New Pool Setup

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Erbear1984

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Jun 30, 2015
3
Dyersville, IA
Hi,

We just got a little popup pool for our 1.5 and 2.5 year old kids to play in. We let them play in it while it was filling up and once since then but we thought we should probably get going on this chemical business before the whole thing turns into ecto cooler. We bought the HTH starter kit from Walmart and I'm reading the directions and it says to balance the Ph and then add this stabilizer/conditioner stuff since the chlorine isn't stabilized. I think the Ph is balanced. I threw the Ph down in, swirled it around, waited a while (half hour or so), and tested again and it seems to be a little high, but still in the okay range. Does that sound legit, or do I have to wait longer to know if it worked? My other question is with the stabilizer stuff. It says to wait 48 hours for it to be dissolved. Can we still go swimming in it? Or is it going to eat our skin or screw the whole thing up? 48 hours is a LONG time when you're 2! Thanks!
 
The ph readings should be accurate once whatever you added has dissolved (assuming you used a solid) and stirred up. Anything in the 7's is perfectly safe to swim in.





Since stabilizer can take a while to dissolve, we normally recommend you place it inside of a sock and hang that in front of your water return jet. You can squeeze the sock periodically to speed up the process. But if you dump it straight into the pool, it is acidic and can bleach out your liner if left laying undissolved on the bottom. I would not let little ones swim with any undissolved granules loose in the pool.





The thing to be most concerned with is your free chlorine (FC) level. Too low and you'll get algae growing. Too high and it can be irritating. I'm currently on my phone, or I'd provide you with links to some more info on how to take care of your pool and what the proper levels should be. But someone will be along shortly to do that, I'm certain.
 
Thanks! So, if we put it in a sock and put it in front of the water return, we are good to go swimming? We can do that! We are planning on adding the chlorine after the 48 hours (or after it is dissolved) and following the directions in the book to keep everything where it should be.

As a side note, I am totally okay with giving my daughter a lesson in patience too! We'd (probably mostly me) rather just play with our new toy if we can!
 
Yes, you are safe to swim immediately with the stabilizer in a sock.







Do not wait to add chlorine. Go ahead and put it in now as well, otherwise you will have a green pool in 2 days. And you'll need to add chlorine on a daily basis. How much depends upon the size of your pool and how much stabilizer (aka cyanuric acid, or CYA) you put in. We recommend regular unscented bleach from the grocery store. Do not use pucks or shock packets, as many of them add additional things like more CYA that you don't want in your pool.







CYA is like sunscreen for chlorine. It keeps the sun from burning off all of the chlorine during the day. But too much of it binds up the chlorine so that it is not available to kill off the bad stuff.
 
One of the members here says a pool is like a pet -- you have to feed it every day whether you play with it or not. And your pool's food is chlorine
 
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