TL;DR
Heavy brick fell into pool shallow end the day I departed on 9 day vacation, causing unnoticed small leak in bottom of pool. Programmed pump ran 12pm-6pm everyday. Came back from vaca today, Water was 8 inches below skimmer, and moderately cloudy. Adding water from garden hose since 4:30pm today. FC & CC 0, CYA below 20, Added 3 Gallons 10% LC, and seven 3" Trichlor puck floater for good measure. What's the worst case scenario here? Is my pump damaged from running dry for prob 4 days (6 hours per day)? Also, would small leak (prob 400 - 600 gallons a day) cause issues to ground under pool?
More details:
Just returned from a 9 day vacation. Prior to vacation I put on a pump timer programmed for 12pm - 6pm). Morning of departure, I moved the solar cover back and adjusted FC to 6ppm. However, of pulling back the solar cover a bit, a brick I had holding the solar cover above the skimmer fell into the shallow end. (I know, I know, that was stupid). I removed it and examined the area, and except for a 2 inch wide radius shallow depression, I didn't see any damage to the vinyl liner. However, when I came back today, I examined the area again, and found a small tear in the bottom of the pool.
FF to today. Got home, and immediately could see the water level was far lower than I expected, being approx 8 inches below the skimmer. Thought it may have been evaporation, but I did have a solar cover on. Water is moderately cloudy, so I added 3 gallon of 10% liquid chlorine to SLAM (at least get as close as possible to 10ppm). After adding 2 gallons of 10% LC, and waiting about an hour, FC test gave me approx FC 2. Also approx CC of 2. Prior to adding LC, both FC and CC were 0. Since my CYA is below 20 from TF100 kit, I threw in a floater with seven 3" trichlor pucks to keep chlorine level going and add CYA. Began adding water from garden hose since 4:30pm, hopefully will be over skimmer soon, so I can run the pump. I found the small liner tear after I decided to examine more closely the indented area from the brick fall. Since I didn't have a vinyl pach kit, I put a plastic freezer bag flat over it, and put a small weight over it to keep it in place to help stem the flow of water until tomorrow.
Given a 36,000 gallon pool, with a 20'x40' size, I calculated volume of water lost was approx 4,500 Gallons, but perhaps could be as high as 6,000 Gallons over 9 days. (20'x40'x.75' x 7.5 (gals per cubic foot).
Pump stills seems to pump, but when I tried to vacuum, it had very low flow. I am NOT seeing any leaks around the pump, but I am concerned that it ran for probably 4 days (6 hours a day) dry or close to dry). I am hoping that once the water is over the skimmer, the pump will work properly.
What's the worst case scenario here? Is my pump damaged from running dry for prob 4 days (6 hours per day)? Also, would small leak (prob 400 - 600 gallons a day) cause issues to ground under pool?
Heavy brick fell into pool shallow end the day I departed on 9 day vacation, causing unnoticed small leak in bottom of pool. Programmed pump ran 12pm-6pm everyday. Came back from vaca today, Water was 8 inches below skimmer, and moderately cloudy. Adding water from garden hose since 4:30pm today. FC & CC 0, CYA below 20, Added 3 Gallons 10% LC, and seven 3" Trichlor puck floater for good measure. What's the worst case scenario here? Is my pump damaged from running dry for prob 4 days (6 hours per day)? Also, would small leak (prob 400 - 600 gallons a day) cause issues to ground under pool?
More details:
Just returned from a 9 day vacation. Prior to vacation I put on a pump timer programmed for 12pm - 6pm). Morning of departure, I moved the solar cover back and adjusted FC to 6ppm. However, of pulling back the solar cover a bit, a brick I had holding the solar cover above the skimmer fell into the shallow end. (I know, I know, that was stupid). I removed it and examined the area, and except for a 2 inch wide radius shallow depression, I didn't see any damage to the vinyl liner. However, when I came back today, I examined the area again, and found a small tear in the bottom of the pool.
FF to today. Got home, and immediately could see the water level was far lower than I expected, being approx 8 inches below the skimmer. Thought it may have been evaporation, but I did have a solar cover on. Water is moderately cloudy, so I added 3 gallon of 10% liquid chlorine to SLAM (at least get as close as possible to 10ppm). After adding 2 gallons of 10% LC, and waiting about an hour, FC test gave me approx FC 2. Also approx CC of 2. Prior to adding LC, both FC and CC were 0. Since my CYA is below 20 from TF100 kit, I threw in a floater with seven 3" trichlor pucks to keep chlorine level going and add CYA. Began adding water from garden hose since 4:30pm, hopefully will be over skimmer soon, so I can run the pump. I found the small liner tear after I decided to examine more closely the indented area from the brick fall. Since I didn't have a vinyl pach kit, I put a plastic freezer bag flat over it, and put a small weight over it to keep it in place to help stem the flow of water until tomorrow.
Given a 36,000 gallon pool, with a 20'x40' size, I calculated volume of water lost was approx 4,500 Gallons, but perhaps could be as high as 6,000 Gallons over 9 days. (20'x40'x.75' x 7.5 (gals per cubic foot).
Pump stills seems to pump, but when I tried to vacuum, it had very low flow. I am NOT seeing any leaks around the pump, but I am concerned that it ran for probably 4 days (6 hours a day) dry or close to dry). I am hoping that once the water is over the skimmer, the pump will work properly.
What's the worst case scenario here? Is my pump damaged from running dry for prob 4 days (6 hours per day)? Also, would small leak (prob 400 - 600 gallons a day) cause issues to ground under pool?