Above Ground Pool Help...please

[tabbikat86]

I bought my children an 18 ft x 4 ft easy set intex pool about a month ago. I bought all aquachem products (alk increaser, ph up, ph down, 1 in chlorine tablets, 1 lb bags of shock, 20% algecide, and clarifier). It is a daily thing that I need to shock the pool, depsite the fact that I keep 3 1 inch tablets in the floater ( I have recently switched to 5 but that hasnt done anything yet). So I usually shock the pool daily at night (this is getting very pricey though). I also bought the aqua chem 6 way test strips. I check the water myself religilously...almost ocd about the pool and the stabilizer has been low, but according to the strips it was low ok. My calcium hardness level is also a little low. The alkalinity has been good the whole time and I have only had to adjust the ph twice (I accidently put to much ph up in the pool because I didnt realize the filter was off and after checking it a few hours later I put more in it, and realized the pump was off, so after the pump circulated everything I had to lower the ph. My water has been clear for the part...but it seems a little cloudy now so I used the clarifier (1 oz) and I use algecide for preventative maintenance every week. I also use a pool cover when we are not in the pool. I have had no algecide problems and also can not use sink and sweep because my pump does not have the filter to waste cycle. I am using a 2000 gph filter pump that uses the larger B filters. I cannot figure out why I cannot keep the chlorine levels right, and according to my strips it never registers total chlorine, but when I shock it registers the free chlorine, and from what I've been told free chlorine is the most important to check. My land lord has an inground pool and says that she only uses chlorox bleach and baking soda (which I think may be the exact same thing as alkalinity increaser or ph up...I found that on here somewhere) but I thought that was crazy b/c the pool store said it was bad to use chlorox. After reading through some of the posts I wanted to know exactly how to use chlorox in the pool. Oh and btw my pool does this slope thing on the sides and is only supposed to be filled to 80% capacity, so it only has 5500 gallons of water. I am sorry if this is drawn out but I didnt know what was needed. Thanks in advance for all the help!

[tabbikat86]

Well no one has responded...so I tried to take it my own hands. I felt maybe this experiment of mine could be useful. I found on a post earlier about chlorox in pools and they had listed a 1-800 to chlorox, so I called it. The information that they gave was to use an 1/8 of a cup per hundred gallons and then to mix all of the bleach into 2 gallons of water. Which in my 5500 gallon pool is roughly 7 gallons...so I figured to "shock" it or superchlorinate it I should double that...so I put 15 cups of bleach in the pool. I also didnt have a 2 gallon bucket so I slowly poured the bleach into the pool...walking all around it b/c I don't have a deep end. I then took my skimmer net and walked around the pool several times...making a whirlpool like effect to mix it in better. My chlorine levels are way up now...and I will check again in the morning and then the afternoon. My next question is should I still use the 1 in (i think tri-chlor tabs) chlorine tablets or will that cause a reaction...although even with 8 tablets in the floater today (my all time high) it still did not increase the chlorine levels? Thanks for any info...and if you have no info well maybe my experiment will help!

[britinusa]

Calcium hardness does not matter in your case with a vinyl pool, You need to get a drops based kit.

What is your CYA reading?