Hello Everyone-
Like many, this is my first post and of course pool problems brought me here! Wish it was under better circumstances
I'm throwing any pride I have left out the window and giving you all the details. I am spiraling downward quickly with all this and it's time to take a step back and put a plan in place to get back on track. If any of you can help me do this, it would be very much appreciated!
30' Round
My pool is about 6 'TROUBLE FREE' years old until this year. Every year to this point has been easy. Never an issue. Pool store water test when opening in the spring and again when closing at end of summer and added whatever they told me to add at each. Otherwise just weekly shocking. Water always crystal clear when taking the cover off in the spring. Like I said, easy!
Now let's talk about what has taken place so far this year...
Took cover off to clear water a couple weeks ago. A small amount of dead leaves fell into the pool when the cover was removed. Thinking the pump would be up and running soon after I didn't go fishing them out immediately.
My pump up untll now has been a Hayward CC15093STL X-Stream cartridge filter with 1.5hp Matrix pump. I usually store everything in the shed each year but this past winter I drained it all out but it never made it into the shed. So it was out all winter. When starting it the first time this year I immediately had water gushing out of the bottom of the pump. Turning off the pump, the water still gushed out. I initially thought it was a bad seal but my brother in law told me that if it was still pouring out after it was turned off that it was likely cracked. So I bought a new pump thinking I could possibly fix the old one and use as a backup at some point. Got the new pump and hooked up, turned on, and the underside of the filter tank started dripping water. Took that apart and the bottom of the plastic filter tank had a huge crack in it. Ugh.
We were then going to return the pump I bought and get a whole new pump and filter setup. Right about that time a co-worker of my wife said they were taking down their pool and if we wanted their sand filter and pump we could have it. It's a Hayward S180T with a 1.5hp pump. I was leaving for business for 3 days and under pressure, I went and picked it up and figured I would give it a try to save the money of buying a whole setup. The guy knew nothing about it as his wife took care of the pool and I knew nothing about sand filters. It was transported with the sand and everything in and was turned on its side quite a bit in the process. Got it home and hooked it up and immediately noticed a)the bottom drain cap was broken off and b)it had no pressure gauge. We ordered those online and I left for my business trip.
The two parts came in while I was gone and my wife put them on and started the pump. Sent me a great video of it running. Fantastic - we thought. However the next day she woke up and the pool had turned green AND the filter had blown a ton of sand into the pool! Ugh #2.
Got home the next day and did research online to figure out the lateral assembly had likely cracked in transit. Took it apart and sure enough, the vertical plastic tube was completely cracked. Went and bought new lateral assembly for $80. Installed that with all new sand and appeared to run fine. The initial pressure reading was 11psi. After the first back-wash, it is now 7psi which seems very low to me but the flow seems ok. It has an SP714 vari flo valve which I think has seen its better days. It's very hard to turn the selector. The plastic washer it turns on looks cracked. I get a good drip out of the waste tube even when on 'filtration' setting when nothing should be coming out of it. I also got water in the pressure valve at some point while doing backwashes/rinses. Not sure when but I removed it and it cleared it out. I did take the vari flo valve off today and re-lubed the O-ring and cleaned sand out from it. It still drips at the waste hose though.
Now to the green water. I went to the pool store with a water sample last weekend (7 days ago) and they sold me stuff the usual opening stuff I need plus a clarifier and said to run the pump non-stop. I did that and continued adding powdered calcium hypochlorite in the evenings to try to knock out the green. Maybe 1-2 pounds a night by the seat of my pants. I could not find my test kit and even if I did, it was a very basic one. I have since read and know I really need one of the recommended good kits. I will order one this weekend. The green got knocked down considerably but it appears to have leveled off and is not getting any better. I can see the bottom but it's very cloudy.
I have been running the filter 24/7 for 7 days.
I have been vacuuming the bottom to waste every night and re-adding water to get back above skimmer line.
I have been brushing the pool down every night.
Backwashing filter once in morning and once at night.
Here are my pool store test results from yesterday:
Free Chlorine 2.5 ppm
Total Chlorine 2.5ppm
Combined Chloring 0.0ppm
pH 7.5
Alkalinity 0ppm
Cyanuric Acid 5ppm
Copper 0.08ppm
Iron 0 ppm
Last night I added 6 gallons of 8.25% Chlorox
I have Cyanuric Acid stabilizer (5 lbs) I can add
Have not done anything for Alkalinity yet - they recommended 15lb Alkalite.
So that's where I'm at.
Summary:
Pool moderately green and cloudy
Filter not known to be running 100% and is it undersized?
Has anyone actually read this far??
Grateful for any help. At wits end!!
P.S. - Trying to upload pics but it's failing. Will keep trying.
Chris
Like many, this is my first post and of course pool problems brought me here! Wish it was under better circumstances
I'm throwing any pride I have left out the window and giving you all the details. I am spiraling downward quickly with all this and it's time to take a step back and put a plan in place to get back on track. If any of you can help me do this, it would be very much appreciated!
30' Round
My pool is about 6 'TROUBLE FREE' years old until this year. Every year to this point has been easy. Never an issue. Pool store water test when opening in the spring and again when closing at end of summer and added whatever they told me to add at each. Otherwise just weekly shocking. Water always crystal clear when taking the cover off in the spring. Like I said, easy!
Now let's talk about what has taken place so far this year...
Took cover off to clear water a couple weeks ago. A small amount of dead leaves fell into the pool when the cover was removed. Thinking the pump would be up and running soon after I didn't go fishing them out immediately.
My pump up untll now has been a Hayward CC15093STL X-Stream cartridge filter with 1.5hp Matrix pump. I usually store everything in the shed each year but this past winter I drained it all out but it never made it into the shed. So it was out all winter. When starting it the first time this year I immediately had water gushing out of the bottom of the pump. Turning off the pump, the water still gushed out. I initially thought it was a bad seal but my brother in law told me that if it was still pouring out after it was turned off that it was likely cracked. So I bought a new pump thinking I could possibly fix the old one and use as a backup at some point. Got the new pump and hooked up, turned on, and the underside of the filter tank started dripping water. Took that apart and the bottom of the plastic filter tank had a huge crack in it. Ugh.
We were then going to return the pump I bought and get a whole new pump and filter setup. Right about that time a co-worker of my wife said they were taking down their pool and if we wanted their sand filter and pump we could have it. It's a Hayward S180T with a 1.5hp pump. I was leaving for business for 3 days and under pressure, I went and picked it up and figured I would give it a try to save the money of buying a whole setup. The guy knew nothing about it as his wife took care of the pool and I knew nothing about sand filters. It was transported with the sand and everything in and was turned on its side quite a bit in the process. Got it home and hooked it up and immediately noticed a)the bottom drain cap was broken off and b)it had no pressure gauge. We ordered those online and I left for my business trip.
The two parts came in while I was gone and my wife put them on and started the pump. Sent me a great video of it running. Fantastic - we thought. However the next day she woke up and the pool had turned green AND the filter had blown a ton of sand into the pool! Ugh #2.
Got home the next day and did research online to figure out the lateral assembly had likely cracked in transit. Took it apart and sure enough, the vertical plastic tube was completely cracked. Went and bought new lateral assembly for $80. Installed that with all new sand and appeared to run fine. The initial pressure reading was 11psi. After the first back-wash, it is now 7psi which seems very low to me but the flow seems ok. It has an SP714 vari flo valve which I think has seen its better days. It's very hard to turn the selector. The plastic washer it turns on looks cracked. I get a good drip out of the waste tube even when on 'filtration' setting when nothing should be coming out of it. I also got water in the pressure valve at some point while doing backwashes/rinses. Not sure when but I removed it and it cleared it out. I did take the vari flo valve off today and re-lubed the O-ring and cleaned sand out from it. It still drips at the waste hose though.
Now to the green water. I went to the pool store with a water sample last weekend (7 days ago) and they sold me stuff the usual opening stuff I need plus a clarifier and said to run the pump non-stop. I did that and continued adding powdered calcium hypochlorite in the evenings to try to knock out the green. Maybe 1-2 pounds a night by the seat of my pants. I could not find my test kit and even if I did, it was a very basic one. I have since read and know I really need one of the recommended good kits. I will order one this weekend. The green got knocked down considerably but it appears to have leveled off and is not getting any better. I can see the bottom but it's very cloudy.
I have been running the filter 24/7 for 7 days.
I have been vacuuming the bottom to waste every night and re-adding water to get back above skimmer line.
I have been brushing the pool down every night.
Backwashing filter once in morning and once at night.
Here are my pool store test results from yesterday:
Free Chlorine 2.5 ppm
Total Chlorine 2.5ppm
Combined Chloring 0.0ppm
pH 7.5
Alkalinity 0ppm
Cyanuric Acid 5ppm
Copper 0.08ppm
Iron 0 ppm
Last night I added 6 gallons of 8.25% Chlorox
I have Cyanuric Acid stabilizer (5 lbs) I can add
Have not done anything for Alkalinity yet - they recommended 15lb Alkalite.
So that's where I'm at.
Summary:
Pool moderately green and cloudy
Filter not known to be running 100% and is it undersized?
Has anyone actually read this far??
Grateful for any help. At wits end!!
P.S. - Trying to upload pics but it's failing. Will keep trying.
Chris