New pool owner here after having bought a house with a 30,000 gallon kidney shaped gunite pool. I've spent about 2 hours trying to find different pool opening guides and decided I would just post to see if I can get an answer as I find too many different idea of too many different setups.
Plumbing: two skimmers, one main drain in deep end, one vac port, with multiport
Equipment: single stage pool pump, vac pump, polaris 280 (i think) vac, sta-rite DE filter, pentair 300 chlorinator
I just took the cover off tonight. I had it professionally winterized and had winterizing algaecide thrown in along with "Pool Magic Fall & Phosfree" and a "Stain & Scale" solution. Water is mostly clear but cloudy, as I would expect. The plaster has a brown tint to it, mainly in the shallow end, but I think it's dirt more than I think it's algae. I don't see anything that clearly looks like algae.
My water level was about an inch above the skimmer line (and skimmers full) so I decided to try and get the water flowing again for now. I had already lubed up my multi-port o-rings and replaced some other misc plumbing with the chlorinator. I set the multi-port to recirculate and got the water flowing. Some funky smells from the water, that's for sure. So here are my questions...
#1) When do I put my DE in the filter and start running the water through it? There is a decent amount of debris in the pool so I am tempted to run it on WASTE for a bit to just flush it out.
--Assuming I DO run it on WASTE, should I run the VAC too? Or do I run it in recirculate with the VAC and let the VAC suck stuff up?
--OR, do I put in my DE and just starting running the VAC and filter together now? If I do that, will it run through the DE fairly quickly?
#2) When adding the DE, should I close off one skimmer line, is there a good guide for how to take the pressure reading and how to charge it properly?
#3) Initial observation of my skimmer lines during the first circulation showed one of them pulling much more water than the other. Not sure if this is normal or not as I haven't had enough experience with this pool yet. If I closed off the one that was pulling more than the other then the other one started pulling just as hard. Remove the plug and we are back to the first pulling more. Should I be concerned about this right now or could this be a side-effect of the water level not being quite high enough yet?
#4) Most articles talk about balancing the water before shocking the pool. However, the order of the levels to tackle is mixed. Some say alkalinity -> pH -> calcium and then others I've seen say alkalinity -> calcium -> pH. And some say to shock the pool first.
#5) Shocking the pool -- should I do this before #5? How do I know how much to put in and how long should I circulate the water before doing anything after shocking it?
#6) My chlorinator -- is there a guide to what setting I should set the dial to for a 30,000 gallon pool?
thanks much in advance
Plumbing: two skimmers, one main drain in deep end, one vac port, with multiport
Equipment: single stage pool pump, vac pump, polaris 280 (i think) vac, sta-rite DE filter, pentair 300 chlorinator
I just took the cover off tonight. I had it professionally winterized and had winterizing algaecide thrown in along with "Pool Magic Fall & Phosfree" and a "Stain & Scale" solution. Water is mostly clear but cloudy, as I would expect. The plaster has a brown tint to it, mainly in the shallow end, but I think it's dirt more than I think it's algae. I don't see anything that clearly looks like algae.
My water level was about an inch above the skimmer line (and skimmers full) so I decided to try and get the water flowing again for now. I had already lubed up my multi-port o-rings and replaced some other misc plumbing with the chlorinator. I set the multi-port to recirculate and got the water flowing. Some funky smells from the water, that's for sure. So here are my questions...
#1) When do I put my DE in the filter and start running the water through it? There is a decent amount of debris in the pool so I am tempted to run it on WASTE for a bit to just flush it out.
--Assuming I DO run it on WASTE, should I run the VAC too? Or do I run it in recirculate with the VAC and let the VAC suck stuff up?
--OR, do I put in my DE and just starting running the VAC and filter together now? If I do that, will it run through the DE fairly quickly?
#2) When adding the DE, should I close off one skimmer line, is there a good guide for how to take the pressure reading and how to charge it properly?
#3) Initial observation of my skimmer lines during the first circulation showed one of them pulling much more water than the other. Not sure if this is normal or not as I haven't had enough experience with this pool yet. If I closed off the one that was pulling more than the other then the other one started pulling just as hard. Remove the plug and we are back to the first pulling more. Should I be concerned about this right now or could this be a side-effect of the water level not being quite high enough yet?
#4) Most articles talk about balancing the water before shocking the pool. However, the order of the levels to tackle is mixed. Some say alkalinity -> pH -> calcium and then others I've seen say alkalinity -> calcium -> pH. And some say to shock the pool first.
#5) Shocking the pool -- should I do this before #5? How do I know how much to put in and how long should I circulate the water before doing anything after shocking it?
#6) My chlorinator -- is there a guide to what setting I should set the dial to for a 30,000 gallon pool?
thanks much in advance
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