Last year I started taking over pool care. I decided to save on the $50+/week by adding my own chemicals and emptying my own skimmers.
I live in Austin, TX, and during the summer I noticed my pool was losing water quickly. I figured it was the heat and bought a solar cover online. Over the winter, I noticed I was still losing water, and when I took off my cover, my pool was now green.
My first step was to fix the leak. I paid ~$625 to have someone tell me I needed to regrout and that the resistance trainer had a crack in it. Then they wanted $1900 to fix it. I decided the grouting could wait, and I would have to fix the cracked pipe myself. I used to plast-aid and eventually got the leak to stop. I had emptied the pool and power washed the algae that had accumulated over the winter.
Once I refilled my pool, I turned the system back on, added a half bottle of clorox algae killer, and two packets of pool shock (sodium hypochlorite, i think). This morning I came out to find the new water I had just added was already green. I also found my heater was pouring out water. I added about 6 scoops of DE and about 30 minutes later, the DE came pouring out through the cleaner/vacuum.
When I go on automatic, the cleaner/vacuum only works sporadically, the pressure on the filters is zero.
I ran the pool in service mode and turned on the filters. This seemed to work well. But I can't leave it on all the time.
I think I need to do the following, in this order:
Any advice and tips would be helpful. Also, I don't have a testing kit yet.
I live in Austin, TX, and during the summer I noticed my pool was losing water quickly. I figured it was the heat and bought a solar cover online. Over the winter, I noticed I was still losing water, and when I took off my cover, my pool was now green.
My first step was to fix the leak. I paid ~$625 to have someone tell me I needed to regrout and that the resistance trainer had a crack in it. Then they wanted $1900 to fix it. I decided the grouting could wait, and I would have to fix the cracked pipe myself. I used to plast-aid and eventually got the leak to stop. I had emptied the pool and power washed the algae that had accumulated over the winter.
Once I refilled my pool, I turned the system back on, added a half bottle of clorox algae killer, and two packets of pool shock (sodium hypochlorite, i think). This morning I came out to find the new water I had just added was already green. I also found my heater was pouring out water. I added about 6 scoops of DE and about 30 minutes later, the DE came pouring out through the cleaner/vacuum.
When I go on automatic, the cleaner/vacuum only works sporadically, the pressure on the filters is zero.
I ran the pool in service mode and turned on the filters. This seemed to work well. But I can't leave it on all the time.
I think I need to do the following, in this order:
- Stop the leaks in the heater
- Make sure the pups, filters and cleaners are all working properly
- Get the pool back to a nice, crystal clear.
Any advice and tips would be helpful. Also, I don't have a testing kit yet.
You seem to have a few things happening at once. Some of my recommendations may not sound all that appealing, but let's give it a shot:
