Hi all,
First post here looking for some help. I want to verify the best thing to do given my situation, hope I could get some feedback.
Background:
1) Approx 30k gallon kidney pool - sylvan from 70s, two skimmers. Water about 1.5" higher on one end than the other.
2) 70s hayward sand filter. I suspect sand has not been changed in a while as pressure never goes up beyond 15.
3) Inground
4) White plaster
5) Unknown flow rate of filter. It has been pressure tested and is okay. Though, the skimmers seem to be a bit weak in their suction.
So, to summarize, I bought a house in March. The backyard was a disaster, though I had the pool evaluated and it was mostly okay except a few things - some missing tiles, surface kinda rough, wiring is old, filter old, above ground plumbing had wrong type of valves and air leak. Buyer did not have much info on the pool other than he actively used it and used a "slime bag" attached to the filter, which is a huge white sock looking thing; I assume it was not filtering well for him.
Anyway, I had a limited amount of money to fix the backyard. As the area around the pool was a mess and dangerous (cracked and misaligned concrete), I spent most of the money redoing the area with pavers. I must also note that when they were doing the backyard, the pool water did turn dark green as it was not running - alot of wind etc from all the paver cuts got in the water and it was suspected the lime had a chemical reaction; the contracts drained the pool and watered down the surface. It was then refilled and appropriate chemicals added per pool store, but surface appeared to retain some lime stain which store sold me pool stain treat to use on... I never got around to doing that though due to other problems you will read about below. Some addt'l money was spent on the pool, such as repairing tiling, new coping, and replacement of above-ground plumbing/valves. Some mortar got in the pool when the tile was repaired and it took a long time to get it out.
There is no longer an air leak, coping looks nice, tiling is reparied.
I have struggled with the chemicals, though I did start off the season by taking the water to a pool store and buying chems. Now I have a good kit and have been keeping levels acceptable across the board - not just chlorine and ph like my dad showed me, but also alkalinity, CYA, etc. I have a taylor DPD test kit which works really well (tests same as pool store). I got an aquabot too because I could not find an adapter for a manual vacuum plate for the skimmers and just jamming a hose in the skimmer did not generate enough suction, not to mention the nonstop debris.
So here is the problem
The pool is beautiful, but it backs up to a forest. There is one tree partially over hanging it, and wind blows up the hill - blowing leaves into the pool constantly. Some are filtered into the skimmer, but probably 50% just sink.
So there is constantly some sort of leaf debris in the pool. I run aquabot for 6hr 1-2x a week and filter at least 8-12hrs a day, I brush 2-3x a week. There is still little bits and pieces of leaves on the pool floor. Not a ton, but enough.
Over the past month, I have been noticing an increasing yellowish dust/dirt on the pool floor and walls (everywhere). Note that the water can be sparkling blue, with this ugly yellow dust on the wall. I can sweep it away, but it returns in like 2-3 days. Even if I shock the pool, it can literally return in a day. One time there was a lot of it and the water was blue, but after I brushed it all off the walls the water turned emerald green (mostly translucent). I will also say at this same point the chlorine had dropped to 0.2 (even though there was still chlorine in the floating dispenser, I believe I accidently had it set to distribute too little when I added it). In addition, I did not know shock was supposed to be added every week so this probably added to the problem.
This yellow dust covers the ENTIRE pool bottom and walls. It seems worse by the stairs, behind the ladder, and in the shallow section. This may be a function of me dumping most of the chemicals into the deep end, or something else. The stairs get a lot of sunlight as does most of the shallow end, though the area behind the ladder gets less.
So first, is the problem:
-mustard algae?
-pollen?
-dirt?
-malfunctioning filter?
-old sand?
-just regular dirt/debris from leaves that looks extra bad on white plaster?
Second, these are the chemicals I've tried:
-bioguard burnout3, 3bags/wk (and other calcium hypochlorite shock)
-kemtek quick shock (trichlor, got off amazon - probably won't use this again because its odor makes me unable to breathe).
-Bioguard BackUp (which I believe is a quat)
-Kem Tek Ultra Clarifier (needed this at one point).
My last big effort to combat the dust was do the following:
day1 - brush all dust away; balance ph, add 6lbs of shock; add initial dose of BIOGUARD BACKUP; 2 tabs of chlorine in skimmers and fill chlorinator; filter
day2 - add 3lbs additional shock; run aquabot; filter
day3 - filter
day4 - run aquabot
since then - check chemicals every other day
Had to also add a clarifier.
Obviously the best thing to do would be to get a pool pro to do a thorough testing and evaluation of everything, replace sand & possibly filter, trim the trees, possibly get a solar cover to prevent debris... but I am short on cash now with all of the money spent on the new house and renovations it needed. It is also approaching the end of the season. I have recently spent $300+ in chemicals which I have blown through and here I am with the yellow dust remaining.
Can anyone give me some tips what the best course is to go now?? Thanks much!
First post here looking for some help. I want to verify the best thing to do given my situation, hope I could get some feedback.
Background:
1) Approx 30k gallon kidney pool - sylvan from 70s, two skimmers. Water about 1.5" higher on one end than the other.
2) 70s hayward sand filter. I suspect sand has not been changed in a while as pressure never goes up beyond 15.
3) Inground
4) White plaster
5) Unknown flow rate of filter. It has been pressure tested and is okay. Though, the skimmers seem to be a bit weak in their suction.
So, to summarize, I bought a house in March. The backyard was a disaster, though I had the pool evaluated and it was mostly okay except a few things - some missing tiles, surface kinda rough, wiring is old, filter old, above ground plumbing had wrong type of valves and air leak. Buyer did not have much info on the pool other than he actively used it and used a "slime bag" attached to the filter, which is a huge white sock looking thing; I assume it was not filtering well for him.
Anyway, I had a limited amount of money to fix the backyard. As the area around the pool was a mess and dangerous (cracked and misaligned concrete), I spent most of the money redoing the area with pavers. I must also note that when they were doing the backyard, the pool water did turn dark green as it was not running - alot of wind etc from all the paver cuts got in the water and it was suspected the lime had a chemical reaction; the contracts drained the pool and watered down the surface. It was then refilled and appropriate chemicals added per pool store, but surface appeared to retain some lime stain which store sold me pool stain treat to use on... I never got around to doing that though due to other problems you will read about below. Some addt'l money was spent on the pool, such as repairing tiling, new coping, and replacement of above-ground plumbing/valves. Some mortar got in the pool when the tile was repaired and it took a long time to get it out.
There is no longer an air leak, coping looks nice, tiling is reparied.
I have struggled with the chemicals, though I did start off the season by taking the water to a pool store and buying chems. Now I have a good kit and have been keeping levels acceptable across the board - not just chlorine and ph like my dad showed me, but also alkalinity, CYA, etc. I have a taylor DPD test kit which works really well (tests same as pool store). I got an aquabot too because I could not find an adapter for a manual vacuum plate for the skimmers and just jamming a hose in the skimmer did not generate enough suction, not to mention the nonstop debris.
So here is the problem
The pool is beautiful, but it backs up to a forest. There is one tree partially over hanging it, and wind blows up the hill - blowing leaves into the pool constantly. Some are filtered into the skimmer, but probably 50% just sink.
So there is constantly some sort of leaf debris in the pool. I run aquabot for 6hr 1-2x a week and filter at least 8-12hrs a day, I brush 2-3x a week. There is still little bits and pieces of leaves on the pool floor. Not a ton, but enough.
Over the past month, I have been noticing an increasing yellowish dust/dirt on the pool floor and walls (everywhere). Note that the water can be sparkling blue, with this ugly yellow dust on the wall. I can sweep it away, but it returns in like 2-3 days. Even if I shock the pool, it can literally return in a day. One time there was a lot of it and the water was blue, but after I brushed it all off the walls the water turned emerald green (mostly translucent). I will also say at this same point the chlorine had dropped to 0.2 (even though there was still chlorine in the floating dispenser, I believe I accidently had it set to distribute too little when I added it). In addition, I did not know shock was supposed to be added every week so this probably added to the problem.
This yellow dust covers the ENTIRE pool bottom and walls. It seems worse by the stairs, behind the ladder, and in the shallow section. This may be a function of me dumping most of the chemicals into the deep end, or something else. The stairs get a lot of sunlight as does most of the shallow end, though the area behind the ladder gets less.
So first, is the problem:
-mustard algae?
-pollen?
-dirt?
-malfunctioning filter?
-old sand?
-just regular dirt/debris from leaves that looks extra bad on white plaster?
Second, these are the chemicals I've tried:
-bioguard burnout3, 3bags/wk (and other calcium hypochlorite shock)
-kemtek quick shock (trichlor, got off amazon - probably won't use this again because its odor makes me unable to breathe).
-Bioguard BackUp (which I believe is a quat)
-Kem Tek Ultra Clarifier (needed this at one point).
My last big effort to combat the dust was do the following:
day1 - brush all dust away; balance ph, add 6lbs of shock; add initial dose of BIOGUARD BACKUP; 2 tabs of chlorine in skimmers and fill chlorinator; filter
day2 - add 3lbs additional shock; run aquabot; filter
day3 - filter
day4 - run aquabot
since then - check chemicals every other day
Had to also add a clarifier.
Obviously the best thing to do would be to get a pool pro to do a thorough testing and evaluation of everything, replace sand & possibly filter, trim the trees, possibly get a solar cover to prevent debris... but I am short on cash now with all of the money spent on the new house and renovations it needed. It is also approaching the end of the season. I have recently spent $300+ in chemicals which I have blown through and here I am with the yellow dust remaining.
Can anyone give me some tips what the best course is to go now?? Thanks much!
