HELP! Lots of issues....

[Whatnyc]

I have a IG 18' x 36' L-Shaped pool. Equipment was a Hayward Super Pump II, Sta-Rite System 3 Cart filter, hayward offline cholorinator.

Pool is approx 15 years old. Previous owner never did any maintenance to it except chemicals, but pool always ran fine, had great flow. When i purchased house approx 8 years ago, i bought and changed the 2 cartridges in filter.

Pool never gave me issues until last year. Turned out chlorinator was bad (or at least i was told by pool tech) and purchased a new one, same model. All year, seemed chlorine readings were low and had to constantly scrub and shock to not get algae.

This year, when i opened pool, could not get any suction into filter. Found a crack in the union between return and filter. Called pool tech to replace. After replacement, he still could not get any sustained suction, and said it was something else......after a day of troubleshooting , determined that the pool pump was failing and not producing enough power to pull. Replaced it with a Hayward Super Pump VS.

Now it gets fun:

They leave, and i come home from work to find a giant mess...all the garbage they left around the filter, old parts, and it leaking in 2 places (filter skimmer enclosure and chlorinator). I fixed the loose o-ring from the enclosure and started the filter. It looked like much less pressure coming out of the return jets and one out of the two skimmers looked like there wasnt even any suction. The PSI at the time on my filter was 15. I opened and cleaned out filter, psi went down to 11 and skimmer started to pull, but still, to my untrained eye, didnt look and feel like my return jets in pool were as strong as before.

Tested the water at pool store, all levels were within range (according to them) but no Chlorine readings. They told me i needed to shock. I told them that i had been, using 4 gallons of liquid and some bags as well after. They told me to do it again. I did again with 4 gallons, and an hour later, ZERO readings on chlorine.

I called pool guy to come back, since chlorinator was still leaking and i was concerned about water pressure. He comes back with manager, tells me my pressure is good. When he opened the chlorinator, he came screaming out that i had too many pucks in the chlorinator and that i had too much chlorine in the pool?!?!?! There were 8 pucks in the unit, which i have always had and never had an issue. Went online and read up about the unit, and disassembled everything. Turns out i was sold the unit with the input and output valves reversed

At this point, i remembered hearing about this site Read up on pool issues, read up on CYA and the effect it has on chlorine. My pool was reading at 100 CYA. I then emptied around 3/4 of pool and refilled it. Bought 15 bottles of clorox 8.5 and started to SLAM. Took all the way until the 15th bottle until the readings were consistent overnight.

Now, pool is SLOWLY clearing up....still adding bleach manually as necessary, but still very green. I started to scrub it but still very green and cloudy as well.

My real question at this point is, how do i figure out of my pump is performing as it should? To my eye, it doesnt seem as strong as before. In the past, i remember my filter readings starting out at 15psi and i wouldnt notice and degrading of performance until it was approx 10psi higher, around 25. Now, after cleaning the filter, i get to around 11pst, and as soon as it hits 15, low pressure and one skimmer doesnt seem to pull strong at all.

There doesnt seem to be any leaks anywhere (filter/pump/etc)

What in the heck do I do now?

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome to TFP! It appears you attempted to do a SLAM, but didn't quite finish if your pool is still cloudy/green. So let's re-cap what you need to know:
SLAM is the term used when we “Shock” our pool to a higher “Level” of Free Chlorine (FC) and “Maintain” it that way until 3 objectives are met:
1. Water is clear
2. You do not lose any more than 1ppm of FC overnight (that's the OCLT)
3. CC (Combined Chlorine) is <.5
** You MUST meet ALL 3 items above to properly do a SLAM. Simply “spiking" the FC higher than normal isn't SLAMming, therefore there’s a good chance your algae will return.

To prepare for a SLAM, you should do the following:
- Adjust PH to 7.2 - 7.5; don’t worry about it after that during the SLAM
- Ideal CYA should be 30; the higher the CYA, the more bleach required
- Have a good amount of “regular” liquid bleach on-hand to keep your FC high at all times

Use the Chlorine/CYA chart (link in my sig) to bring your FC up to the proper SLAM level rating based on your current CYA and make sure it stays there (MAINTAIN) until you meet ALL 3 criteria listed above! That may take just a few days or even a week or two! That is absolutely critical for success.

At the same time, continue to run your pump 24/7. Remove any “muck” and debris, scrub all parts of your pool to expose any algae, and vacuum/clean (or backwash) filter as necessary. You may have to do this several times. It's a lot of babysitting, but with patience and consistency, you will succeed.

Also, which test kit are you using? I didn't see it above. We need to know that and see a full set of results please to better serve you. (FC, CC< CYA, PH, TA, and CH).

Also, please add your pool info to your signature by going to the top of the TFP web page (just under the Pool School button) and select "SETTINGS". On the next page look to the left for a menu bar that says, “MY SETTINGS” and go to "EDIT SIGNATURE" to enter your pool and equipment info there. It will help us later.

We'll be standing by .....

 

[Thimble]

My real question at this point is, how do i figure out of my pump is performing as it should? To my eye, it doesnt seem as strong as before. In the past, i remember my filter readings starting out at 15psi and i wouldnt notice and degrading of performance until it was approx 10psi higher, around 25. Now, after cleaning the filter, i get to around 11pst, and as soon as it hits 15, low pressure and one skimmer doesnt seem to pull strong at all.

I guess a 4 psi difference between pumps isn't out of the question. 11 may be your new normal pressure, and 15 your new "it's time to clean the filter" pressure.

I assume you have multiple skimmers from the quote of "one skimmer...". If you have a floor drain, you could try closing the valve to it and see if the skimmer with low pull will increase. It may be that you need to "rebalance" your skimmers and drains by partially closing one or more of them. At least that is where I would start...