I am a little late in the game and just began setting up our very small Intex pool 10 days ago. I really just wanted something simple that the kids could splash around a bit in for the rest of the summer, which in Wisconsin is really only another month or so.
We filled it with well water over 3 days and then took the water to the pool store and had it analyzed (my bad). The issues indicated at that time was that copper was high (although the water looked more brown tinted than anything) and that TA was 299ppm. I tried for a few days to bring down the TA with "pH Down", but then by doing reading on your site, I saw that I really didn't need to mess with that as long as pH was good (it was 7.5).
I then shocked the pool with All in One Shock Xtra by Qualco and was able to get a FC reading of 10 (measured by a strip) the next morning. I left the cover off all day and the FC came down enough that evening to use Metal Magic to address the copper issue (although again, all I was seeing was brown on the filter and in the water...iron was measured by the pool store as 0.1ppm). The directions for Metal Magic put me under the impression that I should not mess with any other chemicals for 48 hours, so I did not add anything after that point. The Metal Magic took out a TON of brown sediment from the water and it is now clear.
My problem is two days after using the Metal Magic, according to my strips, the FCl was at 1 when I added in the floater with 2 "mini slow dissolving chlorinating tablets (bactericide, disinfectant, algaecide". They are Utiken Trichloro tabs. They have been floating in there since 7/24.
The FCl was not registering on a test strip on 7/25, so I added a heaping tbsp of the shock that evening and did not have any success getting any reading yesterday morning. I spent the day worrying away and reading up on your site.
I used the 6 way HTH test strip this morning and I know my TA is still "excessively high" and FCl is non-registerable (although I can smell it and if I lift up the chlorine dispenser and hold the test strip under it, I do get it to turn purple). Stabilizer looks to be 0.
I have done a lot of reading around your site and I believe where I went wrong is I should have added stabilizer before I shocked it. I think at this point it needs to be shocked again, but the directions on Metal Magic say not to do so for a week. That would be Thursday. So what do I do in the meantime? Should I add some stabilizer since I never did? I know the "shock" I added has some stabilizer as well as the Trichlor tabs, so I erroneously thought I wouldn't need to add anymore.
I also know the strips aren't the best, but I'm not willing to spend a ton for a good testing kit. I thought they would be good enough for my needs. I could run the water back to the pool store and see what the numbers come up at, but I thought I would check with you all first.
I am really frustrated as I mistakenly believed I could set this super small pool up, throw in some chlorine tabs and we would be good to go. Boy, was I wrong. Thanks to you all in advance who can give me advice on my situation. I just want to give my kids a few weeks of swimming here before the summer is over.
We filled it with well water over 3 days and then took the water to the pool store and had it analyzed (my bad). The issues indicated at that time was that copper was high (although the water looked more brown tinted than anything) and that TA was 299ppm. I tried for a few days to bring down the TA with "pH Down", but then by doing reading on your site, I saw that I really didn't need to mess with that as long as pH was good (it was 7.5).
I then shocked the pool with All in One Shock Xtra by Qualco and was able to get a FC reading of 10 (measured by a strip) the next morning. I left the cover off all day and the FC came down enough that evening to use Metal Magic to address the copper issue (although again, all I was seeing was brown on the filter and in the water...iron was measured by the pool store as 0.1ppm). The directions for Metal Magic put me under the impression that I should not mess with any other chemicals for 48 hours, so I did not add anything after that point. The Metal Magic took out a TON of brown sediment from the water and it is now clear.
My problem is two days after using the Metal Magic, according to my strips, the FCl was at 1 when I added in the floater with 2 "mini slow dissolving chlorinating tablets (bactericide, disinfectant, algaecide". They are Utiken Trichloro tabs. They have been floating in there since 7/24.
The FCl was not registering on a test strip on 7/25, so I added a heaping tbsp of the shock that evening and did not have any success getting any reading yesterday morning. I spent the day worrying away and reading up on your site.
I used the 6 way HTH test strip this morning and I know my TA is still "excessively high" and FCl is non-registerable (although I can smell it and if I lift up the chlorine dispenser and hold the test strip under it, I do get it to turn purple). Stabilizer looks to be 0.
I have done a lot of reading around your site and I believe where I went wrong is I should have added stabilizer before I shocked it. I think at this point it needs to be shocked again, but the directions on Metal Magic say not to do so for a week. That would be Thursday. So what do I do in the meantime? Should I add some stabilizer since I never did? I know the "shock" I added has some stabilizer as well as the Trichlor tabs, so I erroneously thought I wouldn't need to add anymore.
I also know the strips aren't the best, but I'm not willing to spend a ton for a good testing kit. I thought they would be good enough for my needs. I could run the water back to the pool store and see what the numbers come up at, but I thought I would check with you all first.
I am really frustrated as I mistakenly believed I could set this super small pool up, throw in some chlorine tabs and we would be good to go. Boy, was I wrong. Thanks to you all in advance who can give me advice on my situation. I just want to give my kids a few weeks of swimming here before the summer is over.
