Thanks for welcoming me and newbie question re pop ups

[Vantzy]

I am a newbie to pools and this forum is great. Thanks to everybody especially the Administrators. All my neighbors pay $70-100 a month for someone to come to their house, brush, vacuum and maintain their pool. I am going to try to do it myself until EPA closes my pool!

I live near Tampa Florida.

I know the following about it.

Success thus far, got rid of the mustard algae for now SLAMed it and yellow out.

1) Below ground
2) It is about 13000-15000 gallons
3) Pentail 180007 DE filter
4) about 8 pop-ups controlled by a dome thing with a valve near it
5) It has a waterfall
6) Push Pull valve (stuck I cannot raise it more than 3 inches but water does come out e backwash hose when I do that not sure if I am actually backwashing)
7) Chlorinator tower (not being used, using the floating ducky thing for now.
8) Valve near the pump
9) Backwash hose attached.

If I could ask one newbie question, it is the following?

Both valves alter the amount of water going out of the waterfall, one controls the pop ups and the other does I am not sure. My guess would be route the water to the pop-up or around them.

Do the pop ups put water into the pool or suck water out? Mine seem to be putting water into the pool, I can see them pushing water up (no bubbles) and there is some DE around them sometimes and a some DE coming out of the waterfall into the waterfall basin and staying there not going over the waterfall. Does the valve near the dome control pushing water or sucking it out?

Another one please. Under the skinner basket there is the floating valve and under that two holes. One is sucking and I put my vacuum hose into that one and the other hole seems to do nothing? What is that one for?

I need to open up the Pentair, and clean it out I think but I am afraid to do that yet. I think one of my grids may be torn causing the DE to come back into the pool but until I gain some confidence I will leave it for now and I need to know I can get a new grid while the filter is open if it needs one.

Thanks Everyone!

Vantzy
BG
14000
Pentair 180007
Pop Ups
Push Pull
Waterfall
Push Pull backwash valve (stuck I think)
Something like cement

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! I'll answer inside the quoted post in red.

I am a newbie to pools and this forum is great. Thanks to everybody especially the Administrators. All my neighbors pay $70-100 a month for someone to come to their house, brush, vacuum and maintain their pool. I am going to try to do it myself until EPA closes my pool!

I live near Tampa Florida.

I know the following about it.

Success thus far, got rid of the mustard algae for now SLAMed it and yellow out.

1) Below ground
2) It is about 13000-15000 gallons
3) Pentail 180007 DE filter
4) about 8 pop-ups controlled by a dome thing with a valve near it
5) It has a waterfall
6) Push Pull valve (stuck I cannot raise it more than 3 inches but water does come out e backwash hose when I do that not sure if I am actually backwashing)
7) Chlorinator tower (not being used, using the floating ducky thing for now.
8) Valve near the pump
9) Backwash hose attached.

If I could ask one newbie question, it is the following?

Both valves alter the amount of water going out of the waterfall, one controls the pop ups and the other does I am not sure. My guess would be route the water to the pop-up or around them.

Do the pop ups put water into the pool or suck water out? Mine seem to be putting water into the pool, I can see them pushing water up (no bubbles) and there is some DE around them sometimes and a some DE coming out of the waterfall into the waterfall basin and staying there not going over the waterfall. Does the valve near the dome control pushing water or sucking it out?
The pop ups are part of an infloor cleaning system. You may or may not have a wall return, but the pop ups are the primary return putting water back into the pool after it has been filtered. There should not be DE coming out of the filter. That indicates either a problem with the grids in the filter or the push/pull valve.

Another one please. Under the skinner basket there is the floating valve and under that two holes. One is sucking and I put my vacuum hose into that one and the other hole seems to do nothing? What is that one for?
You may have a main drain in the floor of the pool. If so the second valve is tied to the line for the main drain. The hole could be doing nothing because the valve to it is closed or the line is capped off. Posting pictures of the skimmer openings, main drain, and equipment pad will help us figure that out.

I need to open up the Pentair, and clean it out I think but I am afraid to do that yet. I think one of my grids may be torn causing the DE to come back into the pool but until I gain some confidence I will leave it for now and I need to know I can get a new grid while the filter is open if it needs one.
The parts are usually pretty easy to get. Small tears on grids can be repaired with superglue. Instead of repairing a push/pull valve I would look into getting a side mounted multiport valve. The multiport valve will give you more options such as recirculate and waste.

Thanks Everyone!

Vantzy
BG
14000
Pentair 180007
Pop Ups
Push Pull
Waterfall
Push Pull backwash valve (stuck I think)
Something like cement