Dear experienced pool maintainers,
This is my first pool. Underground vinyl pool, 20'x15'-ish, 6 years old, not maintained for 5! Never winterized. Thriving frog population.
Water level was at the top of the skimmers. No pressure test done but I assumed the high water level was an indication of good plumbing. Pump was gone, filter was gutted.
We skimmed out a bunch of solids at the bottom, emptied about 2' out then cleared away the bottom intake and refilled with the hose.
Installed a 1.5h pump and a new 2024 DE filter while reusing the original plumbing and muliport (but replaced the gasket).
We then shocked the pool with 4 gallons of shock and put a bunch of chlorine tabs into the skimmers and ran the pump on recirculate. The water flow seemed very strong and the water level did not change which we thought was an excellent sign of overall health consider its history. After a couple days we put in about 5-6 pounds of DE (whoops too much!) and ran it on filter. The flow is good at first but within a minute or so the water pressure diminishes and after a little while there is zero water flow.
We did a reset, did several backwash/rinses then dissembled the filter to hose off the filter. Then we made sure the filter was put together correctly and ring on tight, inspected the multiport which was clear, put 3lbs of DE through the skimmers slowly but we have the same symptoms.
We ran a tiny DE filter on the side of the pool until we get this worked out and that has been clearing the water up.
At this point we are stumped. The plumbing seems solid since there is no problem with recirculate and there is no obvious issues within the multiport and new filter.
Any advice guidance or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated thank you.
This is my first pool. Underground vinyl pool, 20'x15'-ish, 6 years old, not maintained for 5! Never winterized. Thriving frog population.
Water level was at the top of the skimmers. No pressure test done but I assumed the high water level was an indication of good plumbing. Pump was gone, filter was gutted.
We skimmed out a bunch of solids at the bottom, emptied about 2' out then cleared away the bottom intake and refilled with the hose.
Installed a 1.5h pump and a new 2024 DE filter while reusing the original plumbing and muliport (but replaced the gasket).
We then shocked the pool with 4 gallons of shock and put a bunch of chlorine tabs into the skimmers and ran the pump on recirculate. The water flow seemed very strong and the water level did not change which we thought was an excellent sign of overall health consider its history. After a couple days we put in about 5-6 pounds of DE (whoops too much!) and ran it on filter. The flow is good at first but within a minute or so the water pressure diminishes and after a little while there is zero water flow.
We did a reset, did several backwash/rinses then dissembled the filter to hose off the filter. Then we made sure the filter was put together correctly and ring on tight, inspected the multiport which was clear, put 3lbs of DE through the skimmers slowly but we have the same symptoms.
We ran a tiny DE filter on the side of the pool until we get this worked out and that has been clearing the water up.
At this point we are stumped. The plumbing seems solid since there is no problem with recirculate and there is no obvious issues within the multiport and new filter.
Any advice guidance or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated thank you.