Hey all you pool guru's... Guess what! You will never guess... yep... another one of "those guys" desperately seeking assistance in transforming my cloudy aqua-bomb into something... anything, that is presentable to my friends and family! So please, sit back, grab your favorite refreshing beverage, and be prepared to listen to my cautionary tale of woe. I warn you, descriptions presented in this tale may not be for the faint of heart, young children, or those of you blessed with a relationship with a higher being.
Background- My wife and I decided to take the dive, and after 8 years of renting, and we decided to buy a house. Glorious Home Ownership! The standard that means you have finally made it into the realm of financial adulthood! We weighed the pro's, con's, and other determining factors on what we wanted, what was in our price range, and what certain factors we were looking for in the long term. We looked at multiple houses and nothing seemed quite what we wanted. And then... out of the blue, a small looking Cape Cod on a dead end street with older retired families! As we drove down the street, we was greeted by a couple of young boys riding their bicycles down the middle of the street. WOW! Our kids can finally be able to ride their bikes and not worry about getting hit by a speeding maniac who pays no attention to speed limits! So we check out the house, and its PERFECT! It has a fully functioning man-cave style basement, large backyard, five bedrooms, enough for our kids, the wife and I, and a spare bedroom for company...and to be honest, one of the best selling points (TO ME) is that it has an in-ground pool! I mean, come on, who doesnt LOVE a pool right? After talking to the owner, negotiating a price, and getting ready to close here on the 18th, Im needless to say, extremely EXCITED! The previous owner allowed us to move in a couple of months early, and of course with the swing towards nice weather (for Wisconsin, anything above 30 degrees is nice) I decided I wanted to open the pool.
The pool is a 35x15 oval with a depth of 8-9 feet at the deep end, with sloping sides, a diving board and a slide. It has been winterized for 3 years straight, so I knew I was going to be in for some sludge/swamp/bayou looking water, but even knowing this, I forged ahead and pulled the tarp two weeks ago, and took a look at what I thought wasnt a so bad situation. It was green, and there was algae, but it didnt look all "that bad". So, with the tarp pulled, I proceeded to net out all of the debris, carcasses, worms, frogs, leaves, tree buds, pool noodle, what could most definitely have been Jimmy Hoffa, or possibly the Loch Ness Monster, or even maybe the Creature from the Black Lagoon and various other...well, for no better description..."crapola" that had accumulated over the course of three years. I didnt start up the pumps or anything like that, I just mainly focused on getting the pool clear of all the foreign debris. After spending a few days on this, I managed to get I would say the majority of large stuff out of the pool. So I started working on the floor level of the pool after that. After netting, netting, netting, and netting some more, I managed to get the floor level (what I am going to assume...yeah, "assume") pretty much free and clear of all the algae and crapola that was hiding beneath the depths. Ive literally spent 2 weeks netting and ensuring that I had gotten all the crapola out of it.
So... with the pool clear of leaves & debris as far as I can tell, I turn to, what every Pool newbie does, his not-so-local-to-me pool store for advice on how to open it. (For those if you unfamiliar with the wilds of Wisconsin, everything (and I mean EVERYTHING!) is interestingly enough, at least 25 miles from your current location, no matter where you are in the state...if you need something, the closest one is 25 miles away, its an interesting phenomenon unheard of anywhere else in the continental USA besides Nebraska and the polar tundra of Alaska.) Of course their answer is ..wait for it... "sure we can schedule you in, what week in July looks good for you?" Im thinking to myself.."July...did that crazy teenage kid just tell me July?" So of course my response is.. "Um, thats a non-starter young Sir, because I want to be basking in clear glorious hydro happiness and laying in the sun by the end of May!" But apparently there are so many pools within his aforementioned 25 mile radius, that they will not be able to service my pool needs until quite possibly, 1/3rd of the way thru the pool season. So undaunted, I inquire, what all will I need to service and maintain my pool? Hes pointing to this contraption, that concoction, one of these doo-hickeys, and a couple of these thingamajigs, some of those white chlorine hockey pucks by the 5 gallon bucket full... and Im getting seriously agitated because all im still thinking about is..."JULY". So.. I do what any red-blooded American Man who eats bacon, rides a Harley and wears the uniform of the American Warfighter does.... I kindly thank him for his time, and race back home to get on YouTube. You all know why right? Because all sorts of pool magic can be found on YouTube. They show you thru the magic of time-lapse photography how easy and simple it is to get crystal clear water in the span of a mere few minutes of internet time! What voodoo is this you say? Its true! Ive seen it with my own eyes! Sooooo... there I am, researching, and researching, and researching some more... Im learning this stuff. Im soaking it all in! Soaking it up like a sponge soaks up spilled beer on a cross-country truckers dashboard! Im learning this... that and pretty much after a while, I think to myself with a metric butt-ton of self confidence.. "I Got This." Its right about here that my slide down that slippery slope into H2O-hades (cant use cuss words).. begins.
So I go outside, and take a look at my Vari-Flow 710-x32 series pump with sand filtration system, and I mentally walk myself thru the un-winterizing process. I need to pull the plugs, put the directional water pieces back on. Re-install all appropriate hardware, prime the pump, backwash the filtration system, rinse the sand, clear out the traps, and WHAM-BAM-THANKYOUMA'AM, im gonna have a crystal clear pool after 24 hours!!! I mean... right? Thats how it always works, right... uh-huh.. (Yes... young padawan pool guy... think that if you must, results different you will see..) So.. Im digging thru the red coffee can with assorted pool "thingys" and I manage to find plugs, gauges, and I get to work. Brimming with machismo self confidence that I will be hosting this years Wet-N-Wild Party in the matter of a few measly days, I manage to get everything where its supposed to be. (minus the backflow plug, cant find that one) I hook up a backwash hose, go over to the pool, dip my arm in, pull those pesky winterization plugs, I see the anti-freeze come out of the ports, I assemble to directional jet thingys on there, I clear out the baskets, prime the pumps, and I stand back, ready to watch this pool become my crystal clear Zen space! I fire up the pool breaker, and I am greeted with chug chug chug..glub glub glub..whoosh! and the pool jets start pushing anti-freeze out and the viewport fills up, and away we go!!!! Right about now, the word "smug" doesnt even come close to describing how Im feeling! I know this isnt going to be a instant gratification process, and it will probably take 24 hours, So.. I stand back, I break out my victory dance cigar, a fine vintage can of bud-light, and stand back surveying the backyard pool that shall be my domain for the upcoming summer! The feeling of accomplishment, knowing that I did it myself, and "stuck it to the man" by not having to wait til July, fills me with a sense of pride, accomplishment, and happiness beyong anything I have felt in YEARS! So I go back inside, hit up that trusty faithful YouTube and begin to research what I need to do next!
Chemistry? What in the tarnation is chemistry stuff people are now talking about.. this voodoo PH balance, CYA, DA, DE, Nitrates, Nitrides, Chlorine, Muriatic Acid?!?!? What????? Not only did I not do good at chemistry in high school, that was 30 years ago! Right about now.... panic is starting to set in. But never fear, I got this far, how much harder can it be right? So I slog on, reading, listening, and soaking it all up, trying to make sense of all these crazy formulas, settings, raise this, lower that, SLAM this, test that, MY MIND IS EXPLODING!!.... Right up until that point that somewhere deep down inside of me.. I hear it... that ever so slight "clink". There it is... that fatal sound...The chink in the armor. That fatal moment where I realize, I am out of my depth. You all have been there right? I mean, as a soldier I would never ask my dentist to Breach & Clear a house in Bahgdad, I wouldnt ask my kids school teacher to set a claymore mine, So... why am I not turning to the experts?!?!? You know, that teenage acne faced pasty kid behind the counter who clearly has a fully developed grasp of pool chemistry and the mechanics to make it work. Maybe, just maybe this is something I should entrust to the "experts". So I sit back, and take grasp of the situation. I mean, I just started the filter, so lets give it a day or two, and lets see what it looks like before I go full nuclear option and start screaming "Broken Arrow!" Common sense and situational awareness begins to flow back into me and I calm down, take a deep breath, and "whooosaaahh". It will be okay.
Two days later... My dignity, self-esteem, confidence, and pride are slowly sinking down the drain, unlike all the contaminants that are still currently residing in my pool. Im standing there staring at my pool, and it is the same exact color, that it was when I started the filter system up. Desperation starts to set in. So.. what do I do? Im a combat experienced world travelled college degreed man... So I do what any Filipino-Native American Jew Soldier does... I go to Wal-Mart and hit up the pool section. Yeah yeah... I know...I can hear you all laughing all the way up here in 25 miles away from everything Wisconsin. But my thought process is this... surely the pool guy at WalMart must know about this stuff, I mean, its so specialized, that they probably hire that one person in that particular section, just for situations like this! And with that im out the door racing to Wally World! I go rushing thru the automatic doors so fast I literally knock the pajama wearing gothic eye-liner having teen angst twinkly vampire book reading pseudo-sexual with rings in his/her ears flat on their rear end! OUTTAMYWAYY!! Racing my shopping cart like Dale Earnheart at the Daytona 500 on the final lap... I swing around the corner into the pool area and what do I spy? Some guy wearing a blue vest with yellow letters and I think NIRVANA! Ive finally found the expert in all things aquatic who shall help me in this mission to get my pool ready. Well... theres only one word to describe the end result here. FAIL. Not only did this guy not know anything about pool maintenance, upkeep, or killing algae, he apparently didnt like working at WalMart either and voiced his displeasure multiple times. Soo.. not to be discouraged I start reading the labels. HTC Stage 1..2, 3, 4... Wait a minute, it simply cannot be that simple can it? Surely they are pulling my leg! So I scoop up a bunch of each stage and Im off to the cashier! I get home and start reading labels like a frantic bankrupt alcoholic reading cough drop labels to find out which medicine has the most alcohol in it! And with that, Billy-Boy is up and running again! I start out with Algae killer and look at the reccomended dosage. Right about now im thinking, if such and such amount is to designed to kill off algae, maybe we should go Scorched Earth Policy and triple the recommended dosage! I mean, if a little works, then a LOT will really work!!!! So bam! I triple up the dosage, mix it up and start pouring it in the pool! Once again, I break out my barley pop, and stand back contemplating how long will it take to start working. Well.... for those of you who have never experienced this... lets just say, not more than a few minutes. The next thing I know, Ive got a literal algae bloom happening across the entire top of my pool! Ive got green stuff coming up from the bottom of my pool that looks like it resided on the walls of the HMS Titantic! I mean, this stuff was THICK! Like.. soul-sista thick! Holy ****, so I grab the net and get to work scooping and scooping! After a couple of back breaking hours of scooping, I think its all gone minus the little thin stuff that got thru my net. So I set the pump to filter and head inside the house, not as confident, but not yet willing to give up.
The Next Day- WOW! What a difference a day makes. I come home from work and the first thing I do when I get home is walk into the backyard and look at the pool. Not quite what I was expecting, but there is a noticeable difference! Theres also some more algae floating on the top, so I get to work scooping it off as best as I can! I then decide to backwash the sand and rinse it and see if that helps! HOLY COW, I think it took a few minutes for the water to run clear! But finally it does, I set a rinse cycle and then get it back onto filter. Interestingly enough, the water is clearing up, but its cloudy, really cloudy on the shallow end. I can see the bottom of the shallow end, so that in itself is a tiny victory!So over the course of the next few days, I start the process of getting up in the morning, adding a triple dose of shock ceaning out the traps and going to work, coming home and scooping. I maintain this for about 4 days before I finally come home to nothing floating on the surface! Have I finally done it you say? Have I finally conquered the algae monster? I think I have! About this time, I think its time to start vaccuming the yuck thats on the bottom. So... I go ahead and start looking for the vaccum attachment, which I finally find, its one of those janky ones that attaches to the pole with the hose attaching to it. I start looking and finally find this round attachment that fits in the skimmer entrance hole with a hose fitting on that end. Now... wheres the hose? Ive got hose you see, but its literally 50' of this blue flat hose that I was told is for the waste water. Well, a hose is a hose is a hose right? Wrong again. So there I am, attaching the hose to the vac attachment, and trying my hardest to fill it with water while I run the skimmer. No luck. The hose squeezes flatter than my ex-wife in a training bra. Whats a guy to do? So I quickly run into the house, transfer some money out of my kids college account and the income tax return in savings, and head off to the pool store, determined once and for all to get whateverthehell it is that I need to make this thing work! Well, once I get to the pool store, I meet one of the owners and she and I talk about the situation that Ive got going on. "Well...it could be this"..."old pool sand you say?" No problem, let me buy 150 pounds, I will just change it out with all new sand! "Well....it could also be this here"... No problem, let me buy some clarifier. Or..."well...this too could be your problem"... so after its all said and done, Ive got a pickup truck loaded down with enough chemicals to make an Nazi Prison guard giggle in delight, and Im off back to the house... oh man.. wait, forgot to buy the hose I needed. Lets turn around and drive 25 miles back and go get that.
So $400 plus dollars later, Im standing beside the pool getting ready to wage war on anything and everything that is keeping me from my crystal clear nirvana! I empty out the sand filter, vacuum the sand out, check the laterals, refill with brand spanking new sand, backwash, rinse, and move to the vacuum portion. I unroll the hose, attach the vacuum line, to the round disk thingy, the pole vacuum sweeper thingy, fill the hose with water to prime it, set the skimmer on, turn the main off, and away we go! Success... eh... I guess you could say a little bit. Sure its picking up stuff, but im not really impressed with the results. As I look at the pool, I notice something new... and not good as far as I am concerned. The jets that return water to the pool, are now shooting out brown water. Literally... it looks like a brown fountain shooting into my pool.. So I shut off the skimmer and try to troubleshoot it, but Im drawing a blank. Not sure where the brown water is coming from, or why, but it only happens on when I attach the vacuum line to the skimmer and try to vacuum the yuck on the bottom. So now Im facing a new set of problems. The water was clearing up, but now Ive got sediment and brown water that was shooting into the pool. So I stop running the skimmer set up and turn the main valve on backwash, run thru that cycle, rinse, and back to filter. No more brown water...what gives? So I try the skimmer thing again, and in the matter of a few minutes, brown water again. So I stopped that and went thru the backwash/rinse/filter process again.
So... while you have been reading this, Im sure some of you are sitting there asking yourselves..."why isnt this idiot testing his water and getting his numbers so he can know where he needs them to be?" Well, to put it bluntly, I have no idea where my numbers are supposed to be exactly. I dont have a high speed test kit, and while I am going to buy a better test kit than the one I have, (WALMART HTC For the win!!!) I can tell you all I have currently are test strips, which you dip into a sample bottle of your water and compare it to the colors in the picture. Im going to include a pic down below, maybe if Im lucky, someone will chime in and help me save the day.
So there it is folks, my cautionary tale of a pool noob... frustrated, lost, and at the point I feel like making a skateboard park out of my backyard... which would really suck, because I really want this pool to work. Can you guys/gals here help me?
So here we go with the pics... Tell me what you think!
POOL HEATER
Background- My wife and I decided to take the dive, and after 8 years of renting, and we decided to buy a house. Glorious Home Ownership! The standard that means you have finally made it into the realm of financial adulthood! We weighed the pro's, con's, and other determining factors on what we wanted, what was in our price range, and what certain factors we were looking for in the long term. We looked at multiple houses and nothing seemed quite what we wanted. And then... out of the blue, a small looking Cape Cod on a dead end street with older retired families! As we drove down the street, we was greeted by a couple of young boys riding their bicycles down the middle of the street. WOW! Our kids can finally be able to ride their bikes and not worry about getting hit by a speeding maniac who pays no attention to speed limits! So we check out the house, and its PERFECT! It has a fully functioning man-cave style basement, large backyard, five bedrooms, enough for our kids, the wife and I, and a spare bedroom for company...and to be honest, one of the best selling points (TO ME) is that it has an in-ground pool! I mean, come on, who doesnt LOVE a pool right? After talking to the owner, negotiating a price, and getting ready to close here on the 18th, Im needless to say, extremely EXCITED! The previous owner allowed us to move in a couple of months early, and of course with the swing towards nice weather (for Wisconsin, anything above 30 degrees is nice) I decided I wanted to open the pool.
The pool is a 35x15 oval with a depth of 8-9 feet at the deep end, with sloping sides, a diving board and a slide. It has been winterized for 3 years straight, so I knew I was going to be in for some sludge/swamp/bayou looking water, but even knowing this, I forged ahead and pulled the tarp two weeks ago, and took a look at what I thought wasnt a so bad situation. It was green, and there was algae, but it didnt look all "that bad". So, with the tarp pulled, I proceeded to net out all of the debris, carcasses, worms, frogs, leaves, tree buds, pool noodle, what could most definitely have been Jimmy Hoffa, or possibly the Loch Ness Monster, or even maybe the Creature from the Black Lagoon and various other...well, for no better description..."crapola" that had accumulated over the course of three years. I didnt start up the pumps or anything like that, I just mainly focused on getting the pool clear of all the foreign debris. After spending a few days on this, I managed to get I would say the majority of large stuff out of the pool. So I started working on the floor level of the pool after that. After netting, netting, netting, and netting some more, I managed to get the floor level (what I am going to assume...yeah, "assume") pretty much free and clear of all the algae and crapola that was hiding beneath the depths. Ive literally spent 2 weeks netting and ensuring that I had gotten all the crapola out of it.
So... with the pool clear of leaves & debris as far as I can tell, I turn to, what every Pool newbie does, his not-so-local-to-me pool store for advice on how to open it. (For those if you unfamiliar with the wilds of Wisconsin, everything (and I mean EVERYTHING!) is interestingly enough, at least 25 miles from your current location, no matter where you are in the state...if you need something, the closest one is 25 miles away, its an interesting phenomenon unheard of anywhere else in the continental USA besides Nebraska and the polar tundra of Alaska.) Of course their answer is ..wait for it... "sure we can schedule you in, what week in July looks good for you?" Im thinking to myself.."July...did that crazy teenage kid just tell me July?" So of course my response is.. "Um, thats a non-starter young Sir, because I want to be basking in clear glorious hydro happiness and laying in the sun by the end of May!" But apparently there are so many pools within his aforementioned 25 mile radius, that they will not be able to service my pool needs until quite possibly, 1/3rd of the way thru the pool season. So undaunted, I inquire, what all will I need to service and maintain my pool? Hes pointing to this contraption, that concoction, one of these doo-hickeys, and a couple of these thingamajigs, some of those white chlorine hockey pucks by the 5 gallon bucket full... and Im getting seriously agitated because all im still thinking about is..."JULY". So.. I do what any red-blooded American Man who eats bacon, rides a Harley and wears the uniform of the American Warfighter does.... I kindly thank him for his time, and race back home to get on YouTube. You all know why right? Because all sorts of pool magic can be found on YouTube. They show you thru the magic of time-lapse photography how easy and simple it is to get crystal clear water in the span of a mere few minutes of internet time! What voodoo is this you say? Its true! Ive seen it with my own eyes! Sooooo... there I am, researching, and researching, and researching some more... Im learning this stuff. Im soaking it all in! Soaking it up like a sponge soaks up spilled beer on a cross-country truckers dashboard! Im learning this... that and pretty much after a while, I think to myself with a metric butt-ton of self confidence.. "I Got This." Its right about here that my slide down that slippery slope into H2O-hades (cant use cuss words).. begins.
So I go outside, and take a look at my Vari-Flow 710-x32 series pump with sand filtration system, and I mentally walk myself thru the un-winterizing process. I need to pull the plugs, put the directional water pieces back on. Re-install all appropriate hardware, prime the pump, backwash the filtration system, rinse the sand, clear out the traps, and WHAM-BAM-THANKYOUMA'AM, im gonna have a crystal clear pool after 24 hours!!! I mean... right? Thats how it always works, right... uh-huh.. (Yes... young padawan pool guy... think that if you must, results different you will see..) So.. Im digging thru the red coffee can with assorted pool "thingys" and I manage to find plugs, gauges, and I get to work. Brimming with machismo self confidence that I will be hosting this years Wet-N-Wild Party in the matter of a few measly days, I manage to get everything where its supposed to be. (minus the backflow plug, cant find that one) I hook up a backwash hose, go over to the pool, dip my arm in, pull those pesky winterization plugs, I see the anti-freeze come out of the ports, I assemble to directional jet thingys on there, I clear out the baskets, prime the pumps, and I stand back, ready to watch this pool become my crystal clear Zen space! I fire up the pool breaker, and I am greeted with chug chug chug..glub glub glub..whoosh! and the pool jets start pushing anti-freeze out and the viewport fills up, and away we go!!!! Right about now, the word "smug" doesnt even come close to describing how Im feeling! I know this isnt going to be a instant gratification process, and it will probably take 24 hours, So.. I stand back, I break out my victory dance cigar, a fine vintage can of bud-light, and stand back surveying the backyard pool that shall be my domain for the upcoming summer! The feeling of accomplishment, knowing that I did it myself, and "stuck it to the man" by not having to wait til July, fills me with a sense of pride, accomplishment, and happiness beyong anything I have felt in YEARS! So I go back inside, hit up that trusty faithful YouTube and begin to research what I need to do next!
Chemistry? What in the tarnation is chemistry stuff people are now talking about.. this voodoo PH balance, CYA, DA, DE, Nitrates, Nitrides, Chlorine, Muriatic Acid?!?!? What????? Not only did I not do good at chemistry in high school, that was 30 years ago! Right about now.... panic is starting to set in. But never fear, I got this far, how much harder can it be right? So I slog on, reading, listening, and soaking it all up, trying to make sense of all these crazy formulas, settings, raise this, lower that, SLAM this, test that, MY MIND IS EXPLODING!!.... Right up until that point that somewhere deep down inside of me.. I hear it... that ever so slight "clink". There it is... that fatal sound...The chink in the armor. That fatal moment where I realize, I am out of my depth. You all have been there right? I mean, as a soldier I would never ask my dentist to Breach & Clear a house in Bahgdad, I wouldnt ask my kids school teacher to set a claymore mine, So... why am I not turning to the experts?!?!? You know, that teenage acne faced pasty kid behind the counter who clearly has a fully developed grasp of pool chemistry and the mechanics to make it work. Maybe, just maybe this is something I should entrust to the "experts". So I sit back, and take grasp of the situation. I mean, I just started the filter, so lets give it a day or two, and lets see what it looks like before I go full nuclear option and start screaming "Broken Arrow!" Common sense and situational awareness begins to flow back into me and I calm down, take a deep breath, and "whooosaaahh". It will be okay.
Two days later... My dignity, self-esteem, confidence, and pride are slowly sinking down the drain, unlike all the contaminants that are still currently residing in my pool. Im standing there staring at my pool, and it is the same exact color, that it was when I started the filter system up. Desperation starts to set in. So.. what do I do? Im a combat experienced world travelled college degreed man... So I do what any Filipino-Native American Jew Soldier does... I go to Wal-Mart and hit up the pool section. Yeah yeah... I know...I can hear you all laughing all the way up here in 25 miles away from everything Wisconsin. But my thought process is this... surely the pool guy at WalMart must know about this stuff, I mean, its so specialized, that they probably hire that one person in that particular section, just for situations like this! And with that im out the door racing to Wally World! I go rushing thru the automatic doors so fast I literally knock the pajama wearing gothic eye-liner having teen angst twinkly vampire book reading pseudo-sexual with rings in his/her ears flat on their rear end! OUTTAMYWAYY!! Racing my shopping cart like Dale Earnheart at the Daytona 500 on the final lap... I swing around the corner into the pool area and what do I spy? Some guy wearing a blue vest with yellow letters and I think NIRVANA! Ive finally found the expert in all things aquatic who shall help me in this mission to get my pool ready. Well... theres only one word to describe the end result here. FAIL. Not only did this guy not know anything about pool maintenance, upkeep, or killing algae, he apparently didnt like working at WalMart either and voiced his displeasure multiple times. Soo.. not to be discouraged I start reading the labels. HTC Stage 1..2, 3, 4... Wait a minute, it simply cannot be that simple can it? Surely they are pulling my leg! So I scoop up a bunch of each stage and Im off to the cashier! I get home and start reading labels like a frantic bankrupt alcoholic reading cough drop labels to find out which medicine has the most alcohol in it! And with that, Billy-Boy is up and running again! I start out with Algae killer and look at the reccomended dosage. Right about now im thinking, if such and such amount is to designed to kill off algae, maybe we should go Scorched Earth Policy and triple the recommended dosage! I mean, if a little works, then a LOT will really work!!!! So bam! I triple up the dosage, mix it up and start pouring it in the pool! Once again, I break out my barley pop, and stand back contemplating how long will it take to start working. Well.... for those of you who have never experienced this... lets just say, not more than a few minutes. The next thing I know, Ive got a literal algae bloom happening across the entire top of my pool! Ive got green stuff coming up from the bottom of my pool that looks like it resided on the walls of the HMS Titantic! I mean, this stuff was THICK! Like.. soul-sista thick! Holy ****, so I grab the net and get to work scooping and scooping! After a couple of back breaking hours of scooping, I think its all gone minus the little thin stuff that got thru my net. So I set the pump to filter and head inside the house, not as confident, but not yet willing to give up.
The Next Day- WOW! What a difference a day makes. I come home from work and the first thing I do when I get home is walk into the backyard and look at the pool. Not quite what I was expecting, but there is a noticeable difference! Theres also some more algae floating on the top, so I get to work scooping it off as best as I can! I then decide to backwash the sand and rinse it and see if that helps! HOLY COW, I think it took a few minutes for the water to run clear! But finally it does, I set a rinse cycle and then get it back onto filter. Interestingly enough, the water is clearing up, but its cloudy, really cloudy on the shallow end. I can see the bottom of the shallow end, so that in itself is a tiny victory!So over the course of the next few days, I start the process of getting up in the morning, adding a triple dose of shock ceaning out the traps and going to work, coming home and scooping. I maintain this for about 4 days before I finally come home to nothing floating on the surface! Have I finally done it you say? Have I finally conquered the algae monster? I think I have! About this time, I think its time to start vaccuming the yuck thats on the bottom. So... I go ahead and start looking for the vaccum attachment, which I finally find, its one of those janky ones that attaches to the pole with the hose attaching to it. I start looking and finally find this round attachment that fits in the skimmer entrance hole with a hose fitting on that end. Now... wheres the hose? Ive got hose you see, but its literally 50' of this blue flat hose that I was told is for the waste water. Well, a hose is a hose is a hose right? Wrong again. So there I am, attaching the hose to the vac attachment, and trying my hardest to fill it with water while I run the skimmer. No luck. The hose squeezes flatter than my ex-wife in a training bra. Whats a guy to do? So I quickly run into the house, transfer some money out of my kids college account and the income tax return in savings, and head off to the pool store, determined once and for all to get whateverthehell it is that I need to make this thing work! Well, once I get to the pool store, I meet one of the owners and she and I talk about the situation that Ive got going on. "Well...it could be this"..."old pool sand you say?" No problem, let me buy 150 pounds, I will just change it out with all new sand! "Well....it could also be this here"... No problem, let me buy some clarifier. Or..."well...this too could be your problem"... so after its all said and done, Ive got a pickup truck loaded down with enough chemicals to make an Nazi Prison guard giggle in delight, and Im off back to the house... oh man.. wait, forgot to buy the hose I needed. Lets turn around and drive 25 miles back and go get that.
So $400 plus dollars later, Im standing beside the pool getting ready to wage war on anything and everything that is keeping me from my crystal clear nirvana! I empty out the sand filter, vacuum the sand out, check the laterals, refill with brand spanking new sand, backwash, rinse, and move to the vacuum portion. I unroll the hose, attach the vacuum line, to the round disk thingy, the pole vacuum sweeper thingy, fill the hose with water to prime it, set the skimmer on, turn the main off, and away we go! Success... eh... I guess you could say a little bit. Sure its picking up stuff, but im not really impressed with the results. As I look at the pool, I notice something new... and not good as far as I am concerned. The jets that return water to the pool, are now shooting out brown water. Literally... it looks like a brown fountain shooting into my pool.. So I shut off the skimmer and try to troubleshoot it, but Im drawing a blank. Not sure where the brown water is coming from, or why, but it only happens on when I attach the vacuum line to the skimmer and try to vacuum the yuck on the bottom. So now Im facing a new set of problems. The water was clearing up, but now Ive got sediment and brown water that was shooting into the pool. So I stop running the skimmer set up and turn the main valve on backwash, run thru that cycle, rinse, and back to filter. No more brown water...what gives? So I try the skimmer thing again, and in the matter of a few minutes, brown water again. So I stopped that and went thru the backwash/rinse/filter process again.
So... while you have been reading this, Im sure some of you are sitting there asking yourselves..."why isnt this idiot testing his water and getting his numbers so he can know where he needs them to be?" Well, to put it bluntly, I have no idea where my numbers are supposed to be exactly. I dont have a high speed test kit, and while I am going to buy a better test kit than the one I have, (WALMART HTC For the win!!!) I can tell you all I have currently are test strips, which you dip into a sample bottle of your water and compare it to the colors in the picture. Im going to include a pic down below, maybe if Im lucky, someone will chime in and help me save the day.
So there it is folks, my cautionary tale of a pool noob... frustrated, lost, and at the point I feel like making a skateboard park out of my backyard... which would really suck, because I really want this pool to work. Can you guys/gals here help me?
So here we go with the pics... Tell me what you think!
POOL HEATER
