Finally got the Intex up - Now what? So confused

[PoolD]

After 2 weeks of chaos in getting my 15x48 Intex pool up, we are finally ready to swim - or so I thought! I've read so much on this site, that I've confused myself even more.

My kids are dying to get in and I don't know if I should let them right away. What are the essential chemicals that I need to put in right away so they can swim and I won't end up with disgusting water afterwards? I bought a box of chemicals (3in chlorine tablets, stabilizer, ph+, ph-, test strips, algae stuff) from the pool store.

I also only have the filter that came with the pool. I've been reading about upgrading the filter (which I may do in a couple of weeks - spent too much already!). I also read something about a skimmer, dumping bleach in the pool, CYA (which I have no idea what that means), test kits....so confusing!

If someone could just get me started, I would appreciate it. I've started reading everything in pool school and its just so much. After putting up and draining the pool 4x over the last 2 weeks, my kids just want to swim for at least one day this week!

 

[bordelond]

PoolD, welcome aboard!

I am a newbie with an Intex pool a lot like yours (only rectangular instead of round). I started a thread last week about opening the pool and my experience getting a little oversold at the pool store. Along the way, some more experienced TFP members shared with me some guidance that can likely help you, too.

 

[richierich]

Why did you have to drain it 4 times?

CYA is stabilizer or cyanuric acid. It acts as sunscreen for your chlorine. Without any CYA any chlorine you add would be consumed by the sun in a few hours.

You need a good test kit from TFT Test kits, don't rely on pool store testing or test strips

To get you started according to pool math you could use about 27 oz of stabilizer powder to get you about 40ppm. Regarding bleach I would say about 30 oz of 8.25% regular household bleach to get your started, but you have to maintain that. You can tinker with pool math below. The recommended levels are in pool school.


https://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

 

[bordelond]

What are the essential chemicals that I need to put in right away so they can swim and I won't end up with disgusting water afterwards? I bought a box of chemicals (3in chlorine tablets, stabilizer, ph+, ph-, test strips, algae stuff) from the pool store.

PoolD, quick question -- were you planning on testing your own pool water at home with something besides the test strips? If not, consider it strongly. Test strips don't age well, and that makes it hard to get accurate readings off of them.

Some of the items in the "box of chemicals" are things you won't need until a water test reveals that you need them (chiefly, the pH items). An initial, pool-opening round with the chlorine tablets and the recommended amount of stabilizer should be fine. You may need something to help the Total Alkilinity (TA) level of the pool -- proper TA level helps keep the pH level more consistent so you're not cycling through a ton of pH+, then pH-, then pH+, etc., over and over again.

At some point very early on (within the first week or so), you'll want to test your pool water for level of cyanuric acid (CYA). This is something you want just enough of. Too little and the chlorine you add will not last so long. Too much CYA and you'll have to add tons and tons of chlorine just to maintain safe levels of chlorine for swimming.

After those first 3" tablets dissolve, and your CYA level tests out around 30-50, you can switch to plain old bleach to chlorinate daily. See these Pool School articles for details:

ABCs of Water Chemistry
Chlorine / CYA Chart
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
Guide for Seasonal/Temporary Pools (good advice for above-ground Intexes)
Common Swimming Pool Myths Dispelled

Test Kit Directions (these even helped with my HTH 6-way testing kit, which has some drawbacks but is easy to learn on)

 

[Richard320]

First thing: that pool is 5000 gallons., That's no kiddie pool. You won't just be tipping it up and emptying it out if the chemistry gets whacked. So you need a grownup test kit. A big expensive one like we recommend might be overkill as it approaches what you spent on the pool, but you at least want one that will give you pH FC TA and CYA. Usually when you get those they also have CH included.

Okay, lecture over. You want to get that thing swimmable.

First, get the pump going so the water is mixing. Then use your test strip and look at pH and TA. I wouldn't necessarily believe the TA but they usually get the pH right. Ignore the rest. If your pH is out of range, it'll need some adjustment. You can post results and we can help, or learn how to use poolmath. Depending on what you get, you'll need pH up or down. It just has to be between 7.2 and 7.8.

You'll want some chlorine in there right away, too. If you have some plain 8.25% household bleach in the laundry, use it. 2.75 cups of bleach will take your pool to 3 FC. That'll be a daily thing until you can start testing and figuring it out yourself.

You will need some CYA in there, too. That's the stabilizer in that box o'goodies. 27 ounces by weight or 3.5 measuring cups by volume, poured into a hole-less sock and hung in front of the return stream so it gets pummeled by the flow, or set in the skimmer basket if the pool has one.

Total elapsed time, 30 minutes to an hour. Then the kids can get in.

I'm sure you'll end up immersed in reading here until you're like this but once you have a test kit and start testing and dosing, it'll click. It's really not that difficult.

 

[PoolD]

Thanks everyone for your advice!! I will post my results soon - I will definitely need some help.
-----
The first summer escapes pool 16x48 I had was just dropped on the lawn by my husband and of course was not level so we drained.

Second time, we leveled (or so we thought), was off by 2.5 inches so we drained again. Pool was returned at this point.

Third time we bought an intex and went with a smaller size 15x48. This time we spent days leveling the ground and making it perfect! Turned out seam on liner of our now 2nd pool ended up being defective because it was leaking all the way around, so back to draining and exchanged pool for another.

Fourth time, 3rd pool now was drained due to a tear in the new liner. We were thankfully able to find it with only 2 inches of water.

 

[PoolD]

Just tested: (using strip since it's all I have at this point)
TH 250
TC 1
FC 1
PH 8.4
TA 180
Stabilizer 100

 

[Richard320]

Just tested: (using strip since it's all I have at this point)
TH 250
TC 1
FC 1
PH 8.4
TA 180
Stabilizer 100

If you just filled it, how did CYA get to 100 already? Could it be that the test strip is totally wrong?

 

[PoolD]

Last night my husband put in two 3" chlorine tablets in the floater overnight. This is what we got this morning.

And now I'm reading that maybe we have to drain the pool! Nooooo

We intend to use bleach as suggested but didn't have any last night and wanted to get some chlorine in there - clearly a BIG mistake.

Anything else we can try?!? And how long do I have before draining becomes absolutely necessary? I live in chicago and get charged for my water usage and after 4 previous fills and drains during just the install, I'd like to do anything and everything to avoid. My water bill is going to be well into the $800+ range this month!

Plus I have a family party this Saturday.

Please Help!!! My husband and I clearly do t know what we're doing.

 

[Richard320]

Last night my husband put in two 3" chlorine tablets in the floater overnight. This is what we got this morning.

And now I'm reading that maybe we have to drain the pool! Nooooo

We intend to use bleach as suggested but didn't have any last night and wanted to get some chlorine in there - clearly a BIG mistake.

Anything else we can try?!? And how long do I have before draining becomes absolutely necessary? I live in chicago and get charged for my water usage and after 4 previous fills and drains during just the install, I'd like to do anything and everything to avoid. My water bill is going to be well into the $800+ range this month!

Plus I have a family party this Saturday.

Please Help!!! My husband and I clearly do t know what we're doing.

Two pucks couldn't raise CYA that much. It's the test strip. This is why we don't trust them. So long as the water is still clear, the situation isn't hopeless. Leave the two 3" pucks in the pool but reduce the stabilizer amount to 2.5 cups. Don't add any more pucks.

 

[bordelond]

Last night my husband put in two 3" chlorine tablets in the floater overnight. This is what we got this morning.

And now I'm reading that maybe we have to drain the pool! Nooooo

Point of comparison: my Intex pool has about 50% less water than yours. In the first eight days after opening, my pool water received:

- three 3" tri-chlor pucks thrown in all at once on Day One
- 1/2 lb of di-chlor on Day One, another 1/2 lb on Day Eight
- 1/2 gallon of this stabilizer on Day One (grrrr ... got pool-stored with that)

That's basically a triple-hit of CYA, and my pool water's CYA level still tested on Day 11 at 50 (pool store) and on Day 13 at 60 (tested myself at home).

 

[PoolD]

Will do! Thank u so much everyone for your responses.

Richard320 - You are a life saver! I would have never thought bad strip.

Water is crystal clear. I added ph- and just tested again and here's what I got from the strip:
TH 250
TC 0
FC 1
PH 6.8
TA 120
CYA 0

Soooo different than the first results!
Keeping the two 3" tablets for now.

I ordered the hth 6 way test kit but I may need to run around and see if I can find it at the store. Is that a good enough test?

 

[Richard320]

Will do! Thank u so much everyone for your responses.

Richard320 - You are a life saver! I would have never thought bad strip.

Water is crystal clear. I added ph- and just tested again and here's what I got from the strip:
TH 250
TC 0
FC 1
PH 6.8
TA 120
CYA 0

Soooo different than the first results!
Keeping the two 3" tablets for now.

I ordered the hth 6 way test kit but I may need to run around and see if I can find it at the store. Is that a good enough test?

Since the ones we prefer approach the cost of the pool, I'd say that is sufficient. Once you get the hang of this and see how really easy pool chemistry is, you'll be upgrading to bigger and bigger pools and then you'll want the good test kit.

It's worlds better than the guess strips.

 

[bordelond]

I ordered the hth 6 way test kit but I may need to run around and see if I can find it at the store. Is that a good enough test?

I'm using this exact test kit as a "training wheels" kit. It's getting me used to using drops of reagent, comparing colors, and so forth, which I will have to do with the more robust water test I will get in the near future. The HTH 6-way does have significant limitations, which tim5055 pointed out to me in another thread:

You have just discovered the problem with 5 way/6 way test kits, they are limited to testing chlorine up top 5 ppm. Additionally, they combine FC and CC to the total chlorine you are seeing. When you get a reading you will not know if it is all FC, all CC or something in between.

One good thing about the HTH test kit, though, is that you get enough CYA reagent to perform two better-than-strips CYA tests (see here for details of this test: Test Kit Directions ). One of the bad things about the HTH test kit, though ... is that you ONLY get enough CYA reagent to perform two tests. That's OK in the beginning for us newbies -- CYA levels are supposed to stay stable once you quit adding it to the water, so when you get to a decent level (30-50 is ideal, up to 70 is workable) you don't have to test for CYA often at all. Eventually, though, the HTH kit will run out or reagents, and we'll want to get a better look at our chlorine levels -- not just "total chlorine" but "free chlorine" vs "combined chlorinates" -- and we'll need to graduate to better kits.

 

[bordelond]

Water is crystal clear. I added ph- and just tested again and here's what I got from the strip:
TH 250
TC 0
FC 1
PH 6.8
TA 120
CYA 0

By the way, do you want first-hand evidence that the strips test poorly?

Look at the TC and FC numbers bolded above. Free chlorine (FC) + Combined Chloramines (CC) = Total Chlorine (TC).

So ... how can an FC of 1 + (whatever CC is) = 0? Total Chlorine will always be equal to or greater than FC.

 

[PoolD]

Good point! I'm off to see if I can track down that HTH test or something comparable for now. I may take a sample of my water to the pool store also.

 

[bordelond]

Good point! I'm off to see if I can track down that HTH test or something comparable for now. I may take a sample of my water to the pool store also.

Around here, both WalMart and Home Depot carry the HTH water tests. Without checking, I'd bet our Target has them, too.

 

[PoolD]

So should I do anything to the water for now with these results?

TH 250
TC 0
FC 1
PH 6.8
TA 120
CYA 0

 

[bordelond]

So should I do anything to the water for now with these results?

TH 250
TC 0
FC 1
PH 6.8
TA 120
CYA 0

We already know those strip figures are unreliable -- thus, they cannot guide action.

If you've already done what Richard suggested in post #10 above, then your pool will be fine for today while you get/use another test kit. Then you can post results here and get more focused advice.

 

[Richard320]

So should I do anything to the water for now with these results?

TH 250
TC 0
FC 1
PH 6.8
TA 120
CYA 0

Have you added today's bleach?

Is the floater with the two pucks still in the water?

Have you added the 2.5 cups of stabilizer in a sock?

The pH will come up pretty quick with that TA number. All it needs is some aeration. A couple kids can do that for you.

Looks like all you need to do then is be patient and wait