GoobyGirl

Thanks Chem Geek for the answers! I wish I could aerate this pool - I don't even have 10 rowdy boys I could borrow to do this - no kids in the family and only one little child in our neighborhood (small country setting) who isn't tall enough to touch the bottom of this pool. I'm in a pickle, I tell ya. I'm told by the pool store that I don't have any algea at this point - and since there is no floor drain, if things are granules, I premix in pool water anything that won't immediatly dissolve. After anything is added to the pool, I stir that thing up like a giant cauldren ( I can only imagine what the neighbors think!) I have well water so to drain my pool halfway will re-invent the whole metal situation I have since I am on a well and I nearly have all the metals gone! I can't bear the thought of doing this and my DH will probably drown me as I have spent sooooooooooo much time with this pool (I think he's jealous). hehehe.....only to drain partially and start over - I can hear him now. I was at first using the Dichlor - but stopped about two/three weeks ago - switched to cal-hypo and now I'm using bleach. It was with bleach when I started to get a CL reading of anything! Don't forget, this is an Intex pool - not the ring type - the ones with the metal pole frame and sucky pump/filtration. Right now my water is hazy - I can still see the bottom, but its a very faint tinted green (metals) and a bit cloudy - almost a faint mint color. I have a drop test kit, not strips - but I do take my water in to the pool store as they have the more detailed contraption for testing my water. They know me when I walk in. LOL.... I can't get in the water as the nights have been very cool - in the high 50's.... and the days in the high 70's... and we've had about a weeks worth of rain and storms....just my luck (it was a drought prior to my purchasing this pool!). Its suppose to warm up next week. I've enjoyed this pool once - its all new to me but if I can survive this Intex pool - then I can handle a real pool. I do have a little panty hose sock in the skimmer and I'm changing my filter about three times a day - still rinsing off a LOT of rust from it - then I soak my catridges in some cartridge cleaner for a few hours, rinse them off and let them sun dry. My pump is a 1.5 hp, 1500 gph. I mini shocked it today and will take my water in Sunday for a reading. They are very understanding and so far have not been very pushy on selling me a bunch of stuff. OH BTW, on July 13th my total dissolved solids were 850, so I don't think they tested them with this last batch as we were concerned at seeing where my metals, CLs, Alk, PH and CYA was.... Next year I'm getting the pool filled by a water truck! So - I guess my question is this Chem Geek, with the information above, what can I do to assist the haze from lifting and getting this pool balanced out a bit more... or do you want to wait to see what my figures are come Sunday? I also want to mention that I had been adding Iron Out (Summit) and I wonder if this could be causing the haze as well - it has a chlorine nuetralizer and this was the cause of my CL leaving a few times back.... grrrrrrrrr...so, I was adding this stuff only to unbalance my balance. So, no more of that stuff (though it made my water sparkle and clear!!) I just wonder if some of that haze isn't caused by residual 'stuff' from the Iron Out. Also, do you think I should let the pump rest at some point and just see if anything falls to the bottom? Heaven help me if it does because what I've read on this site is - the vaccum sucks on this pool system also! I also now have added a 'solar pill'.... can't afford the solar blanket just yet.... I'm almost broke from getting this pool started before I found this site and learned about the BBB method!! Don't you hate newbies who go out and buy these pretend pools?!?

Can someone tell me what I need to do? The following is the water test from Tuesday: Saturation Index: -0.37 Balanced Total dissolved solids: 0 balanced Total chlorine 5.0 Free chlorine 3.7 Combined chlorine 1.3 pH 7.0 Adjusted Alkalinity 133 Total Alk 151 Calcuim Hardness 233 Cyanuric acid 81 Iron 0 Vial turned soft pink, but they said it must be so small of an amount that it turned the water but not enough to register. Coper 0 Should I add Borax? Bleach? Baking Soda? If so, which one and how much? I have an 18 x 48 Intex AG Metal Frame Pool w/ vinyl liner. Water is a cloudy light green. I have well water. Thanks for any help you can give! Goobygirl

I would ask you... Remind me again why I bought a pool? LOL Goobygirl

Owning the lovely and dependable Intex AG 18/48 pool, we ALL know how wonderful the cartridges are... especially when one has well water. Sooooooooooooo, with my metals becoming lower and lower in my pool... I add my metal free into the pool and go about my business. Today when I go to clean my cartridge - its not just stained the usual red rusty color - its COVERED in THICK RUST 'stuff'... it was truly amazing (to me anyway!). My water was tested yesterday and they saw no metals, though the vial did turn a soft pale pink - but they figured there wasn't enough metal to get a reading. I've been changing my catridge on a daily basis two to three times a day - this was a first - it was amazing - it was like a rusty flour all over it!! Anyone see this before... I sure hope this was a good thing!! Goobygirl

HELLO anyone out there??

I am new to this pool stuff - so I bought an Intex 18 x 48. I have worked at getting my levels correct, as I live in the country with well water. As of Sunday, my levels were: Saturation Index: 0.36 Balanced Total dissolved solids: 0 balanced Total chlorine 5.0 Free chlorine 5.0 Combined chlorine 0.0 pH 7.6 Adjusted Alkalinity 165 Total Alk 200 Calcuim Hardness 224 Cyanuric acid 0 Iron .03 Coper 0 Total dissolved solids 0 Draining the pool is NOT an option, as the iron in the water is close to leaving due to Metal Free working it - its already removed the copper. HOWEVER, I read somewhere on this site that using Iron Out by Summit was okay to use as it gives one instantly clear water - so I did just that, and VIOLA!! The water cleared wonderfully! However, seconds later I had a feeling to test the water via the drop kit I have - I had NO chlorine whatsoever and my PH seemed to have dropped as well! So, I used a test strip - nothing. Both of these worked prior to getting my water tested an hour before. I then found out that Iron Out has a chlorine neutralizer. So, I decided to try to shock it back to a chlorine level I can read. I've added 4 lbs of shock to no avail and getting ready to switch over to bleach in the AM (I've ran out of granulated chlorine). Can someone tell me that this will help bring back chlorine to my water? I'm so disappointed. I've worked very hard to get chlorine to read in my water only to screw it up by adding Iron Out. Ug... I don't use Dichlor as a chlorinator anymore, BTW - I learned early on that it raises the CYA... correct? I'm almost obsessed with this pool! Okay- I have to admit - I AM obsessed with this pool! GoobyGirl