Advice needed - to drain, or not to drain?

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A

anewbie

Member
Apr 26, 2020
14
Austin, Texas
20 year old salt pool, with DE filter. The salt cell was leaking badly 8 months ago last summer. Had to stop the circulation. By the time new cell arrived 2 weeks later, the pool was green already. After the children moved away, we never used the pool. As a result, it's not been maintained for 8 months. After the autumn of 2019, there a ton of oak tree leaves at the bottom of the pool. I can't see anything 1 inch below the surface. Every time I scoop the bottom using the net, I get a net full of leaves and slimy thick algae debris. Please see the picture -

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- Should I drain the pool completely, clean it up, then, refill?
- Or, test the water, rebalance the chemicals, shock? I imagine, a LOT of filtering and back wash to get rid of the slimy algae debris.

Advices and suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!!
 
Ok, ok.....you win. That is the grossest pool I've seen this year. :goodjob:

All joking aside...welcome to TFP! We love helping folks fix their petris dish pools ;)

Are you on city or well water? Will draining and refilling be any problem for you? Do you have a sump pump?

IS this a plaster pool....and do you have any ground water issues that could be problematic if you drained?

I'm jazzed to see this one come out pretty! :cool: Sooooo glad you joined us.

Maddie :flower:
 
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If you can drain, I'd say that will be your best bet at this time since people report shortages of liquid chlorine. You would need a tanker truck full.
When empty you could easily scoop out all the leaves. Perhaps gently scrub the tannin stains with diluted bleach. Then refill and perform a shorter SLAM process than if you were starting with that brown pool.

My two cent.... Maddie :flower:
 
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+1 with Maddie for sure on the drain. You can choose to fight it the hard way. People here actually get their kicks from the challenge, And the harder the better, but you will have a battle on your hands that will approach or exceede the cost of new water. Your XL testing kit that you will need (and promptly use most of) will be $92, and if you need 100 gallons of hard to find chlorine, that’s close to $400 as well.
 
A,

I am not sure what water costs in Austin, but in Bedford, near the DFW airport, I can drain and refill my pool for way less than $100 bucks.. To me, draining and refilling would be what I would do.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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YippeeSkippy said:
Are you on city or well water? Will draining and refilling be any problem for you? Do you have a sump pump?

IS this a plaster pool....and do you have any ground water issues that could be problematic if you drained?
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for all the replies and suggestions!

We are on city water, will need to bite the bullet and pay the cost ... at least, filling this time of the year will not count towards the waster water for the rest of the year.

It is a plaster in ground pool. I don't believe that there is ground water concern ... I have a sub pump, there is a path for the water to flow into the city sewage.
 
Ok, I suggest draining and then cleaning out the mess. Too bad you're in Austin, cause I'd suggest using a wide plastic snow shovel to clear it out.....but chances of you having one there are slim to none, eh? If you scoop out with a flat shovel be careful not to gouge the surface.
Keep us posted as thing progress. Pics welcome!

Maddie :flowers:
 
YippeeSkippy said:
Ok, I suggest draining and then cleaning out the mess. Too bad you're in Austin, cause I'd suggest using a wide plastic snow shovel to clear it out.....but chances of you having one there are slim to none, eh? If you scoop out with a flat shovel be careful not to gouge the surface.
Keep us posted as thing progress. Pics welcome!

Maddie :flowers:
Click to expand...

Will do! Many thanks again, Maddie !!
 

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