That's "Hello" in the Muskogee (Creek) Nation language. ;-)
So just over a month ago I bought my first AGP, it's an Intex Oval soft pool, I'd been creeping around the forum since about 2 weeks before that.
The past month has been an expensive and frustrating learning experience. My first mistake was thinking all chemicals are created equal and buying HTH products from Wal-Mart. I know, I'm an idiot. I read several posts on this forum and thought "It's a small pool, I'll be fine using the HTH 4 step stuff at Wal-mart."
I spent over a month battling cloudy water, finally got my water clear and then I had the pump off for about 3 days while I constructed a second return/fountain to cool the water b/c it was almost bath water warm... And the chlorine bottomed out... And I had algae appear. So then I tried to SLAM the pool using Chlor-Hypo and all I managed to do was double the hardness in my water. Finally at my wits end I admitted defeat, came back here and did more research, drained half the pool and started over using the BBB method. 3 days later and my PH and Alkalinity are in perfect balance and the water is crystal clear.
I had gone to a large chain pool supply store for guidance and they were of no help, in fact they were down right rude and told me I needed to buy a new pump and all these chemicals. And when I inquired about how I might vacuum with my stock Intex pump the guy laughed at me and told me I'd need to buy some overpriced piece of junk they had there. I'll have you know I put together a vacuum using the hose I bought, this rinkydink garden hose vacuum from Wal-Mart (that was practically useless except for small leaves and sand), and a $3 rubber pipe/hose adapter from Home Depot. I can even vacuum to waste by running the return hose down our sewer clean out which is (by design) right by the pool. I am going to upgrade my pump next year, haven't decided which route I'm going yet. I do know that I'll do a lot of research on these forums and make an educated decision. Sometimes I can be really hard headed and have to make my own mistakes (sometimes costly) and this time was no exception... However, in the end, this forum helped me out tremendously.
Thank you!
So just over a month ago I bought my first AGP, it's an Intex Oval soft pool, I'd been creeping around the forum since about 2 weeks before that.
The past month has been an expensive and frustrating learning experience. My first mistake was thinking all chemicals are created equal and buying HTH products from Wal-Mart. I know, I'm an idiot. I read several posts on this forum and thought "It's a small pool, I'll be fine using the HTH 4 step stuff at Wal-mart." I spent over a month battling cloudy water, finally got my water clear and then I had the pump off for about 3 days while I constructed a second return/fountain to cool the water b/c it was almost bath water warm... And the chlorine bottomed out... And I had algae appear. So then I tried to SLAM the pool using Chlor-Hypo and all I managed to do was double the hardness in my water. Finally at my wits end I admitted defeat, came back here and did more research, drained half the pool and started over using the BBB method. 3 days later and my PH and Alkalinity are in perfect balance and the water is crystal clear.
I had gone to a large chain pool supply store for guidance and they were of no help, in fact they were down right rude and told me I needed to buy a new pump and all these chemicals. And when I inquired about how I might vacuum with my stock Intex pump the guy laughed at me and told me I'd need to buy some overpriced piece of junk they had there. I'll have you know I put together a vacuum using the hose I bought, this rinkydink garden hose vacuum from Wal-Mart (that was practically useless except for small leaves and sand), and a $3 rubber pipe/hose adapter from Home Depot. I can even vacuum to waste by running the return hose down our sewer clean out which is (by design) right by the pool. I am going to upgrade my pump next year, haven't decided which route I'm going yet. I do know that I'll do a lot of research on these forums and make an educated decision. Sometimes I can be really hard headed and have to make my own mistakes (sometimes costly) and this time was no exception... However, in the end, this forum helped me out tremendously.
Thank you!
