My wife and I just purchased a home in the DFW metroplex, and it has a pool which was a huge selling point. The pool is around 18,000 gallons, and was installed in the early 2000s. The home itself is considerably older. The previous owners pool company has been "taking care of it" for the past two months as we were not living here. As soon as my third month is up, I am going to drop them and do it myself. I have two major questions at the moment.
1. I'm still fighting and getting the hang of this pool thing. Prior to us moving in, our skimmer was turned off because we weren't here and couldn't fill it constantly, so it would lose water because it is hot as balls here. Well, we got here and I filled the pool back up and turned the skimmer on. Next morning the pump was just sucking air, I panicked and shut it down, opened the pump basket area, **** was **** near boiling. I decided it was the skimmer letting the water back into the pool and draining the pump over night, so I changed the check valve on the skimmer pipe. That helped as it prevented the filter from draining back. My pump is considerably higher than my pool due to grading, but it is sized properly.
Went out this morning and it was sucking more air. I turned it off, closed the skimmer, and then started it back up. After it was working fine with just the main drain open, I popped open he skimmer valve and ran over to watch. The skimmer sucked water in so fast, it drained the basket area and created a waterfall effect. Found the source of all the air :|
Turned it off again, and got a hose with a jet nozzle and stuck it into the rear pipe in the skimmer, it blew out a lot of what looked like DE or powdered chlorine. I do know the pool guys just dump shock right into the basket, and I'm assuming they do the same with the DE. Could it have been air trapped around the pile of DE? It is probably 60 yards from my skimmer to the pump. Could it have been that I just had the skimmer valve open way too far? I closed it down and just cracked it open until the bugs in the skimmer started to swirl. I let it sit for an hour and then turned it on again and it didn't suck the water in like previously.
2. What is this, and how do I get rid of it?
The pool is coated in a fiberglass epoxy feeling coating, not your typical plaster feel. So I am hesitant to use a wire brush on it :|
Im assuming it comes from the trees, these are around the pool.
Yes, I do have some landscaping to do, but that is down the list.
My pool guy suggested "metal out," does anyone have experience with that?
Thank you for reading, here is a picture of my little buddy that followed me around yesterday. These are everywhere around here.
We stared at each other for a while, and he started showing off.
1. I'm still fighting and getting the hang of this pool thing. Prior to us moving in, our skimmer was turned off because we weren't here and couldn't fill it constantly, so it would lose water because it is hot as balls here. Well, we got here and I filled the pool back up and turned the skimmer on. Next morning the pump was just sucking air, I panicked and shut it down, opened the pump basket area, **** was **** near boiling. I decided it was the skimmer letting the water back into the pool and draining the pump over night, so I changed the check valve on the skimmer pipe. That helped as it prevented the filter from draining back. My pump is considerably higher than my pool due to grading, but it is sized properly.
Went out this morning and it was sucking more air. I turned it off, closed the skimmer, and then started it back up. After it was working fine with just the main drain open, I popped open he skimmer valve and ran over to watch. The skimmer sucked water in so fast, it drained the basket area and created a waterfall effect. Found the source of all the air :|
Turned it off again, and got a hose with a jet nozzle and stuck it into the rear pipe in the skimmer, it blew out a lot of what looked like DE or powdered chlorine. I do know the pool guys just dump shock right into the basket, and I'm assuming they do the same with the DE. Could it have been air trapped around the pile of DE? It is probably 60 yards from my skimmer to the pump. Could it have been that I just had the skimmer valve open way too far? I closed it down and just cracked it open until the bugs in the skimmer started to swirl. I let it sit for an hour and then turned it on again and it didn't suck the water in like previously.
2. What is this, and how do I get rid of it?
The pool is coated in a fiberglass epoxy feeling coating, not your typical plaster feel. So I am hesitant to use a wire brush on it :|
Im assuming it comes from the trees, these are around the pool.
Yes, I do have some landscaping to do, but that is down the list.
My pool guy suggested "metal out," does anyone have experience with that?
Thank you for reading, here is a picture of my little buddy that followed me around yesterday. These are everywhere around here.
We stared at each other for a while, and he started showing off.