Drained 60% of pool water, now have bubbles in liner

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lanice

0
May 4, 2008
17
North East Mississippi
Ok, I didn't cover my pool for winter, water stayed clear until the weather started to get warm, then have algae, it is green! I started putting bleach in pool, and started running the pump. I tested the results were;
FC-8
CC-.5
TC-8.5
PH-8.2
T/A-100
CYA- off the chart, well didn't make it half way to the 100 mark before I couldn't see the black dot... so maybe 150
I knew the CYA was high last season, just didn't take time to replace pool water..I just started the BBB last year... well, thought that may be the problem with killing the algae, so.... my husband got a big pump that took 60% of my water out in about an hour... now, I'm refilling the pool and I have some big air bubbles under the liner..... not sure what to do...help. Should I stop refilling and do something with the liner first. One of the bubbles is in the middle of the shallow end with water all around it... it's about 6 inches deep now in shallow end.
 
Sounds like you have a ground water issue (the water in the ground is pushing up the liner causing the bubble). You can try to push them out with your pool brush as the pool is filling - just be careful not to let the hard edges on the brush puncture the liner :shock: If you can get in the pool many folks swear by using a toilet plunger to work the bubbles/ wrinkles to the walls. If neither of these work,stop filling the pool and let us know, there are some more drastic measures that can be tried.

Sounds like you chose the wrong time to drain so much water out of the pool- often the ground water is actually 'surface water', the extra water from snow meltoff and spring showers that is slowly trying to get down to the actual water table - any major draining should be attempted during the driest part of the year. If you get the bubbles out but still need to dump even more water, do it in smaller amounts - or you could try the 'sheet method' (which I've heard about but never heard of anyone actually doing).

I hope you get the problem solved quickly so you can start enjoying the pool :-D
 
I've never experienced this but have often wondered....

And maybe this is a really dumb or obvious question.... :blah:

when the saturated ground begins to dry up, and the water table lowers, won't the bubbles go away on their own, simply from the pressure of the water IN the pool?

Forgive my silly question, not fully awake yet.... :oops:
 
frustratedpoolmom said:
I've never experienced this but have often wondered....

And maybe this is a really dumb or obvious question.... :blah:

when the saturated ground begins to dry up, and the water table lowers, won't the bubbles go away on their own, simply from the pressure of the water IN the pool?

Forgive my silly question, not fully awake yet.... :oops:
Click to expand...

Ann there is NO such thing as a silly, dumb nor stupid question! No one is born knowing this stuff and the best way to find the answer is to ask for it :-D

Here's what's going on - the water beneath the liner has enough static pressure to force the liner up and bubble, the extra liner material had to come from somewhere (either it got pulled in from the walls or the liner itself had enough stretch in it to accommodate the hydrostatic water pressure from below) when the ground water recedes, you've got a little extra liner in that spot which is being pushed down by the water in the pool. Any place that didn't bubble has enough pool water pressure to keep it from moving, therefore you end up with one area (where the liner bubbled) that has extra material and no place to go and ends up wrinkling in much the same way your fingers or toes do when immersed too long (this is actually a very good analogy for reasons I won't get into). It's possible to work the wrinkles formed with a pool brush or sqeegee to get the extra liner to the walls where there should be room to accommodate it. At some point the water in the pool will have ~ equal pressure as the water under the liner - that's when you can move the bubble and not have it re-form. (it's like setting a liner in the first place, you want enough pressure on the pool side of the liner to keep the liner from forming wrinkles)

Lanice, I'm ~100% sure that it's water, not air, you are dealing with - give a bubble a tap with the bristles of the brush - air would resist the force, water will accommodate that tap and wiggle. (food for thought - how the heck would air get under there and have enough pressure to bubble the liner? :? ) How much water is in the shallow end right now and how much was there when you stopped draining the pool? If you can raise the water to reach ~ equilibrium (the pressure from under the liner ~= the pressure from below), the bubble should be easier to push to the walls. I will have to say that it's easier to move the bubble/ wrinkles from within the pool either by slowly forcing it, with your fingers or feet to the wall or by using the toilet plunger like I mentioned before. If you continue to fill the pool the bubble will eventually collapse, leaving wrinkles - if you stop the water at that point, you should be able to manually or by plunger work out the wrinkles. As I said before, there are other options, but those would require redraining the pool and getting the water out from under the liner (this would take a LOT more work and may require tools you don't have ready access to :( )

As long as I'm speculating on why this happened, how did you originally drain the pool and where did you discharge the water?

I'm sorry the original post I gave didn't help, and for the questions - but, I do this stuff every spring (NOT looking forward to doing it another ~20 times in the next couple months :pukel: ) and know what needs be done and how to make it easier for you - I'm going with the easiest, for you, first :)
 
When we drained the pool the water went down the hill, behind our house down into a big field.... we are in the rural south, nothing but a the cows behind my house.. lol.. so I think it went well away from the pool. I'm on a hill so I feel pretty good about the water getting away from the pool. The ground is wet right now, we have had a lot of rain, guess this wasn't the best time to do this huh. I should have asked before I started this. :shock:
We drained the pool to the edge of the deep end slope.. leaving only about 1 inch in the shallow end, then started the water running from the garden hose to refill over night, that was just last night, this morning is when I discovered the bubbles under the liner.
So let me get this correct-- Since this is prob water I just need to keep filling the pool and working the bubbles to the edges? I've just about gotten the bubbles to the sides, and it is like a big bubble on the sides of the pool now at the bottom near the floor of the pool, all the way around the entire pool. I have about a foot or so of water now in the shallow end. I tried to get in with my boots but couldn't as the water was just over my boots so I'm guessing thats about a foot or foot and half or so.

I really appreciate the help. Thanks so much!
 
Lanice, don't beat yourself up over this :hammer: :wink: Most of the draining info says not to fully drain a pool, lest it float - you probably wouldn't have realized that your partial drain could result in this. however, as a general rule, don't lower a liner pool to less than 3" in the shallow end (though with a high water table even that may be too much :( )

It's good that you're on a hill! I'd suggest that you stop filling for now and let the water below the liner dissipate, you have the 'bubbles to the edge of the floor and can keep an eye on them - and brush when needed 8) As you said that there is mud in the yard, you know that the ground is saturated, let it pass down the hill before filling any more. I'll assume that you aren't thinking of having a pool party this weekend (if you really need the pool this weekend, let me know and I'll tell you the more extreme methods of getting everything set :) )

I certainly understand your wanting to get the pool up and running ASAP, but patience is a virtue :angel: . With a little POP (Pool Owner Patience) you will have your pool not only ready to get the chems in line, but swimmable before the time comes to take the first swim of the season.

I want to congratulate you on getting your pool ready early (or trying to :roll: ) and coming here to find out how to do it :handshake: We will help you get your pool ready to swim in on the first day it's possible to swim in (if you have any pre-teen children - they've probably already gone in :lol: , but you know what I mean)
 
The ground is wet right now, we have had a lot of rain, . . .
Click to expand...

I'll second that! :wave: You probably had the same frontal system we did in the past week....6-1/2 inches in less than 3 days. Ground, what ground...oh that mucky mess out back, eh?

My salt took a nose dive...knew it would. But it's back to 3.4 now on the ole AquaPure 700 and I've cranked up the chlorine generator to get back to where she belongs....then I will check pH, TA tonight and so forth. And if my TF100 shows up, I'll check even more 8)

Good luck with those bubbles...a co-worker has constant wrinkle, bubble problems with a liner pool so I will pass along the plunger method. Sure do learn a lot around here....thanks
 

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:-D I'm so happy! My pool is filling up and I see very few wrinkles in the liner. I had to call the pool people to help. I was just too worried about my liner...seemed the water under the liner was getting worse and we have predictions for more rain tonight. They pumped the water out and set the liner and it now looks great. Thanks for all the help. I know now what not to do. Lesson learned. So now I'm waiting on it to fill up and get it going again.
 
CONGRATULATIONS!! :party:

We probably could have 'walked you through it', but, as I've often said - if you are not within your 'comfort level' doing it yourself, you are better off getting the 'pool dudes' in to make the fix and watch what they do, so you can do it yourself next time :wink: 8) :-D

Now that you've overcome this hurdle, I hope you have nothing but a trouble free pool season :!:
 
When I have my pool running again, what is the first things I should do. I'm thinking test my water to see what it needs? Then go from there. I have 5 gallons of bleach ready to put in but I'm going today to get more. I have all the other things such as Baking soda and borax in case i need it. Any other suggestions?

Lanice
 
Sounds like you've got what you need for now, as long as you also have a good test kit (like TF- 100 or Taylor K - 2006). Knowing what your chem values are is the place to start before dosing the pool (with the test #s, you can use the Pool Calculator - linked in my sig - to know how much of each chemical to add to get to your desired level.


BTW - you probably should have started a new topic for this question 8)
 
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