I’m so glad I found this site on Reddit, I’m hoping you experts will be able to help. I recently purchased a vinyl sided Intex brand pool secondhand. It uses the basic Intex filter with A/C cartridges. Approximately 3500 gallons. We really thought we were just going to fill this puppy up and throw in some chlorine and call it a day. Turns out…that’s not how this works.
I feel very silly now, but we had no idea at the time so bear with me. We filled the pool with well water (no other sources of water for us unfortunately) that is extremely high in heavy metals. I mean, extremely high. There were literal chunks of iron in the water. I grabbed handfuls of them out during the filling process lol. Needless to say, we were left with a dark reddish-greenish brown swamp when it finally filled.
Our second mistake was using test strips rather than a proper test kit. (Have since purchased the K2006C.) We kept getting wonky Rear numbers and ended up spending a small fortune in chemicals. The only investment that proved to be worth it was a $50 metal sequestrant. We’ve changed the cartridge probably 8 times, each time pulling out dark red slime-covered cartridges. I purchased an RV filter for the hose so all of the new water being put in is going through that. Also purchased CU-Lator pouches with very little effect. Anyways, 3 weeks later we can finally just barely see the bottom of the pool. It’s now a sad-looking gray-blue-green and decently cloudy still.
Last week I added a gallon of liquid shock, some phosphorous reducer, stabilizer, algaecide and baking soda. This was still working off the inaccurate test strip numbers, however. Soooo we may have overcorrected the pH and TA.
My test kit arrived today and here are the numbers (if I did everything properly):
pH: 8.0
Free chlorine: 6.4
Combined chlorine: 0.6
TA: 550 (seems awful high but I did double check this one)
CYA: 70
CH: 325
If they upload in order, the first pic is about 10 days ago. The second one tonight. Taken different times of day.
I think that’s all the information I can think to give right now. Thank you in advance for the tips/advice!
I feel very silly now, but we had no idea at the time so bear with me. We filled the pool with well water (no other sources of water for us unfortunately) that is extremely high in heavy metals. I mean, extremely high. There were literal chunks of iron in the water. I grabbed handfuls of them out during the filling process lol. Needless to say, we were left with a dark reddish-greenish brown swamp when it finally filled.
Our second mistake was using test strips rather than a proper test kit. (Have since purchased the K2006C.) We kept getting wonky Rear numbers and ended up spending a small fortune in chemicals. The only investment that proved to be worth it was a $50 metal sequestrant. We’ve changed the cartridge probably 8 times, each time pulling out dark red slime-covered cartridges. I purchased an RV filter for the hose so all of the new water being put in is going through that. Also purchased CU-Lator pouches with very little effect. Anyways, 3 weeks later we can finally just barely see the bottom of the pool. It’s now a sad-looking gray-blue-green and decently cloudy still.
Last week I added a gallon of liquid shock, some phosphorous reducer, stabilizer, algaecide and baking soda. This was still working off the inaccurate test strip numbers, however. Soooo we may have overcorrected the pH and TA.
My test kit arrived today and here are the numbers (if I did everything properly):
pH: 8.0
Free chlorine: 6.4
Combined chlorine: 0.6
TA: 550 (seems awful high but I did double check this one)
CYA: 70
CH: 325
If they upload in order, the first pic is about 10 days ago. The second one tonight. Taken different times of day.
I think that’s all the information I can think to give right now. Thank you in advance for the tips/advice!
Okay, so you have high iron and TA. The TA will take time. Each time the pH hits 8.0, use enough muriatic acid to lower the pH down to 7.0-7.2. Each time you do that it knocks the TA down a little as well. It will take time, so don't sweat it.
, it's a tricky one. If it's still precipitating outwards, filter as much as you can. Polyfill is your friend. Use it. Once you have exhausted all the mechanical filtering, THEN go to the sequestrant. See below for more ideas.
