I am essentially starting from square one. I bought my house about a year and a half ago, which came with an ~33k gallon concrete IG pool/spa with nothing but the permanently installed (flagstone built around it, probably set in concrete) skimmer still there (they even took the basket.) I have had no time, energy, or money to devote to this serious project yet, but am gearing up to get it knocked out now. I made sure the pool was full (was about half until then, and a swamp already) so it wouldn't bathtub during our week of rains in December, and the water has been growing ever since despite a few times of dumping gallons (usually about 12) of bleach to keep the mosquito population from exploding too badly.
I'm buying a pump and know nothing beyond what I've read here and on the Pentair site (which is actually pretty horrible in explaining the models comparatively and ended up making less sense than the threads I saw here.) I am trying to decide between a VF and a VS pump.
I have a lot of work to do ahead, but honestly since my pond is drained I think I may just scrape the plaster-ish 'liner' and replace it with I-don't-know-what (I'm waiting on the repair guy's opinion, but I'm leaning toward cheaper for now and replacing with something much better in a few years) before just refilling it and starting like a brand new pool. The thing is, I just want to dial in about 42 gallons/minute if I can (for just over 2 turnovers a day) and leave it alone. I plan to add some sort of heating for the tiny spa at some point, but that's only important now because there are at least some lines for it and for the knowledge that it's coming.
I know DE filters get the smallest particles out, but I'm not sure if that matters (we're the type of people who backpack for miles to find a spot to camp, and laugh at the ridiculous people who carry hand sanitizer and use it every time they touch something) enough to get it. I'm more interested in ease of maintenance (If we're backpacking, how can we maintain the pool?) and cost of labor/materials. I don't want a cartridge, so the decision is DE vs sand here. I know there's some DE still in the shed, so it had a DE filter before, but again, is it really necessary? And in talking to various people, they've mostly recommended a 60 sq ft DE filter but no recommendation on size for a sand filter if that's what we get. I'm leaning toward sand because I couldn't care less about the extra filtration, I'm basing this more on the ease of maintenance and cost aspect.
The wife is pretty set on a salt system despite the fact that as far as I can tell it's also chlorine, just less noticeable. I saw a UV thing that seems pretty nifty, but don't know if its worth getting. I apologize that I haven't researched these items here, I'm pretty preoccupied with the pump and filter part of the equation right now.
Any advice is greatly appreciated, and any ideas that I could go with that haven't been brought up are also welcomed if there's some sense made alongside the idea.
I'm buying a pump and know nothing beyond what I've read here and on the Pentair site (which is actually pretty horrible in explaining the models comparatively and ended up making less sense than the threads I saw here.) I am trying to decide between a VF and a VS pump.
I have a lot of work to do ahead, but honestly since my pond is drained I think I may just scrape the plaster-ish 'liner' and replace it with I-don't-know-what (I'm waiting on the repair guy's opinion, but I'm leaning toward cheaper for now and replacing with something much better in a few years) before just refilling it and starting like a brand new pool. The thing is, I just want to dial in about 42 gallons/minute if I can (for just over 2 turnovers a day) and leave it alone. I plan to add some sort of heating for the tiny spa at some point, but that's only important now because there are at least some lines for it and for the knowledge that it's coming.
I know DE filters get the smallest particles out, but I'm not sure if that matters (we're the type of people who backpack for miles to find a spot to camp, and laugh at the ridiculous people who carry hand sanitizer and use it every time they touch something) enough to get it. I'm more interested in ease of maintenance (If we're backpacking, how can we maintain the pool?) and cost of labor/materials. I don't want a cartridge, so the decision is DE vs sand here. I know there's some DE still in the shed, so it had a DE filter before, but again, is it really necessary? And in talking to various people, they've mostly recommended a 60 sq ft DE filter but no recommendation on size for a sand filter if that's what we get. I'm leaning toward sand because I couldn't care less about the extra filtration, I'm basing this more on the ease of maintenance and cost aspect.
The wife is pretty set on a salt system despite the fact that as far as I can tell it's also chlorine, just less noticeable. I saw a UV thing that seems pretty nifty, but don't know if its worth getting. I apologize that I haven't researched these items here, I'm pretty preoccupied with the pump and filter part of the equation right now.
Any advice is greatly appreciated, and any ideas that I could go with that haven't been brought up are also welcomed if there's some sense made alongside the idea.