Questions about maintaining water in a new Intex AGP

[iknownothing]

I've read pool school quite a few times, bought a recommended test kit and just completed my first test. I'd like to tell my background and lay out my plan to hear from the experts. This is quite a bit of information to comprehend.

I have a new 18x48 Intex Ultra pool (details below). I filled it with semi-hard well water two weeks ago (no softener but the water here is pretty nice). I run the Intex SWG which initially called for 160 lbs of salt. I heard stories about too much salt causing it problems, which required draining the water so I started with ~140 lbs. I run my filter for 8 hours a night and the SWG for 4. The water has been great, with a touch of cloudiness and a tiny bit of a slippery feel. Last week I was concerned that might be the start of algea so I put in 1g of bleach. I ordered CYA stabalizer and added ~2lbs Friday night. Below are the results I'm getting from my test strips (which I hear are worthless) and the first run I just did with my Taylor 2006 kit.

Strips -
.5FC,
.1-.2 Copper PPM,
7.6PH
240TA

Test Kit -
1.8-2ppm FC
.4 CC
7.7-7.8PH
275 TA
2200-2300 Salt
34-35 CYA
50 CH

I believe I need to do a couple of things

1. Add the extra 20lbs of salt.
2. Probably add another gallon of bleach
3. Run the boost cycle on the SWG which will run for 8 times my normal 4 hour cycle = 24 hours to increase FC.
4. Add more CYA (I hear you put it in a sock and occasionally squeeze) to get to the 60-70 range.
5. Use muratic acid to lower the TA and PH

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Butterfly]

Are the cloudiness and slippery feel gone? Any algae visible?

You could do an OCLT tonight to rule out organics before adding extra CYA. The reason is that higher CYA calls for a higher shock level which means more bleach/liquid chlorine which means more $$. So, I suggest you confirm first.

Overall, sounds like you got a good handle on things.

 

[Butterfly]

btw, we do not recommend running SWG's at 100% because it can shorten the life of the cell. Use bleach/liquid chlorine to bump FC and to preform shock process.

 

[iknownothing]

It's a tiny bit cloudy, and no real slippery feeling anymore. I'm not familiar with the OCLT. I just want the water to be REALLY sanitary and as crystal clear as I can get it. Using the pool calculator it's telling me to add 29oz of bleach to boost the FC (I'm thinking my SWG boost cycle basically does the same thing, but I'm not sure). Add 31oz of CYA to go from 35-70, although I'd probably go with 20 then test again as to not overdo it. It says 16oz of muratic acid to go from 275-100, 197oz of calcium chloride to go from 50-260 (do I care about hardness in an intex pool?)

The SWG boost cycle only runs for 24 hours once, then returns to the normal 4 hour cycle. I wasn't planning to run in 24x7.