So we decided we needed to drain and refill our pool this year--cya was unreadable, CH was insane, and then a little spot of mustard algae showed up... way to go pool guy. I've been reading here for 2 years, figured it was time to try things myself since paying for it wasn't working out... We dismissed the pool guy over the winter, and have been maintaining chlorine/ph/etc ourselves, testing with the great taylor kits that was suggested here.
Everything went well with the drain and bit of acid washing I had done, looked good. Refilled pool, turned equipment back on, noticed that there was an air leak somewhere because even after bleeding air from the pump and filter, small bubbles would come out returns... We'd rinsed the folded filters in the dark--just a quick spray down. I figured we hadn't tightened something enough some where.
I went ahead and used the pool calculator, threw in on the low side of what we needed to do, and left pool on overnight. Yesterday I adjusted a bit more, and then shocked the pool last night. Still a few tiny bubbles, but not too much. Pump turned itself off at 8am, as per timer.
Today I went out to recheck chems and see where we were at--about an hour ago. When I turned pump on we noticed a LOT of air come out, like filter was out of water. Huge bubbles. Since my husband was off today, we tore it open to make sure everything was lubed and tight.
That's when we saw the filters.... Pic included. They used to be blue, and solid on both ends. They are now yellow and green, pock marked, and not solid.
What would do this?!
They are older. THey came with the house, I am guessing they are original to the pool, which was built in 2007. We were thinking of replacing them this summer, since the binding rings that go around the pleats were starting to fail when we last cleaned them in the fall.
We have a plaster (with blue quartz) pool, small--8500-9000 gallons or there abouts. It has a hayward system attatched, is sanitized with chlorine. The pool guy got way carried away with pucks, I insisted he quit with that last summer when I got my own testing kit and saw the cya was really high (as in my kit couldn't read it). Since then it's been maintained with plain bleach.
My numbers at present are FC 3.5, 0 CC, PH 7.6, TA 135, CH 50 (I know it's way low, that's my next step), CYA 35 (raising that slowly, noticed the liquid cya I put in didn't register for 2 days--thought that was instant? glad I didn't add more!). I live in the Phoenix metro area.
Would like to know what ate my filters, and any ideas for fixing the air leaking in to the system--it is worse now than when we started--lubing rings and tightening did not solve the problem
Thanks!
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