Just setup Intex AG pool recently. Want to get my water balanced correctly

[loispol]

Hello, I'm posting for first time after hanging around here for several weeks reading posts, pool school, pool math, etc.
I live near the Space Center in FL and the weather has been extremely hot with no rain since I finished setting up my pool on 7-17-16. My pool is in direct sunlight almost all day and the water is very warm now. I bought my pool mainly for exercise purposes and to cool off in the heat, but I expect it to be up year round. I really like it!
I put a lot of work into the ground preparation, leveling and setup which has really paid off.

The water is very clear and sparkling. I just got back from pool store with their water testing results.
What they recommended was off from my Intex manual, the SWG manual, and your recommendations. I did not buy any products there. Earlier I bought Clorox stabilizer for salt water pools and a large package of Arm and Hammer baking soda based on the Intex test strips results. But it appears now I only actually need to run SWG longer and then add stabilizer to get the FC level up. Then re-test? The only thing I added so far was the initial salt and then some borax over a week ago to help raise ph after reading posts here & using test strip results. The borax made the water feel better. I am going to order one of your recommended quality test kits this week.

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome to TFP! I'm pleased to hear you say you're ordering one of the recommended test kits (TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C). That's priority #1. Anything else is just guessing. Don't go too crazy right now with chemicals. With fresh water, you should have a good idea of what your current CYA level is just from the amount of stabilizer you've added. From there, look at the Chlorine/CYA Chart and adjust your FC accordingly. Try to keep pH in the mid 7s as best as you can until the good test kit arrives. Don't worry about any other levels at the moment until your get your good test kit. Great to have you with us.

 

[loispol]

Thanks for the friendly welcome! I have not added any stabilizer bc I became very confused about how to add it and took what I bought back to the store. I want to purchase Natural Chemistry instant (liquid) conditioner now because I know it won't hurt the pool & it seems to be popular and simple to add? Anyway, yes I am going to get the Taylor kit. Honestly my water is sparkling and looks and feels great despite the intense sun and heat here. The pool store test results : FC 1.0, ph 7.6, TA 80, TDS 4500, salt 3000 (salt level is ideal according to Intex). Thanks for the great pointers until the kit arrives!

 

[loispol]

Have new Aquachek test strips and the Taylor 2006 kit now. Can't figure out why the Aquachek test strip test for TA is so far off from Taylor TA results? I repeated them and they both tested w. the same results using the same water samples. I've recently added small amt's of borax, baking soda per Pool Math to raise PH & TA based on the Aqua chek results, and then CYA (Natural Chemistry Instant Conditioner) and did the boost cycle again on my Intex SWG. My new test results:
Taylor 2006 testing:
FC 6.4
PH 7.7
TA 80 (starts turning light pink at 70,red at 80 - 8 drops)
CH 80
CYA 35
Salt 2560 (Aquachek salt test strip). After testing today, I added more salt per pool math. Will retest later. I had to drain some water last wk due to very heavy rains.
Borate 15 (LaMote borate test strip)
Temp 93
CSI -0.53
Taylor wheel saturation 0.15
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Aquachek test 7 test strip results after testing w Taylor kit
TH 250? (total hardness)
TC 3 (total chlorine)
FC 3-4?
PH 7.6-7.7
PA 7.2-7.4
TA 40?
CYA 30-50
Guess the Aquachek 7 test strips really aren't very useful if the TA test and FC are so far off? Also, while my water looks really great & sparkling, after adding the CYA it now tastes very bitter. Is this common? Will it go away?

 

[jeffchap]

Now you see why we totally distrust test strips. You'd might as well pick a number at random.

 

[loispol]

WELL, I just found a wonderful post from Chem Geek from 9-27-2010 for a comparison of test strips vs drop tests! Very detailed & enlightening! Wondering if the Aquachek salt test strip (has a film graph it -3-4 minutes until yellow bar turns color to read and doesn't change after that) is accurate? Or if the LaMote borate strips are accurate to use? As a newbie I became very confused about the water chemistry, testing etc. I was afraid of using the Taylor kit but it is quite easy to use and definitely easier to understand the results. The strips were making think I was color blind.

How do like your Intex pool & SWG? So far I absolutely love mine! I'm thinking of getting the Intex auto pool cleaner too!

 

[jeffchap]

For the money, I couldn't be happier. The robot is great. I've only vacuumed by hand once this year. I used to do it every day.