Hello from TN..
- Thread starter chaz69
- Start date
Welcome to TFP!
No need to be a money pit if you understand what it needs. So some reading in Pool School, start with this ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
No need to be a money pit if you understand what it needs. So some reading in Pool School, start with this ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Welcome! 
If you don't make any blunders with the chemistry when you get things set up initially and maintain things, your pool can stay sparkling clear all season long very inexpensively. After buying the test kit and the pole and brushes and so on -- which are a one-time thing -- you should easily be able to maintain it for under a buck a day over the course of the Summer.
18' * 48" is no kiddie pool. You need a grownup test kit for that grownup pool. It's a chunk of change, but it'll last you all season and probably a good way into next year, too. And if it saves you one algae bloom, it'll pay for itself.
If you haven't already ordered a kit, do it now. You won't find what you need in stock at a pool store, almost guaranteed. It'll have to be online most likely. You can read the Test Kits Compared in pool school or skip it and head over to TFTestkits.net and get a TF100. It's only coming from the next state over, so even with the holiday you'll have it before next weekend.
I urge you to spend a little time in pool school. It should answer questions you haven't even thought to ask yet. Start with the ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
A tip: if the pool came with any kind of startup kit that includes dry chlorine of any sort, tell us what the label says and we can advise you on how much you can safely use before you overdose on the CYA byproducts.
If you don't make any blunders with the chemistry when you get things set up initially and maintain things, your pool can stay sparkling clear all season long very inexpensively. After buying the test kit and the pole and brushes and so on -- which are a one-time thing -- you should easily be able to maintain it for under a buck a day over the course of the Summer.
18' * 48" is no kiddie pool. You need a grownup test kit for that grownup pool. It's a chunk of change, but it'll last you all season and probably a good way into next year, too. And if it saves you one algae bloom, it'll pay for itself.
If you haven't already ordered a kit, do it now. You won't find what you need in stock at a pool store, almost guaranteed. It'll have to be online most likely. You can read the Test Kits Compared in pool school or skip it and head over to TFTestkits.net and get a TF100. It's only coming from the next state over, so even with the holiday you'll have it before next weekend.
I urge you to spend a little time in pool school. It should answer questions you haven't even thought to ask yet. Start with the ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
A tip: if the pool came with any kind of startup kit that includes dry chlorine of any sort, tell us what the label says and we can advise you on how much you can safely use before you overdose on the CYA byproducts.
We're going with an Intex sand filter pump w/ Intex Salt system. Hopefully don't need alot of chemicals. im off to get the sand. Also my pool requires 135lbs of salt for startup, do i just dump in all 135lbs and begin pump/salt system or give it half a day to disolve? unfortunately the manuals with the pool,pump and salt are mainly in French/Taiwanese lol thanks wallyworld.
Back to wallyworld or lowes or wherever. When you nuy the filter sand, also buy a jug of Muriatic Acid (check the strength. The "low-fuming" is half-strength, full-price. 31.45% is full strength) a couple jugs of bleach (plain, unscented, not splashless) and a canister of stabilizer aka CYA aka Cyanuric acid.
The acid will have to wait until you get a pH tester, but you will ultimately need it at some point. Bleach is to keep things sanitary until the SWG goes on. You know the kids want in no matter how cold the water is. And you don't want algae right away, either. A quart a day until things are ready to go.
The stabilizer: 4 lbs in a hole-less sock tied shut and hung in front of the return so it gets pummeled and dissolves. That should get CYA up to about 70ppm.
You can add the salt at any time. It needs a day or so to fully dissolve and mix. You can let the kids play with it in the pool. They'll mix it up better than you can do with a brush.
When most of the CYA is dissolved and all of the salt is dissolved, then you can lay off the bleach and turn on the SWG.
A couple days until things are all dialed in, assuming you have a test kit. Don't waste money on test strips.
n240sxguy
Well-known member
Also make Walmart price match the cya with their website. They raised it $2 in the stores, but still have it cheaper online. They did that with a bunch of stuff I found out starting a couple years ago.
i thought having a salt system in line with a sand filter voids the use of having to use bleach, acid, etc...
Nope. It's a saltwater chlorine generator. All it replaces is chlorine. Same process that Chlorox uses on a much smaller scale.
The CYA is pretty much a one-time thing. So is the salt. Acid use depends mostly on the fill water.
