New And Could Use Some Advice

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amandal0514

amandal0514

0
Jun 17, 2016
21
Texas City, TX
Hi everyone. I'm Amanda and I live in Texas (near Houston so it's hot and sunny all the time) and have a new 14' x 42" Intex above ground pool with the Krystal Clear Saltwater System and Sand Filter Pump. The husband took care of our previous above ground pool and it was just constantly being shocked when chlorine tabs didn't fix whatever was wrong so I've decided I'm going to learn how to take care of this one properly. We've got 3 kids who live in the pool on the weekends and sometimes during the week too!

I've been doing a ton of reading here and on other sites but I have some problems that I'd love some advice on. Forgive me if any of this was dead wrong but I'm trying to figure it all out!

When we first got it set up about 2 weeks ago we added 2 40lb bags of pool salt based on the chart that came with the SWG (our capacity is 3357 gallons). I had ordered one of those digital testers from Amazon and the next day when I tested the salinity, it said 1900ppm so I added some more (maybe 15lbs). When I tested again, it showed 2400ppm but the brand new SWG switched off because of "high salt". :( He got some test strips at Walmart while I waited for K-1766 kit to come in the mail and they showed 4200ppm.

Sooooo we drained some water this past weekend and replaced with fresh and now the salt is doing better at 3210ppm when I checked yesterday. I also added CYA through a black sock hanging in the water and it was at 100 yesterday (even tho it's been at 50 the previous 3 days and I haven't added any more).

While we were dealing with that, I threw in a few cups of bleach. I can't convince hubby that this is okay but I did it anyway.

The SWG runs for 5 hours. The sand filter for 10-12 I believe. The water currently looks and smells okay but the numbers are telling me it won't last long.

Here's yesterday's numbers (based off test strips):
0.0 FC
8.4 pH
240 TA
500 CH
100 CYA
3210 SALT

The numbers the day before were:
1.0 FC
7.8 pH
240 TA
500 CH
50 CYA
4400 SALT

What do you suggest I do at this point to correct things?
Do I lower the pH and TA first and then deal with FC?
Do I need to worry about CH on a vinyl pool?

We don't have a vacuum right now and hubby says it won't do any good to get one because the bottom of the pool isn't perfectly flat because of the ground underneath (don't ask... it's not horrible tho). He manually vacuumed it out with a hose this weekend but there's got to be an easier way.

Any other suggestions you have for me?

Thank you!
 
Hi, welcome to TFP! Other than salt, what are you using to test your pool? If the numbers are correct you need to bring the pH down to about 7.2 With high pH and high CH you will develop scale even in a vinyl pool. First lower pH, then add chlorine. Do you have the vacuum that hooks up to a water hose? There are better vacuums you can get for your pool, either the manual hose type or the battery operated aqua broom type.
 
Hi there! First, don’t do anything to it except for adding chlorine until you get a decent test kit. Strips are worthless. I use the TF100 from tftestkits.net, and for salt I use the Taylor K-1766.

Second, tell hubby to relax, liquid chlorine is fine to use, as long as it has no additives! Once we get your test kit numbers and can get your water balanced, your SWG will take over.

Lastly, yes, you can get the Intex auto cleaner. This little miracle can do uneven bottoms just fine, and I haven’t manually vacuumed my pool in a few years!

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Your numbers are all over the place, but that's because test strips are worthless. Step number one is to order a good test kit like the TF-100 or K2006 so we can see what we're really dealing with.

Until that arrives, add a quart of bleach to get your chlorine back up. Can you you see bubbles forming on the plates of the SWG while it is on? If so, then it appears to be making chlorine, but we won't know how much it's making, how much you need, or how much is getting burned off each day until we get those test results.

You can safely continue to add a quart of bleach per day and still use the pool for a few days until the kit arrives. This should keep any algae from taking hold for now. I wouldn't go past a week until we get some numbers though.

Once your kit arrives, run the tests and give us the numbers for:

FC

CC

CYA

pH

Don't worry about TA and CH for now. We can deal with that later.
 
Other than FC being way too low, your numbers are pretty good. How does the water look?

Use plain bleach, no additives, according to Pool Math to get your FC up. I like to target a point or two higher than the chart recommends, so 7 FC. Then you’ll set your SWG to maintain. You’ll need to experiment to see how long you should run it. I run mine for 3 hours daily, probably bumping to 4 soon as it gets hotter.
 
It looks good to me. Husband says it smells like bleach a little but I think he’s just saying that cause he knows I’m using it.

The Intex vacuum suggested above is on its way.

Do I need to worry about the salt being a little high? I’m thinking maybe if I top off the water it would be alright again?
 
I don’t think the salt will be a problem, but your SWG will give you a high salt warning if it is. At that point you can drain a bit and fill with hose.
 
The results from that app don't say, but what is your CC level? If its above 1ppm, you could have the start of an algae bloom from having low FC for several days. Also, if it really does "smell like bleach" and its more than your husband being annoyed about using bleach, that smell can come from higher CC levels.
 

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You need to get some chlorine in that pool ASAP. Use bleach -- an SWG adds too slowly to bring it up that much. Bring it to 7 ppm then let the SWG maintain it at that level.

At .5, it's only a short matter of time before your pool turns green.
 
amandal0514 said:
The app says add a little over 2 cups so that’s what I’ve been doing each evening and it doesn’t ever go up. That’s in addition to the SWG running 5 hours each day.

Should I add more than the 2 cups?
Click to expand...
For a 4000 gallon pool, Pool Math tells me you need to add 1 quart and 2 cups to raise FC from .5 to 7. That's 6 cups total.
 
Ditto, PoolMath says 6 cups to get your FC up to 7. Only adding 2 cups to your pool will only raise it from .5 to about 3ppm. The sun will burn that off in a day and as jeff said, unless you have a way oversized SWG, a SWG is only able to maintain your FC level, and has a hard time raising it up by itself. They do a great job of maintaining a FC level day after day though once you do get it up.
 
Thanks for posting that. Apparently there’s a little bug in Pool Math that keeps switching between 3 and 6 as the target and I hadn’t noticed.
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FC is the one target that Pool Math doesn’t save, so you need to keep your eye on that one!
 
Got the Intex vacuum recommended above going this evening but it doesn’t seem to really be vacuuming up much, especially not the loose sand/dirt at the bottom.

We have the Intex sand filter that pumps 3000 gallons so I don’t think that’s the issue.

Any suggestions?
 
It is attached to the return, correct?

Did you get the air out of it and the hose when you put it in? If it still has air in it, it could be coasting slightly above the surface rather than riding on it.
 
I let the hubby hook it up. He says he followed directions. We let it go overnight and the pump goes for 12 hours.

Came home from work today and it wasn’t moving even tho the pump had already started up again. Does it not start up automatically when the pump does?

He took it apart and the filter did have some sand/dirt in it but there was still plenty in the pool.

He unhooked it this evening but he’s currently testing it again to see if it’ll start moving. I have a feeling I’m going to end up taking over these duties also.
 

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