Well aft6er a 2 year pool absence, I bit the bullet and cleaned 2 years of debris out of the pool. I had it pressure tested, and the 2 skimmers are leaking a bit, but after the hard winter we had here in Indiana, no main drain damage. It held to 18psi for over an hour. The returns are all good also. I made the mistake of NOT putting the cover on (we have a very large cover that is also a preventive cover that keeps dogs cats and people from falling in.) At any rate I bought a three inch pump and hoses from Rural King for a total of about 4 hundred dollars which I thought was a lot cheaper than hiring a pool company to come in and do it. The pump took about 7 hours to pump out a 45k gallon pool.
After we got down to about 4 inchs in the deep end, I hired a couple of guys who came in and mucked out the rest of it. We used the snow shovel and a trash can to clean up the muck and debris and about 2 million tadpoles in various stages of development. My environmental wife almost went mental and was franticly trying to save frogs. When we got all of the heavy stuff out, We pressure washed the walls and bottom to remove any algae we could see. I know everyone uses muratic acid to do a clean wash but that is dangerous stuff. I will deal with any alage we have, if any, when the pool is full. We have a Polaris 9300 sport which does and excellent job cleaning after we got the sand and silt filter for it. I will let y'all know how its going.
We dropped the house hose in to start filling. based on our water pressure we are looking at somewhere between 7 and 10 days to fill it up. I put some algaecide 40 in to insure no growth while we fill. I also put one three inch Chlorine tab in to run the frogs off. More to come. I am writing this for any newbies who are wondering just how far you can go with your own maintenance. I have learned that from now on I will have cover on the pool and a leaf net on top of that. I will also put ion chlorine in the winter to maintain stability. I do not like mucking the pool.
After we got down to about 4 inchs in the deep end, I hired a couple of guys who came in and mucked out the rest of it. We used the snow shovel and a trash can to clean up the muck and debris and about 2 million tadpoles in various stages of development. My environmental wife almost went mental and was franticly trying to save frogs. When we got all of the heavy stuff out, We pressure washed the walls and bottom to remove any algae we could see. I know everyone uses muratic acid to do a clean wash but that is dangerous stuff. I will deal with any alage we have, if any, when the pool is full. We have a Polaris 9300 sport which does and excellent job cleaning after we got the sand and silt filter for it. I will let y'all know how its going.
We dropped the house hose in to start filling. based on our water pressure we are looking at somewhere between 7 and 10 days to fill it up. I put some algaecide 40 in to insure no growth while we fill. I also put one three inch Chlorine tab in to run the frogs off. More to come. I am writing this for any newbies who are wondering just how far you can go with your own maintenance. I have learned that from now on I will have cover on the pool and a leaf net on top of that. I will also put ion chlorine in the winter to maintain stability. I do not like mucking the pool.