Help Please!

[KellieJane]

I have a 16' x 48" intex above ground pool with a 2,500gal/hr pump (larger pump than what comes with it). Season 1 went awesome, no problems at all! Season 2 is a nightmare :grrrr:!!!! I drained the pool completely for winter (leaving a few inches of water that didn't drain which of course, looked like a swamp come spring ( I live in South Louisiana where we have 2 seasons.. Hot and Hotter-- so pool is only closed from December-March).

Here's what I've done over the last month to open this thing:
1. Shocked the foot of water (leaving a layer of dead algae at the bottom) could not vaccum that with the garden hose vacuum that comes with it ... So bought one that fits to the pump that I had to fill the pool to use ... This one was a piece of junk too! So I stirred it up thinking the larger pump could clean it out if I clean the cartridges often (every couple hours), but it stayed really cloudy.
2. Tried flocc... Back to that layer of algae that I can't get rid of... Bought a battery operated vacuum (Pool Blaster Max) which just stirs it up back to cloudy mush
3. I gave up and drained the pool back to a foot of swamp water... Used flocc, shocked the **** out of it, and still the vacuum just stirs the algae, I have vacuumed this pool 4 times just today, added just about every chemical in the pool section of the store and still layer of algae wins!

btw... My pump cannot vacuum to waste- Which seems to be the "best" solution :-(

Pool-3 Me-0
Please help me to keep my sanity. I'm about to give up on pool ownership and swim in the bathtub!

Any Suggestions would be appreciated

 

[Divin Dave]

Welp,
KellyJane, it sounds like a battle to me. You will need to get enough water in the pool to vacuum it out of there. Thats really about all that I know you can do. Maybe someone else has suffered the same delimma and will chime in with better idea than me.

An idea I have though... Since your filter clogs so fast How about putting a "skimmer sock" in the skimmer basket and another in the pump basket?
You could fashion an old Tshirt, panty hose or whatever and line the baskets with that. Tie a string around the top to hole them in there.
They will fill up pretty quick but are much easire to change and clean that the filter, providing they dong c log up too quick. It might be worth a shot until you can get enogh out to let the filter finally clear it up.

If you have a helper, have them cleaning the socks and have several of them so you can keep vacuuming while the helper cleans

EDIT TO ADD: Im not terribly familiar with the Intex vacuum thing, so I hope my post doesnt offend you because you already said it dont work very well. Somehow though in any case, you need to be able to vacuum, even without all the algae?

 

[Richard320]

SOunds very similar to the situation in this thread: http://www.troublefreepool.com/thre...-when-to-use-new-sand-SWG-combo-and-chemicals

It will be slow going, but a wet&dry shop vacuum will pull out five gallons of sludge at a time.

 

[bridgman]

There are vacuums powered by water from the garden hose. Would one of those be useful, or is that how the Intex one works ?

 

[KellieJane]

Thanks for the advice! It was really helpful ... I actually took a pantyhose stocking and stuffed it in the vacuum which did the trick! My pool is blue again!

Wow I actually kind feel dumb that I worked that hard and the solution was so cheap and simple lol

Thanks again!

 

[Divin Dave]

Well Im a few days late revisiting this thread. Sorry 'bout that!

I'm glad you got it worked out KelliJane. Most of the time, the fix is simple. Sometimes, we just gotta be a bit
McGuyverish and just figure it out!

Have a GREAT summer and enjoy the pool!

Hollar back if something comes up we can help with!