How to properly chlorinate small 12'x30" intex pool? And few other questions.

[CarlD]

I would immediately add 5 cups of bleach to your water--regular ordinary bleach (6% concentration) to get your chlorine level at least to a fighting chance of stopping the algae that's growing. Check your water 3x a day with whatever you have, tho the 6-way HTH kit from Walmart is the second best kit you can get. You'll want to keep your chlorine level between 10 and 15 for now, till the slime is gone, and till we get a full set of test numbers.

I'm guessing the actual water level is 24", not 30" which puts your pool at 1700 gallons. One quart of bleach will add 8.8 ppm (parts per million) of chlorine to it. Forget the powder for now.

Carl

[Azmp1]

Hi folks, thank you very much for the replys. I've added a quart of bleach few hours ago and just tested with my cheap-o strips. All three indicators are now within the "ok" levels with chlorine at 5ppm, PH at 7.8ppm and alkalinity at 120. I will add more bleach tonight per CarlD's suggestion, one question thought, with the chorine levels as high as 10-15ppm, will it bleach the liner or harm the pool in any other way, and also what is the acceptable level of chlorine should be before I let the kids back in the pool? The chlorine levels just go down in its own, correct?

Thanks all!

[Watermom]

Chlorine levels are based on CYA levels and unless I missed it, I don't think you posted one. Since we don't know your CYA level at this point, I think if it were my pool that I would only take the chlorine level up to 10-12ppm. At that level, it should not hurt your pool in any way. Chlorine levels drop down on their own over time. How quickly depends on how much CYA you have, what the weather is like and what your water conditions are. It won't hurt the kids to swim at that chlorine level but you might want to have them wear old swimsuits. Take a minute if you haven't already done so, and read the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in either mine or Carl's signature above. It will better explain the connection between chlorine and CYA.

If you can pick up an HTH 6-Way drops test kit at Walmart, you'll be able to test your CYA level.

[Azmp1]

ok, so yesterday i've added anther quart of bleach, tested in the few hours and the chlorine level was at around 10ppm. This mornng checked and slime is just about all gone - Yey!!!!

You guys rock.

just now i picked up the HTH-6 6way kit from Walmart, i will test both my pool water, my tap water and will post results as well as the list of all chemicals that i currently have on hand.

btw, i've filled out the PF pool Chart - entry line 239.

Thank you all!!!

[aylad]

Thanks for filling out the chart. The 6-way kit you bought only has enough reagents in it to test CYA 2-3 times. We know there's none in your tap water, so don't waste the reagent testing that. We DO, however, need to know the CYA level in your pool water. And.....if you tell us the ingredients in the granules you already have, you might be able to use them, too. In the meantime, stay with the bleach. A little bit of bleach can do miracles in a pool!

Janet

Edit: Need to know CYA in pool, not in fill water!

[Azmp1]

Thanks Janet! Will post the info tonight.

[Azmp1]

Hi Folks,

Just test both the pool water and the tap water with the HTH6 kit here are the results:

Pool water:
Total chlorine/bromine - came out darker then the top window of 5ppm cl/10ppm br). The test strip says i'm somwhere in between of 5 and 10. My kids went in today and their eyes were burning, and the water stinks of chlorine.
Total pH - also came up that looked to be higher then the top window of 8.2.
Total alkalinity - 90ppm
Total hardness - 80ppm
CYA - Solution never turned cloudy. I emptied all 14ml into the view tube and could still see the dot at the bottom...

Tap water:
Total chlorine/bromine - looks to be at 0.5ppm chlorine, 1ppm bromine
Total pH - looked high again close to 8.2 (Is that normal to be high for tap water?)
Total alkalinity - 50ppm
Total hardness - 90ppm

Here are all the chemicals i have on-hand:

Clorinating ganuals by AquaChem:
trichloro-s-triazinetrione - 71.8%
boron sodium oxide - 8.0%
other ingridiant - enhancer/sunlight protector - 20.2%
(available chlorine 65%)

pH Up by Aquachem
Sodium Carbonate - 100%

Algeacide PLUS by Aquachem
copper metallic - 3.3% (active ingredient)
other ingredient - 96.7%

While at Walmart i also picked up a container of HTH shock 'n Swim

That's all

Thanks in advance!