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imcj

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May 18, 2010
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I'm sorry to sound so ignorant, but I am. I have an above ground 5,835 gallon capacity pool that I recently purchased for my daughter. I also purchased the Krystal Clear Saltwater system. I added 3 40 lb. bags of salt on Sunday, ran the pool pump for 24 hours and visually checked that all salt was dissolved as instructed, then ran the saltwater system (with pool pump) for 6 hours yesterday. I tested today and got a 0.6 reading for chlorine with the tester and an 8.2 for the pH. I probably should've asked the question here first before I added salt, but I added another 40 bag of salt. I'm now running my pool pump for another 24 hours and then I'll run the salt water system again. FYI, the water test kit is a regular drop test kit that I purchased at Target.

To begin with:
1. Is it safe for my daughter to swim in this water? She's dying to get in.
2. Should I just run the boost on my saltwater system?
3. Do I need a different kind of test kit for a salt water pool or will this work? I just bought it today.
4. How long should I run the pool pump and saltwater system? On a daily basis? How long?

I really don't know what to do. Thank you so much in advance, and I'm sorry for so many questions.
 
You will need some good quality salt test strips so you will know how much salt is in your pool. You can get by with your current kit to check FC and pH. You may want to consider getting a more complete test kit when this one starts to run low. If all you have put in the water is salt, then you will need to add some CYA (also call conditioner or stabilizer) to prevent your chlorine from being used up too quickly. Saltwater systems build chlorine slowly, without CYA in the water it will have a hard time establishing and keeping the chlorine at recommended levels. I would use liquid bleach to get the chlorine a head start. You also need to adjust the pH before you allow her to swim in the pool. You can bring down the pH with muriatic acid or dry acid. You can use the http://www.poolcalculator.com/ to find out how much of what chemicals you need to balance your pool water.

According to the pool calculator, this is what you need:

To lower the pH to 7.5 you need 11 ounces of Muriatic Acid (add this first by pouring slowly in front of a return with the pump running, wait an hour then add the bleach to raise FC)
To raise your FC to 3 you need 3 cups and 5 ounces of 6% liquid unscented bleach. ( add bleach by pouring slowly in front of a return with the pump running.)
To raise your CYA to 70 you need 55 ounces of dry stabilizer (add by filling a sock with dry stabilizer, tie it off and hang it in front of a return until it all dissolves. It can take CYA up to a week to register on a test after adding it to the water.)

You should run the pump every day. Check the manual that came with the saltwater system to see if it recommends a set amount of time to run the pump. If it doesn't try running the pump and SWG (saltwater chlorine generator) for 4 hours a day. Check your FC every day to see if it stays in the 1-3 ppm range. You want the FC to stay on 3 (the top end of the range). If you have trouble making too much or not enough chlorine post your problem and the people with SWG will help you out. You also need to check the pH daily for the first couple of weeks so you will be able to track how much your pH drifts up over time. Use doses of MA (muriatic acid) to keep the pH around 7.2-7.5.
Read through the articles on Pool School (upper right corner of the page for the link) and feel free to ask as many questions as you need. Good luck and welcome to TFP!
 
I'm going to guess you already are, but I suggest you read up in Pool School.

You're going to need to adjust pH real quick. Muriatic Acid is the stuff. You can get it at the pool store, big box hardware stores, and any big store that has a pool section set up.

You're going to want a better test kit than the 4-way. But it will work for now to get pH in range.

If the water's clear, the pH is good, and there's some Chlorine in the pool, no reason the kid can't get in. You may want to wait until it gets warmer....

As you'll learn from Pool School, you'll be needing to add Cyanuric Acid aka Stabilizer aka Conditioner soon, too. And then all the various and sundry supplies like leaf nets and brushes. Get a better test kit ASAP. You'll be getting pestered mercilessly by the TFP Mantra: "Can you post a complete set of test results?"
 
Suggestions for test kit

You all are amazing. I feel better already knowing you are all so knowledgeable. How complete is a complete test kit? Sorry, again for not knowing. What should complete test results include? I'll go get it tomorrow.

BTW, water is clear with a slight smell of chlorine.

SWG does have a BOOST cycle that makes the SWG run 4 times the amount of what is programmed. My only concern of using the boost is that it says it starts the copper ion production, and I read on the SWG board on this site that you do not want copper in your pool and some even said to disconnect that part. I am willing if that is correct. Any input?

Also, FYI, I live in a desert area. It's already hit upper 80's and low 90's here. It'll be 115F and up by late July and August if that helps you offer me any more info.

Thank you so much for your help.
 
You don't need the copper ion stuff. As long as you keep your chlorine in range you should be fine. I would use the liquid chlorine to supplement the SWG for the first week or so. Once you have CYA of 70-90 the SWG should be able to keep the chlorine production up where it needs to be.
Read Test kit comparison to learn about the different test kits. The kit you have is o.k. for pH and FC as long as you don't need to shock your pool. If you ever have an algae outbreak and need to shock, you will need a test kit that can read FC levels higher than 5ppm. Also, the more tests you are able to run yourself the less you will need to depend on a pool store to test your water. When we ask for a complete set of test results, we are looking for FC, CC, (combined chlorine) TA (total alkalinity), pH, CH (calcium, less important in a vinyl pool) and CYA.
 
Welcome to TFP :wave:

It's a lot to digest and it'll take several reads through pool school for it to finally start sinking in, so don't worry. Besides that, we'll be here to help with your questions.

The advice you've gotten above is good advice. I'll just add a couple of things.
1) IMO You should unplug the copper electrodes. It's easy to do. Just unscrew the small nut where the cord goes into them and unplug it.
2) You should seriously consider getting a good test kit. For your size pool and given the fact that you have a pH test already, I suggest the TF-50. I know it looks like a lot of money but it's the best investment you can make in your larger investment (your pool).

Post back with any questions you have and we'll gladly steer you in the right direction.

Now some comments.
Adding (4) 40 lb bags of salt should have raised your salt level to about 3300 which should be fine for the Intex.
You need to lower your pH to around 7.2 - 7.4. That'll take either 2½ cups of muratic acid or 2 cups of dry acid.
If you haven't added any CYA you need to. You need 2½ lbs of stabilizer to raise it to 50ppm which is what Intex recommends. That's a good place to start.
I would also go ahead and add 3 cups of 6% bleach in front of the return to the pool to get the FC up.
Once you add the acid and the bleach give it 30 minutes between each then 30 minutes to circulate then your DD (dear daughter) can swim.
 
I am a LITTLE concerned about the "slight smell of chlorine" you described.

This is usually a sign of CC, which would mean that there are contaminates in your water that are converting your FC to CC. In the presence of CC, you will usually want to shock.

Based on your water being brand new, I wouldn't tell you to stay out of the pool because of the smell. But it does stress the importance of getting a good test kit capable of testing CC as well as FC.
 
Test results

I can't thank you all enough. I got the more thorough test kit today. I'm so scared of messing up I even asked my 6 year old to compare the colors to be sure I was correct.

I left my pool pump and SWG running since this morning. I tested at 4:00 pm today (45 minutes ago), then I started with the instructions given to me yesterday. I already added the muriatic acid, and the bleach and stabilizer will come next.

Test results at 4:00 pm today:
TC 3
FC looked between 1 and 3
TA 240
pH 8.4
Total Hardness (what do you guys call this one) 1000

The guy at the store said I needed test strips for bromine - why? These strips test bromine, pH and TA. My other test already does pH and TA.

Thank you.
 

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