you are putting everything together, and like you said just don't turn it on.
So get your water circulating, then test. Then set about balancing the water as you normally would. You may or may not need to shock. What does your water look like? What is the water temp now?
Whenever the need calls for shocking your pool, you should always shock with liquid chlorine so you don't wear out the SWG.
When the water is properly balanced, you can go about the process for the SWG, adding the salt, upping your CYA (higher for an SWG), etc.
I don't see why you can't hook up the SWG when you are putting everything together, and like you said just don't turn it on.
The water is crystal clear from looking under the cover. The temp of the pool today is 62. Its been in the 80s since yesterday and I'm sure the dark winter cover is warming the water. The temps are supposed to get into the 60s later in the week with 40s as the lows. Would it be pointless to open the pool within the next few days? Sorry for the many questions. I've never opened a pool and didn't do too well with balancing it last yr seeing I had algae that I couldn't get rid of until the end of the season. But I closed with a crystal clear pool 
Once the water temp rises above 60 degrees the algae can thrive with a FC of zero.
I opened, my water was 52 degrees and clear. The forecast for the weekend was upper 80's so I thought I'll turn on my heater and we'll have our first April swim. Took 24 continuous hours and the water temp reached 84. Unfortunately the outside air never did, and it rained all day, and then late afternoon the temp dropped to upper 40's. Needless to say we didn't swim. and I wasted all that gas for nothing.... 
as the air temps are forecast to be in the 60's all week. That's what I get! 
So is up to you. If you do open, and the temp outside drops back down, you can keep your pump run time lower until the temps rise again. So if you would normally have say a 12 hour run time in the summer, you could try 6-8 and see how you do, and even split it up 4 during the day, 4 at night or whatever. The warmer the air/water the more filtration time you'll need, keep in mind if you are in an area with lots of trees you may see more crud in the baskets than usual, and skimmer socks would be good since it is pollen season.
Keeping a solar cover on will cut down on evaporation and uv consumption of the FC.
I opened early because I didn't want to deal with green water. I didn't have to shock, as I still had a 3.5 residual from last fall.
If you do open and water is clear, and circulated, if your FC is still 0 or low, you could just bump it up abit to your normal range, do an overnight FC test and see if it holds. If it holds you don't need to shock it. If it drops overnight by more than 1ppm, then you should shock it.
I opened, my water was 52 degrees and clear. The forecast for the weekend was upper 80's so I thought I'll turn on my heater and we'll have our first April swim. Took 24 continuous hours and the water temp reached 84. Unfortunately the outside air never did, and it rained all day, and then late afternoon the temp dropped to upper 40's. Needless to say we didn't swim.
and I wasted all that gas for nothing.... as the air temps are forecast to be in the 60's all week. That's what I get! So is up to you. If you do open, and the temp outside drops back down, you can keep your pump run time lower until the temps rise again. So if you would normally have say a 12 hour run time in the summer, you could try 6-8 and see how you do, and even split it up 4 during the day, 4 at night or whatever. The warmer the air/water the more filtration time you'll need, keep in mind if you are in an area with lots of trees you may see more crud in the baskets than usual, and skimmer socks would be good since it is pollen season.
Keeping a solar cover on will cut down on evaporation and uv consumption of the FC.
I opened early because I didn't want to deal with green water. I didn't have to shock, as I still had a 3.5 residual from last fall.
If you do open and water is clear, and circulated, if your FC is still 0 or low, you could just bump it up abit to your normal range, do an overnight FC test and see if it holds. If it holds you don't need to shock it. If it drops overnight by more than 1ppm, then you should shock it.
We took the cover off the pool and the water is a little cloudy. But its so much nicer to see the pool and not winter cover. We set up the filter and have to add the swg to it before adding water tomorrow. We ran out of time today to do it. One thing we couldn't remember is where to you ground the pool on the filter?
The view from the deck w/o winter cover. I had to climb in to help get the winter cover off
The water
The filter
My favorite view
The view from the deck w/o winter cover. I had to climb in to help get the winter cover off
The water
The filter
My favorite view
The wire you are refering to is called a bonding wire. You can use any screw on the pool's frame and run a wire to the screw on the pump. The pump may have a tag by a screw that says bonding wire. This wire does not "ground" the pool, it simply keeps the pump and pool on the same negative or positive charge to help prevent random electrical current from running from the pump to the pool.
Thanks. We ended up having to get the pump replaced because it didn't work anymore. The new pump tells you where to attach it.