Hi All!
My fiance and I just bought our first house at the end of last year, and it has a pool that I'm now working on opening. I've never worked on pools before, but I've been learning a lot online (mostly from this awesome website), and learning a lot from my experiences so far. The pool hasn't been opened in 5 years the previous owner told us, but last time it was closed it was "professionally closed/winterized", and its been sitting with the winter cover strapped tightly on it and full of water ever since.
About the pool:
I don't know the gallonage for sure, and I can't see much in the pool, but based on reading online and ye olde measuring tape, I'm estimating 27,000 to 30,000 US gallons, probably 28,000. It's an in-ground chlorine gunite pool.
There is no heater but there are lines and a gas line where one used to be.
The pump and filter are inside a semi-heated garage, which relative to the pool is underground (the garage is attached to the basement of the house and opens out the side of a hill).
The pump is a Leslie's Hydramax II Self-Priming, with what appears to be a MagneTek Century Centurion motor, hardwired 240V on a 20A breaker. The filter is a Pentair Sand Dollar SD-70 with an MPV.
The pool was, expectedly, very green when we first opened it this past Sunday.
We had it inspected when we bought the house - they found no leaks, and the pump works but has bad bearings.
We bought an Aiper Seagull Pro to help us with the job and to help us maintain the pool.
For chlorine testing I bought a Taylor FAS-DPD test kit, and for the time being I just bought some multi-purpose strips to test everything else just until I get things a little bit more "managed".
I also bought a phosphate test kit - I plan on ignoring phosphates as this website suggests, but was curious just to see what they were initially and during/after cleanup.
Initial measurements showed 0 chlorine and CYA (duh), 0 alkalinity, 0 hardness, pH somewhere in the 6s (was hard to tell for sure, but no higher than 6.8), 0 phosphates.
I have separate valves to control intake to the pump from the skimmer and main drain, and I have a built-in pipe from waste to a dedicated drain in the garage, and a quick disconnect to the pump.
Pool has two outlets from the filter both on the shallow end of the pool. Skimmer is a hole in the wall mid-pool that I had to figure out some random tubing and such that the previous owner left.
I got everything running again... Needed channel locks to initially open the MD-into-pump, and some plumbers tape in the quick disconnect and in the drain port on the bottom of the filter... I decided I'd use the pump as-is for now as it has its own thermal shutoff if the bearings cause an issue - I've had it running 24/7 since we initially opened the pool and its only slightly warm and keeps running fine (just very very loud). I'll probably replace the pump once everything is clean, or if I find I need to while cleaning. Unless its easy enough/cheap enough to change out the bearings, and its a pump I'd want to keep?
What I've done:
I started to adjust the alkalinity, pH, CYA, and hardness, but then decided since I keep swapping decent amounts of water as I vacuum to waste and also backwashing that I'd stop until the pool is further along. Is this okay? Especially for the CYA which said to add directly to my skimmer and not backwash for 48 hours... I don't think you guys like Clorox Shock XtraBlue very much, but I decided to use a little of it just while cleaning up since from what I've read its so strong at killing pretty much anything - and as far as I'm aware it will raise my CYA, so I end up getting some from this. I'm also using liquid chlorine in addition to the shock to maintain chlorine levels of at least 10 PPM (not pouring in at the same time, and will adjust my PPM target higher if I see my CYA go higher, per the SLAM calculator here). As I go I can transition to just separate CYA and liquid chlorine. I'm not yet doing OCLT - I figure no point while my pool is still obviously green and cloudy, and will start once I finish visibly cleaning it. The water very quickly became very very cloudy once I started heavily chlorinating it, I assume because of lots and lots of dead stuff! I'm manually vacuuming daily with a tool left here that appears to just vacuum only, no scrubbing, since its easier to move around than the scrubby vacuum he left. It leaves nice white trails behind it as I move it, from what I can see in the shallow end. I'm also running the pool robot, attempting for a couple times per day if I have time. It kinda just vanishes off into the abyss and then becomes difficult to find in the dark green and cloudiness. The filter in it I'm guessing actually becomes full after about 30 seconds haha. I did not start with a pressure gauge on the filter (I did, but it was busted and just showed 0). I finally got one today and it showed 6 PSI - I have no idea what it should be but that seemed too low to me. I emptied the pump basket and turned everything back on - 4 PSI... Cut the power and reached inside the pump and found lots of gunk! Including a piece of the frictiony tape they put on pool stairs! Got everything out that I could find - 22 PSI! I adjusted the pump basket to make sure things can't get around it. Let it run for a bit, monitoring things, tested backwashing/rinsing, still 22 PSI. Went upstairs and looked and saw in these brief few minutes of getting my PSI up to 22, my skimmer had suddenly almost entirely cleaned the top of the pool of the tree stuff that was blowing around this morning. Ha! I know no one can know exactly what "clean" PSI should look like for me, but does this sound like its in the ballpark? The pressure slowly rises while running - slow enough that its hardly moving, but fast enough that if you keep standing there you can visibly tell it moved. I left for a 30 minute meeting and came back and it said 28 PSI. Backwashed and rinsed, and back down to 22 PSI. I have sand cleaning solution I can try, and also have some DE filter media with sand boosting instructions.
At this point I assume I probably should have drained the pool, cleaned it while dry, then refilled and balanced. But honestly I'm kinda having fun and I've learned a ton in the process. For now I plan to keep throwing the robot in, manual vacuuming to waste, backwashing if doing so looks really dirty or my pressure goes to 32 PSI, maintaining chlorine levels, and checking the skimmer and pump baskets.
My fiance and I just bought our first house at the end of last year, and it has a pool that I'm now working on opening. I've never worked on pools before, but I've been learning a lot online (mostly from this awesome website), and learning a lot from my experiences so far. The pool hasn't been opened in 5 years the previous owner told us, but last time it was closed it was "professionally closed/winterized", and its been sitting with the winter cover strapped tightly on it and full of water ever since.
About the pool:
I don't know the gallonage for sure, and I can't see much in the pool, but based on reading online and ye olde measuring tape, I'm estimating 27,000 to 30,000 US gallons, probably 28,000. It's an in-ground chlorine gunite pool.
There is no heater but there are lines and a gas line where one used to be.
The pump and filter are inside a semi-heated garage, which relative to the pool is underground (the garage is attached to the basement of the house and opens out the side of a hill).
The pump is a Leslie's Hydramax II Self-Priming, with what appears to be a MagneTek Century Centurion motor, hardwired 240V on a 20A breaker. The filter is a Pentair Sand Dollar SD-70 with an MPV.
The pool was, expectedly, very green when we first opened it this past Sunday.
We had it inspected when we bought the house - they found no leaks, and the pump works but has bad bearings.
We bought an Aiper Seagull Pro to help us with the job and to help us maintain the pool.
For chlorine testing I bought a Taylor FAS-DPD test kit, and for the time being I just bought some multi-purpose strips to test everything else just until I get things a little bit more "managed".
I also bought a phosphate test kit - I plan on ignoring phosphates as this website suggests, but was curious just to see what they were initially and during/after cleanup.
Initial measurements showed 0 chlorine and CYA (duh), 0 alkalinity, 0 hardness, pH somewhere in the 6s (was hard to tell for sure, but no higher than 6.8), 0 phosphates.
I have separate valves to control intake to the pump from the skimmer and main drain, and I have a built-in pipe from waste to a dedicated drain in the garage, and a quick disconnect to the pump.
Pool has two outlets from the filter both on the shallow end of the pool. Skimmer is a hole in the wall mid-pool that I had to figure out some random tubing and such that the previous owner left.
I got everything running again... Needed channel locks to initially open the MD-into-pump, and some plumbers tape in the quick disconnect and in the drain port on the bottom of the filter... I decided I'd use the pump as-is for now as it has its own thermal shutoff if the bearings cause an issue - I've had it running 24/7 since we initially opened the pool and its only slightly warm and keeps running fine (just very very loud). I'll probably replace the pump once everything is clean, or if I find I need to while cleaning. Unless its easy enough/cheap enough to change out the bearings, and its a pump I'd want to keep?
What I've done:
I started to adjust the alkalinity, pH, CYA, and hardness, but then decided since I keep swapping decent amounts of water as I vacuum to waste and also backwashing that I'd stop until the pool is further along. Is this okay? Especially for the CYA which said to add directly to my skimmer and not backwash for 48 hours... I don't think you guys like Clorox Shock XtraBlue very much, but I decided to use a little of it just while cleaning up since from what I've read its so strong at killing pretty much anything - and as far as I'm aware it will raise my CYA, so I end up getting some from this. I'm also using liquid chlorine in addition to the shock to maintain chlorine levels of at least 10 PPM (not pouring in at the same time, and will adjust my PPM target higher if I see my CYA go higher, per the SLAM calculator here). As I go I can transition to just separate CYA and liquid chlorine. I'm not yet doing OCLT - I figure no point while my pool is still obviously green and cloudy, and will start once I finish visibly cleaning it. The water very quickly became very very cloudy once I started heavily chlorinating it, I assume because of lots and lots of dead stuff! I'm manually vacuuming daily with a tool left here that appears to just vacuum only, no scrubbing, since its easier to move around than the scrubby vacuum he left. It leaves nice white trails behind it as I move it, from what I can see in the shallow end. I'm also running the pool robot, attempting for a couple times per day if I have time. It kinda just vanishes off into the abyss and then becomes difficult to find in the dark green and cloudiness. The filter in it I'm guessing actually becomes full after about 30 seconds haha. I did not start with a pressure gauge on the filter (I did, but it was busted and just showed 0). I finally got one today and it showed 6 PSI - I have no idea what it should be but that seemed too low to me. I emptied the pump basket and turned everything back on - 4 PSI... Cut the power and reached inside the pump and found lots of gunk! Including a piece of the frictiony tape they put on pool stairs! Got everything out that I could find - 22 PSI! I adjusted the pump basket to make sure things can't get around it. Let it run for a bit, monitoring things, tested backwashing/rinsing, still 22 PSI. Went upstairs and looked and saw in these brief few minutes of getting my PSI up to 22, my skimmer had suddenly almost entirely cleaned the top of the pool of the tree stuff that was blowing around this morning. Ha! I know no one can know exactly what "clean" PSI should look like for me, but does this sound like its in the ballpark? The pressure slowly rises while running - slow enough that its hardly moving, but fast enough that if you keep standing there you can visibly tell it moved. I left for a 30 minute meeting and came back and it said 28 PSI. Backwashed and rinsed, and back down to 22 PSI. I have sand cleaning solution I can try, and also have some DE filter media with sand boosting instructions.
At this point I assume I probably should have drained the pool, cleaned it while dry, then refilled and balanced. But honestly I'm kinda having fun and I've learned a ton in the process. For now I plan to keep throwing the robot in, manual vacuuming to waste, backwashing if doing so looks really dirty or my pressure goes to 32 PSI, maintaining chlorine levels, and checking the skimmer and pump baskets.
yes, a partial drain night have been better. As for the CYA, if you added it to the skimmer then did a backwash, it's gone. It got flushed out to water before it could dissolve. That's why we use the sock method.
great job on ordering your kit. 
