First time pool owner setting it up.

[Tresley]

Moved in yesterday

- water is clear as clear can be ( cant tell the difference when cup of water is set next to tap water, I mean not even specks of stuff) but
- tadpoles are living in there and a few other living creatures (cover was on all winter got removed and fell in water during home inspection)
- Bottom has some serious green spots I will assume some type of algea (does not stir up but appears to be stuck on bottom)

so what next?
- I am on my way right now to buy the walmart 6 way tester
- pump and filter is not hooked up ( do I set that up first?)
- water level is low do I add water to it?

other pool owners said "we have a nice set up" what that means I have no idea, but we do have a shed full of nicely taken care of pool supplies.
so any help and or guidence would be apreciated.

1) 21400 gallons (working on confirming that)
2) cartridge filter
3) AG
5) Swim pro Voyager (according to filter spec on side of pump) I am using a CC1750 cartridge filter, filtration area 175ft squared, flow capacity 110GPM, working pressure 30PSI, 1081 pool pump 1.5 hp

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Your to do list is correct. You need a complete set of water test results, have to hook up the pump and filter, and then fill it up to about half way up the skimmer opening. You also need to decide if you want to rescue the tadpoles etc, or let them die.

 

[Isaac-1]

While your at Wal-Mart buy some bleach, you are going to want to get some chlorine in there fairly soon.

Post your results from the test kit and we can help on the details of the next step

 

[Tresley]

ok here are my results
Chlorine > .5 ppm
Bromine > 7 ppm
Ph 7.5
Alkalinity 80 ppm
Hardness 180 ppm
Cyanuric Acid 50

Filter hooked up ready to run, water almost full, sorry tadpoles you must go, so what is next ?

 

[Tresley]

Um ok . ... I shocked it good welll at least I think I did .....but still have a lot of swimimg bugs three different ones I have noticed so far ....

 

[JasonLion]

I hope you actually meant chlorine > 5.0, and not > 0.5. 5.0 is fine, 0.5 is way too low. Other than that, your numbers look good.

Insects on the surface of the water are only occasionally driven away by chlorine. Insects under water should be gone when chlorine levels are appropriate. Using borates often gets rid of the surface insects.

 

[Tresley]

no that is what it said .... when I tested it ..... ( the water was still so clear that is why I said less than .5 )..... how can they be good numbers with bugs living in it ?

 

[Suziqzer]

.5 isn't enough chlorine to kill anything ... likely whatever is in the pool is using up the chlorine rapidly right now. You may want to check and add more chlorine every few hours until you get a handle on it.

Shocking a pool is not a one time process of adding chlorine... it is a process. See pool school's "how to shock" to get you through the process.

 

[Tresley]

Thanks, still learning here .... that was my numbers before I did shock ....today i am running pump and I think going to try and vaccum.... then shock again tonight .... does that sound about right ? Then how long should I wait to test everything again ?

 

[Tresley]

OK water is looking much better although was not able to complete the manual vaccum... Now the water is cloudy is that because of the algea in the water? I am going to let the filter run all night .... and see if it can filter out some more ..( I did pull the filter today and clean it ) .... then what ? retest? vaccum ?.... add more chemicals? not exactly sure here ....