Saltwater with intex 1500 gph or just sandfilter

Cheetos82

Well-known member
Jun 12, 2016
323
MUSKOGEE, Ok
Pool Size
6021
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Intex Krystal Clear
I am a little lost. I do not want to go through another summer like last. I live in Oklahoma very humid. I have Intex 16x48
I could not keep water clean. Dumping tons of chemicals in running filter 24 hrs.
So right now I can only afford to buy either a sand filter or salt water system. If I buy saltwater i will have to use with intex 1500 gph pump that came with pool. What is my best bet here? I know in reality I need both but cant.


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Need to understand whether my pool was green because I don't understand the chemicals well even after tons of reading or if my filter wasn't enough to keep clean. I dont know which to buy first to keep my pool clear

16x48 intex ultra with intex 1500 gph pump
 
I agree, you need a good test kit, I suggest the TF-100 and you need a better understanding of pool chemistry. After that get the sand filter assuming you have time every other day to spend 5 minutes dealing with your pool. The SWG does not save you any money vs buying bleach, it just makes life easier, no bleach to carry and it does most of the daily chores, it just trades off an up front expense for in incremental one when it comes to the cost to chlorinate. Therefore the Sand filter combo is your best option, best place to buy is usually Amazon they have the 2800 gph version with the filter that holds 77 pounds of sand for $110 Amazon.com : Intex Krystal Clear Sand Filter Pump for Above Ground Pools, 2800 GPH Pump Flow Rate, 110-120V with GFCI : Swimming Pool Sand Filters : Patio, Lawn Garden Pool filter sand (make sure it is this not play sand) sells for about $5 per 50 pound bag at Lowes or Home Depot. Remember the vast majority of time we have people here that think they have a filter problem the reality is they have a chemistry problem, that being said the stock intex filter is pathetic.

p.s. pool school link is in the upper right of any page here, start with the ABC's and go from there
 
Sand filter, without a doubt. That was by far the best thing I did. Night and day difference.

All the SWG does is produce chlorine. I've actually gone from SWG to manually chlorinating with bleach. Downside to manual is it pretty much has to be done daily. With the SWG I could go days without checking in on it, once I had it balanced and running good.

Obviously you need a basic understanding of pool chemistry. With a small seasonal pool it's pretty easy. 1- get your CYA in at the beginning of the year. 2- keep your chlorine up everyday from day one. That's the two main and most important things. Additionally keep your PH in line, that's usually pretty easy, and perhaps an occasional CYA boost after backwash. You can easily get by with just a 5 way Walmart test kit, or even just the chlorine and ph drop test if you stay out of trouble. And yes I do have a TF100.

So if you want to keep the pool, yes get the sand filter. You didn't say which sand filter. I've got one of the bigger Intex ones, and I've been really satisfied with it.
 
Jcp i was planting on getting the intex 2800 sand filter. I tested everyday last yr with chlorine and ph test and everyday my chorline was like or non existent. I kept chlorine tabs in a floater after initially shocking. Ph was always good. Does the 5 way do the cya?

16x48 intex ultra with intex 1500 gph pump
 

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The problem was likely overuse of stabilized Chlorine products (dichlor and trichlor, common pucks are trichlor) this causes your CYA to build up and get to the point of making your chlorine ineffective so algae takes over, then you add more dichlor shock or trichlor which drives the CYA even higher, until you end up dumping the water and starting over. There is a 5 way HTH test kit that does test for CYA, however it only includes enough reagent to do the test 2 or 3 times.
 
Hey newbie! I'm just up the road from you, in Collinsville. We had a pool installed last year, and using the TFP method, we have always had crystal clear water. Dump the pucks, get the sand filter, and follow the advice of this wonderful online community. You'll never look back!

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Yes the 5 way does CYA. However I will say with a seasonal pool that gets drained and refilled every year you shouldn't need to test CYA. One of the reasons I bought the TF100 kit was I wanted to play around with the CYA test. I found it to be very subjective and hard to read accurately. Also CYA just needs to be "in the ballpark". So in the end I didn't really find that test useful, and will continue with the following method.

You are going to want to switch to bleach for your chlorine source. When I fill my pool, I add the proper amount of CYA / stabilizer to get to 40ppm by putting in a sock and hanging over the side a few days, give it a squeeze every now and then. I'm confident that is going to get me close enough to 40ppm I don't feel the need to check it with a subjective test. I typically have to back wash at the most twice a year. When I do my first backwash and refill I add a bit more stabilizer to cover that and top off what's been splashed out. I usually go thru some math to come up with what I think is an accurate guestimate, but roughly around 15% of what I put in originally. That's fine enough for me to get back into that 40ppm ballpark for the rest of the summer. Drain at the end of the year and do it again next year. Of course once I shift over to a pool that stays up year round and only gets a partial drain and refill every year the CYA test will come back into play.

With a seasonal pool if you're on top of things from the beginning you can get by with a 5 way at the most. If you already have an algae problem you need to clear up, it would be best to skip straight to the TF-100 to get the proper measurements to clear it up.

There is a CYA - Chlorine chart that will give you the proper corresponding levels. You will find that at 40ppm CYA your minimum chlorine level is 3ppm, 5ppm is your target, I don't remember the shock level. Basically that means you always want to stay above 3ppm chlorine. Theoretically if you shoot for 5ppm when you add you should be down to about 3ppm the next day when you add. You may find there are days or times when your pool uses a bit more or less chlorine per day. You'll get a feel for it, it's ok to shoot a bit over 5ppm when you find your going thru a bit more that 2ppm per day. I run my chlorine a bit high cause I never know if there are going to be 1 or 2 people in the pool during the day or 10. I'd rather be a bit over than under. Going thru too much chlorine can also be an indication of an algae problem. However you can be confident if you're starting from an algae free point, and you've kept up your maintenance, algae should never start.
 
I love my salt water filter! Saves tons of money! All I buy is salt and shock.

I'll agree there were things I really liked about using my SWCG as well. But I'm not sure it save money. With an Intex SWCG running somewhere in the neighborhood of $150-$175, I can buy roughly 3 years worth of bleach for that. Add in the salt, the need to occasionally supplement the SWCG with some bleach or shock, the finite life of the device and it's in the ballpark of a wash one way or the other. There certainly isn't tons of money to be saved.
 
I love my salt water filter! Saves tons of money! All I buy is salt and shock.

What brand shock? How often? In struggling with keeping free chlorine in pool. Haven't had it turn green, or anything. Throw a bag of HTH shock in and it held for almost a week. With swg on 10 hours a day


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Stuff from walmart. I found intex saltwater for 113.00 but i only have money for either that or sand filter right now

16x48 intex ultra with intex 1500 gph pump
 
You got me a little excited lol i ordered intex 2800 today. We are removing old pool tomorrow. Hopefully the stench wont be as bad by this weekend. We didn't level last time so we are going to dig the old fashioned way haha. Build a box for filter to keep dog out of it and pray that she is out of the puppy chewing now and give her tons of chew toys. What is the 5 way tests mentioned above from walmart?

16x48 intex ultra with intex 1500 gph pump
 
You got me a little excited lol i ordered intex 2800 today. We are removing old pool tomorrow. Hopefully the stench wont be as bad by this weekend. We didn't level last time so we are going to dig the old fashioned way haha. Build a box for filter to keep dog out of it and pray that she is out of the puppy chewing now and give her tons of chew toys. What is the 5 way tests mentioned above from walmart?

16x48 intex ultra with intex 1500 gph pump

Whoops, it's HTH 6 way test kit. I really only use 3 of the tests it does. Chlorine, PH, and total alkalinity. My total alkalinity runs really high out of the tap, so knowing that number helps me make more accurate ph adjustments till the TA works its way down. If you've got extra bucks and want to go all out; get yourself a TF100, a speedstir, and one of those gauges for the water vials. Otherwise like I said, you can get by with one of the more basic kits on a seasonal pool, provided you keep up with it and don't let your pool get algae in the first place.
 

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