New to Pool Maintenance. Advice needed on Chems, Backwashin

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Apr 26, 2010
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I'm a novice at this so I hope someone can kindly help with a few basic questions. Have a large gunite pool with sand filter. I've got the pump running and filtering. Shocked the 40,000 gal pool today with 4 lb of Lowes shock. The faint green is now more blueish though cloudy. So far, so good! :-D

1. Our temp here is about 60 and the water temp is likely more like 50. How long does shock usually last and when to I begin regular chlorinating.

2. This is a vacation house and I live 3 hrs away. Is it ok to let a pump run for a week without backwashing (since that's when I will return). I have a large sand filter and it usually runs at about 18psi. If that's too long I'll just have to turn it off until I return next weekend.

3. I'v never backwashed before. About how long do you run it in backwash, and how long rinse? Am I right that when you back wash you open the valve on the pvc waste pipe at the same time? It's a standard multi-port valve on the filter, and I can't recall if it has a separate setting for backwash and a separate setting for waste.

Many thanks. sorry I know so little, though I'll know a lot more after the first time! :eek:
 
Re: New to Pool Maintenance. Advice needed on Chems, Backwa

Blue and cloudy is good. That means dead algae.

Shocking is a process, rather than a product. We recommend shocking until your CC is 0.5 ppm or less, your pool holds to within 1 ppm of loss overnight, and your water is clear. You should run the pump until you are finished shocking.

I don't have a sand filter so as far as how long to backwash and how long to rinse, I'll leave that to someone else to answer.

The best prevention is a good test kit. Please see www.tftestkits.net to purchase a good drop-based kit, if you haven't already.
 
Re: New to Pool Maintenance. Advice needed on Chems, Backwa

Most mutli-ports have separate backwash and waste settings.

You backwash until the water coming out of the waste pipe runs clear. That is typically a couple of minutes, though it can vary quite a bit. It will run clear for several seconds at the start, which doesn't count. Rinse is typically 30 seconds or so.

When everything is going well, most filters will easily last a week without backwashing. However, if something goes wrong you may need to backwash far more often than that. With care you can manage a pool in one day a week, but eventually there will be some kind of problem that will be difficult to recover from in only one day a week.
 
Re: New to Pool Maintenance. Advice needed on Chems, Backwa

Many thanks for all the tips! You guys and gals? are great!

2 questions:

The instructions with the Lowes shock say 1 lb per 10,000 gal. I think the type is DiChlor. I was confused when one poster mentioned that I need 9 lbs of shock for a 40,000 gal pool. Forgetting about brands of chems for a moment, is 2 lbs per10,000 gal, or typical or is 1 lb per 10,000 more typical?

Thanks for the pool school link. It's pretty straight forward with a sand filter except it seems to say to back wash twice and rince twice, unless I'm mistaken.....Kindly let me know what I am missing..........

Pol School says move selector to "BACKWASH" position and restart the pump. .....The water will run clear for a moment, then get dirty, and finally run clear again. When the water in the glass is ~ clear, turn off the pump. If you have a multiport valve with a "RINSE" setting, switch the multiport to "RINSE", otherwise switch to "FILTER", and run the pump for about 15 seconds. Repeat the backwash cycle."

Do you really need to do it twice?? :roll:

Tips appreciated!!
 
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