3 Years of neglect! BAD!

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J

Jamestat2

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Jun 6, 2016
4
Fort Wayne, IN
Just bought a house with a 32X15 Roman style in ground pool 7' at deep and 3' at shallow. 18,000 gallons according to an online pool calculator I used. It's an old concrete one built in the mid 50's. Know very little about pools so I have come here to find out. All I know is that it is BAD!

It does not leak. But there is a leak in the return line under the concrete around the pool. Or so I have been told by the neighbors who have lived here for 20+ years and have help previous owners in the past work on it.

I bought the house in December and have just gotten around to dealing with this on top of all the other things on my plate so I am going to take this slow!

The previous owner moved to Indy and the house and pool have sat for 3 years with little attention. The pool had a cover (blue tarp) and luckily a leaf net over that. But it had deteriorated and let LOTS of leaves and debris into the pool itself! There where frogs living in it when I first saw it and it was BLACK!

I got the tarp and leaf net off and basically started scooping leaves with a fishing net. I put in some algaecide, shock and super clarifier in and used a trash pump to get it all stirred in. Bought a decent cover and covered it up. This was in November in Northeast Indiana mind you.

I uncovered it last weekend and lo and behold it was clear as a bell! I could see the bottom! Along with all the **** in it! Removing the cover created some currents and stirred up the muck again! Now it's black and the frogs are driving me crazy having to dip them out every day! I live right next to a very wooded area with frogs toads and lots of tree frogs!

I talked to a guy I was reffered to who owns a pool supply store here and he basically told me to get to dipping until I can get the filter up and running bypass the in ground return until I can get him out with his test equipment to find the leak.

Like I said. It is black with the decomposed leaf matter in it. I am on a well and I'm not worried about using it. I have a friend who has a 26'X4' above ground and he has filled his 3 times with his well. My house is also on the highest point in the area with some sharp drop to a wash about 60' or so from the pool so I would not think my water table is high enough to hydraulic the pool out if I drain it.

After this long rant what I am really looking for is advice! Should I drain it like my friend says I should and save all the work of getting the muck out or should I just keep dipping and start filtering?
 
Based on the length it sat unused, I suspect the water may have ammonia and also believe a good drain is in order. If you chose not to drain completely for structural sake that's fine, at least draining down to about 1-2 feet should give you the visibility and fresh water needed to remove residual debris and get that thing going again. It will save a lot of time when performing a "SLAM" (link below) as I suspect the lines and filtration have algae waiting for you as well.

If you don't have it already, make sure to order the TF-100 (link below) test kit (XL Option) and "Speed Stir" so you can test and treat the water accordingly as soon as you refill. Don't forget to take lots of pics.
 
Yeah Texas Splash I was kinna thinking the same thing. The sludge has a sewery smell when I get it in the net and it's so fine it clogs the net and won't allow the water to pass through the net back into the pool.

How about refilling with my well? The water up here is irony! I am originally from Central Texas (around Temple- Belton area). We had good artesian well water there but not up here. What are good ways to get the red out so to speak. A friend has a small above ground Intex that he drains and refills every year. Haven't asked him but I know it's a battle for him to get that rust off the walls and floor.
 
Well, the more pre-filtering you can do the better. Do a few searches here and you'll some folks get pretty creative in trying to filter iron before it goes in the pool. Once it's in though, and some will, continued filtering at the skimmer with paper towels and/or old linens sometimes does quite well. Any remaining iron may need to be managed with a sequestrant and strict monitoring of your FC level so they play nice together.
 
Yeah I've been reading on some of the prefiltering people are doing and remarkable some people are. In my line of work I run across a lot of filter canisters and such and I have saved some (for some unknown reason until now). I also saw the home made slime bag post! That's nice to know about. My friend likes them and was just talking about ordering a couple new ones. I have got to call him right away about the ones from McMaster-Carr.

Oh yes Vette. I have some very horrible pictures. I will keep taking them too. Where should I post them?
 
Hi and welcome, James.

Is your pool surface vinyl, gunnite or fiberglass?
You're not worried about water table, right?

If not, and if vinyl, use that trash pump to take it down to a foot in the shallow end...no lower or you risk unseating a liner if you're liner.

I recovered a black water 20-wheelbarrows-of-leaves vinyl pool in high water table using chlorine alone, (also old well). But IMO draining if you can is the way to go because you'll have dramatically diluted the ammonia and other byproducts and while you will still need to slam, it will be shorter work.

But before you drain, tell me your raw iron ppm in your well. Should be on your well inspection report when you purchased. That will make a difference in the way forward, because believe me, you want to manage that iron on the front end, not the back end!

If you don't mind, also tell us about you home softener capacity, whether you'd consider investing in an "iron curtain stlye" green sand home filter, etc., and whether you'd consider the not inconsiderable expense of trucking in water to get a good metal free baseline going.

I'd hate to see you fill with that well only to later consider those moves, which each generally improve metal management. Nothing is metal free on a well-pool, but management makes a huge difference.

In my case, raw well is 2 ppm iron. My "solution" to date to keep the pool water around .3 ppm to control staining has been to plumb a dual high capacity set of softener's to my pool spigot, then still pre-filter on the hose (iron is then around .5 ppm), then sill sequester, but at a lower rate than prior.
 
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