Brand New - Have A Few General Questions

[Kelemvor]

Hi all,

I acquired (got it used from someone upgrading) one of those above ground pools where you inflate the top ring, add the water, and it rises and turns into a pool when you're done. It's 12' by 3' and is for my daughter to play around in. It's more or less like this: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?...uct_id=10715080

I've never owned a pool before and really don't know the first thing about taking care of one. So, just a few quick questions that hopefully are basic knowledge for most of you...

1) PUMP - The instructions say to let it run for 4-6 hours per day while it's not being used. I'm just wondering how necessary this is and how often I really need it to run. The main usage will be for my daughter (4 yrs old) to play around in. My wife will probably hop in with our 9mo old son now and then as well. She's estimating that providing the weather cooperates (we're in WI) she'll want to use it a few times a week. It will be covered when not in use to keep out leaves and other debris. SO is it really needed to run the filter as often as the instructions say or would we be able to do it less often?

2) CHEMICALS - No clue on this one but my wife doesn't like to smell like chlorine and breaks out with a rash in some Health Club pools we've been to. Can anyone direct me to, or provide me with, basic information on what we need to put in the pool and how often. It came with one of those things you float on the water and put the "stuff" inside if those are good or if there's just something we can put in every so often, that'd be fine to. I know there are alternatives to chlorine and we'd want whatever would be best to not cause our kids to smell like chlorine and to not affect their skin.

3) PATCHING - We filled the pool yesterday and noticed a handful of pin sized leaks in the side. They just dribble out but we'd obviously like to patch them. Are there household things we can just dab on the little holes (superglue or something similar) or can we just buy a patch kit of sorts from a local pool supply place maybe?

Thanks!

[PaulR]

It's a good idea to run the pump every day. It's not just filtering, it's to circulate the water which helps get your sanitizer into all the nooks and crannies. And even with the cover (I have one) you will still get pollen and dust and even leaves in the water. Try it at 4 hours a day; if the pool starts to look cloudy then you increase the time.

Indoor health-club pools tend to seriously overchlorinate. "chem geek" on this forum reports that his wife swims daily and in the winter when she goes to an indoor pool her suits last about one season. In the home pool they last many years. I suggest you read through Pool School which has a ton of good information in it. It's not that hard to use chlorine to maintain a sanitary pool without "smelling like chlorine."

The "stuff" that goes in the floater typically works for a while and then causes trouble in the long run; can you say exactly what it is? If it's tablets of trichloro-yada-yada then it's like I said.

If you want to maintain a sanitary pool then you will need a decent test kit to measure your water chemistry parameters. The cheapo chlorine-pH kit won't be enough. Walmart sells a "6-way" kit that people seem happy with. At the high end there's the Taylor K-2006, sometimes relabeled for example Leslie's sells it as the FAS-DPD Service Kit, and then there's the TF100 from tftestkits.net. These last two have all the tests that address all the usual problems.

Don't know anything about patch kits, sorry; I have an inground plaster pool, patching has never been an issue.

--paulr

[Pool Clown]

My next door has one and she runs it constantly and its still not perfectly clear, probably because she didn't read the fine print about having to change the cartridge every week.. Not clean but replace! Not trying to discourage, Just letting you know that you gotta watch those like a hawk, or else it'll turn on you. The pump doesn't move much water so you have to run them longer. Those little pools are great for little kids Just be SURE to watch them, there is not an easy way to get out of those w/o the ladder, even with, its a little tricky. Have fun.

[Kelemvor]

I don't have anything to put in the floater, just have the floater itself

My wife did pick up a Maintenance Kit from Target that includes a bunch of stuff.

This is the item here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=110401911738

I have to get the pump hooked up tonight or tomorrow so we can see how it works. Probably need a new filter right off the bat I imagine.

[PaulR]

From the description of the Target kit you have stuff to manage your pH, some chlorine granules (probably dichlor), and some algaecide. I assume the water testing kit does only chlorine and pH. For a small pool like yours that's probably okay.

Also a 12' round 3' deep pool is about 2500 gallons; when you're figuring out how much of what to add, you'll need to know that.

You would use the pH Up and pH Down to keep your pH between 7.2 and 7.8. With such a small pool you should not need large amounts of either. Hopefully the instructions provide some guidance based on pool size. you will need to test the pH of your water in order to know whether you need any.

Assuming the chlorine is dichlor (sodium dichloro-somethingorother) then I would say start with 2 oz, then you test chlorine each day and if it gets below 1ppm, add another 1 oz. Use that stuff until it's gone, and after that you should use plain old unscented bleach (make sure the label says sodium hypochlorite 6%). Where you were using 1 oz of dichlor, instead use 1 cup of bleach.

The reason I say to change from dichlor to bleach is that the dichlor has both chlorine and stabilizer in it. Stabilizer is good in moderation, it helps keep the chlorine from being burned off by the sun. Too much stabilizer and the chlorine becomes ineffective. One pound of dichlor will add a moderate amount of stabilizer (technically cyanuric acid or CYA), around 25ppm in your 2500 gal pool. Stabilizer never goes away, unless you dump some water, so you want to be careful about using dichlor in the long term. There's another kind of chlorine called trichlor (sodium trichloro-somethingorother) that is commonly sold as tablets or pucks to be used in the floater; it will also add CYA as well as chlorine, so you really don't want that either.

When you add chems, it's best to pre-dissolve powders/granules in a bucket of water then pour the water into the pool in front of the return jet. Always have the pump running when you add stuff, and leave it running for at least an hour afterward. That helps distribute the stuff throughout the pool.

At first you should test the water daily until you get used to how the pool behaves. As you get used to it you will probably develop a routine and know what to expect.

The Pool Calculator is a useful resource, it's how I figured out the amounts described above. It will be able to help you with pH Up and pH Down if you need them.

Have fun!

--paulr

[PaulR]

I just found out that these Intex Easy Set pools don't have straight sides (I've never actually seen one) so my volume calculation was wrong. Looking up the capacity here it looks to be more like 1800 gallons.

--paulr