My sad little swamp...

Jump to latest Follow Reply
N

neorn75

0
Apr 30, 2010
16
After a wonderful summer with my clear sparkling pool, fall came. We couldn't keep up with the leaves and eventually our pool became overrun. Throughout winter it became a swamp and now I have to chore of claiming it back.
During the winter we had a couple of freezes and at the beginning we would run out and turn on the pump overnight to keep the water circulating, but then our pressure went up so we had to backwash it and the hose blew apart. After that we didn't touch the pool or system the rest of the season.
The filter currently has no FiberClear in it. What should I do first? Take the filter apart and clean it, then recharge it, run it, then test? Or can I take a sample to the pool store now and start from there?
There is a lot of debris in the pool, should I remove all that before recharging the filter?
Should I drain the pool a bunch and then clean it out, refill, then test water?
I will take pictures and depending on the opinion, get the water tested today and post results.
 
You want to do some water circulation before testing. If you have a multi-port valve, set it on circulate so the water bypasses the filter, let the pump run for an hour and then take a sample for water testing. If you don't have a multi-port valve, you should clean up the filter, then run the pump for a while, and then test.

You want to get as much of the debris out of the pool as you possibly can before you start shocking.
 
I wish I had seen that circulation option during the winter! Good news is we have no busted pipes from the freezes, and the pump started like a champ after i cleaned out all of the skimmer baskets (ewww) and the pump basket. I'll let it run for about an hour then update with the sample results. Here is some swampy pics to tide you over....

The swamp
216.jpg


Hot tub (not so hot)
218.jpg


Multiport Valve
223.jpg
 
I'm sure you'll have it sparkling again in no time.

Just a side note - I'm not sure if you've ever closed your pool before but if you're in somewhere as cold or colder than NC, I highly recommend it! We closed ours for the first time this year, following the closing instructions here, and it was SO much less work over the winter - I only had to drain water off the cover a few times. The water is as sparkling blue underneath the cover as the day I closed it in October (not a locking cover, just held in place with water bags).
 
We are in North Texas (DFW) so we get a couple freezes and some snow fall but the ground never goes into permafrost so there is usually no worries about the underground pipes. I was a little concerned about the PVC piping around the pump and filter but they seem to be all okay.
So I went to the pool store :? Here are the test results:

FAC: 0
pH: 8+
TA: 60
Ca Hardness: 240
CYA: 0 (Should I get a sock of CYA or do dichlor?)

They asked me how I wanted to get it cleaned up and suggested I drain the pool, clean out the organics, and then refill. He estimated we probably have a foot of leaves but I doubt that. We did scoop regularly until the leaves were done, I would say there is probably an inch or two in the deep end and scattered amounts in the shallow end. When I said I didn't want to totally drain the pool, he said it would take 100lbs of Power Powder Plus to get it clear. According to the pool calculator it's a fraction of what he said. We have also decided to convert to BBB method this summer!
**I have been searching the site for an hour...I want to remove my grids and hose them off, then soak them. What was it that you use instead of the pool store cleaner?**
 
I am by no means an expert as I just converted to the BBB method last September. I'm in El Paso, so similar weather conditions to yours (without the humidity, though). My pool looked just like yours two weekends ago, but with a layer of pond scum too. Our solar cover (which we failed to store properly over the winter) had blown into the pool and was also covered with algae/pond scum. Really gross. The pool looked awful and reeked! I vacuumed to waste, tested my water (0 FC...yikes!), dumped in 9 jugs of bleach (182-oz), ran the pump overnight, and it was blue the next morning. I kept it at shock level for another day at which point it passed the overnight FC loss test. We powerwashed the solar cover and disinfected it with bleach. I've been testing every other day to maintain proper FC, and the pool was officially open for business yesterday. After a couple of days with the solar cover and heater the temp was up to 78...apparently warm enough for our daughters.

I didn't drain other than vacuuming to waste, and I didn't use any expensive pool store chemicals...just plain ole Clorox fom Costco, and followed the "Turning you swamp into a sparkling oasis" article.

Good Luck!
Jill
 
Awesome! My plan is to do about the same thing, we figured out that using bleach will cost us a fraction of what we were paying last summer using pool store chemicals. I was shocking the pool with Power Plus weekly and those little bags are almost $5 a pop! Today is more leaf scooping, there really is a lot less then I thought there would be. Will be taking apart the filter tomorrow and cleaning the grids if I can figure out what the TFP method was for that. Tuesday will be Fiber Clear and bleach day! Hopefully it won't take me more then a couple big bags since they are about $15 a piece.
 
I have another question....my filter appears to not have a drain plug! I looked all around the bottom of it because we couldn't find it last summer so I felt around and nope nothing there. Last time I took my grids out the filter housing was still almost half full so we tried to stick a hose in and let it overrun thinking it would help clean it a bit. I really want to get it as clean as possible this time.
Is there a way to drain it enough so I can check out the bottom on the inside to see if there is a drain plug? Or is it possible I just don't have one?
 
neorn75 said:
Awesome! My plan is to do about the same thing, we figured out that using bleach will cost us a fraction of what we were paying last summer using pool store chemicals. I was shocking the pool with Power Plus weekly and those little bags are almost $5 a pop! Today is more leaf scooping, there really is a lot less then I thought there would be. Will be taking apart the filter tomorrow and cleaning the grids if I can figure out what the TFP method was for that. Tuesday will be Fiber Clear and bleach day! Hopefully it won't take me more then a couple big bags since they are about $15 a piece.
Click to expand...
Power Plus adds Calcium to the water. And if you were shocking weekly because you were using a floating chlorinator with pucks, you might have a problem. You will want to test CH and CYA and then decide if draining is a good idea. If either CH or CYA or both are astronomical, you can save a lot of grief later on in the season by diluting it now. Especially CYA - if it's up there, you'd need to buy bleach by the barrel, not the jug, to get FC high enough to shock.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
It is an American Titan Vertical Grid SS DE filter that we converted to FiberClear last summer. I took a picture but it kept coming out blurry....
I downloaded the owners manual from the internet and it shows a drain plug at the bottom but I can't seem to find it :?
 
Is the filter plumbed to a "waste" line? If so, then that is your drain for the filter.

You may want to switch back to DE until the pool is mostly clear. I speak from experience, you will go through a lot of filter media clearing the algae out of the pool!

Here is a good thread for cleaning DE grids.
 
Saw you posted test results from a pool store. Highly recommend getting a TF Test kit http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html

Last year was my first year with a pool. Bought the test kit before filling the pool and use BBB from day one and always sparkled. I ran my pump on the few days we had overnight freezes and otherwise tested once a month or so during the winter. Of course there aren't many trees in central CA so that isn't a factor. At least it's a plus on pools but I miss real trees.
 
JasonLion said:
You want to do some water circulation before testing. If you have a multi-port valve, set it on circulate so the water bypasses the filter, let the pump run for an hour and then take a sample for water testing. ....
Click to expand...

That’s a neat suggestion. Is there any situation where that is not advised or is unnecessary? In other words, , do you always start opening this way- not filtering, just on re-circulate?
Thanks
 
The suggestion to use circulate was because of neorn75's filter issues. If the filter is working, it is better to stay in filter mode. You want some water circulation before testing, especially when just opening in the spring, in all cases.
 
Well we had a cold front so haven't gotten to the pool yet...going to head out and buy a discharge hose, CYA, and bleach today to get the party started!
Unfortunately I'll just have to deal with buying A LOT of Fiber Clear right now, the DE is not very environmentally friendly and we have no where to dump it.
Update: So I bought 6 jugs of bleach, 2 jugs of CYA, a new discharge hose, and a leaf bagger! Got home, got all of the leaves I could get "blind" off the bottom with the bagger (which by the way is a huge pain to use). Went to take apart the filter and can't get the inner cartridge holder off :-( So I am at a standstill until the dh gets home and can muscle it off for me.
Tomorrow is filter cleaning, CYA, and bleach!
 
So this whole process is going downhill fast for me....
I'm just about ready to fill in the dumb thing and move on with my life. It's been three weeks and no progress. I have spent a small fortune on Fiber Clear and bottles of bleach. I even threw in the towel and shocked the pool with 5 pounds of pool store shock out of desperation! It started clearing up and then dh went out and scrubbed the sides and bottom and all my work went out the window. Last night a trio of frogs jumped in and started swimming around. That was the final straw for me. I have frogs, backswimmers, little zippy beetles...pretty much every water critter you can imagine.
The problem lies in the fact that I can only work on this 3 days a week due to my work schedule. The other days are left to my dh and he likes to "cut corners". Instead of putting in the amount of bleach I buy he puts in half the amount to "save" the rest. The pool store suggested "Green to Clean", they said if I use that with shock it will kill all of the algae.
I'm desperate at this point but can't convince anyone in my house to buy one of those test kits, so that's not going to happen anytime soon. Like I said pretty much ready to fill it in....
 
Explain to DH that if you "save" the bleach, it allows the algae to grow back faster than you are killing it- that's the purpose of the shock levels, to kill more algae than is growing. If you kill 100 algae cells, and 100 are "born" at the same time, you stay constant. You need to kill 200 while only 100 born, to get ahead; once ahead, you have to stay ahead, or the "saved" bleach won't do anygood either!
Understand the frustration, but if you can get him inline it will smooth out and become clear!
 
I feel for you. I see that you have an uphill battle. I can't blame you for wanting to fill it in. If you could get a little help you could have a Trouble Free Pool.

Are the three days a week you have in sucession? If so you could bring it to shock as soon as you go off and hold it there for three days and then tell the DH he has to add twice as much bleach as he really needs to add. Then when he adds half he'll actually be adding the correct amount. I know it's devious but sometimes we have to make allowances for peoples misunderstanding.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply