Help... pool accidentally drained.... down to a foot

[cherylt327]

We had sump pump running to drain our above ground pool to get down below the water return lines about 4 inches based on closing instructions here. This is our first year with a pool so forgive us...
Somehow we thought it was unplugged last night an it wasn't... it now has less than a foot of water!!!

How much do we need to add to close it? I figure out CYA will be way off now so guess we need to fix all our numbers?
Can we leave it like is and just fill it in the summer or will that kill our liner?

Thanks

 

[woodyp]

You're gonna need to fill that rascal back up down to where you want it below returns, rebalance, then close. A good wind will kill it.

 

[zea3]

Just to second what Woody said, the structural integrity of your pool comes from the water pushing against the sides to make them ridged. Without water your pool is subject to collapse from winds, or snow load if you cover it while it is empty. Also your liner will dry out, loose elasticity, and probably shrink while the pool is empty.

Fill it up to just below the return, plug or disconnect the plumbing, drain the pump and filter, cover then deal with any algae and balance the chemicals in the spring.

 

[cherylt327]

how far below the returns should it fill? Started to fill it yesterday but it going to take a lot... so we shouldn't mess with adjusting ph or any other levels? At this point it will have no CYA and we don't have any on hand. When we bought the house the CYA was over 100 and they were using pucks so we had to deal with extremely high level and planned on purchasing some in spring when needed since it was still sitting at 60 before the accidental drainage.

 

[zea3]

Fill to about an inch below the returns. I would slam in the spring to get rid of algae if needed. You can check the pH, but as long as it is in the 7.0-7.8 range I would leave it alone. If you do need to adjust pH use a brush to mix, or set up the sump pump to discharge back into the pool. I would not worry about balancing chemicals until spring.