Losing water bad....

[purple_duckk]

I bought a house in November in Detroit that had an inground all concrete pool. Having never owned a pool before I was stoked to find this site and all the good advice. So far I have figured out how to open it up and am in the process of shocking the ever living Crud out of it and clear up the cloudy water. Per the advice in other parts of the forum I have cleaned out the sand in the old sand filter I have(I have a new Tag filter but I was waiting to clean as much Crud out with the old sand and filter as I could before plumbing in the new filter and filling with new sand) and am running the filters 24/7 while scooping as much Crud that falls in as I can.

This brings me to my major problem: The more I run the filters the faster I am losing water. In the range of 300-400 gallons (about an inch-inch and a half) per 24 hours ran. When I filled the water up and started the pumps/filter it seemed to hold a steady amount of water(I was watching for lost water) but then a couple of days in it started losing noticable amounts of water. The more I ran the pumps the more it lost. Though I doubt it, is it possible that much is simply lost in evaporation? It's a free form pool basically consisting of 1 25' circle 3.5 feet deep and 1 15' circle about 9 feet deep With the water still being cloudy I can't be 100% sure the marcite isn't busted open somewhere but I didn't notice any bad spots when I first took the cover off when I was looking to buy it. Being November in Michigan the water was very clear so I think I would have seen it. If it IS a leak what is an inexpensive fix? I don't have a ton of cash but I'm pretty handy and not afraid of a little hard work. Thanks in advance.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

That's too much from evaporation. Does the pool have a bottom drain that's operating? You could have a leak in the plumbing under the pool. Do you see any area in the yard that seems saturated?

 

[purple_duckk]

Figured it would be too much for evap. It does have a bottom drain, but I don't know if its operating or not. Like I said, the water is still cloudy and I'm just keeping the chlorine levels high and running the filter non-stop to clear it up. Should I dive down and check for suction?

No, I don't see any saturated parts of my yard, and it's basically big enough for the pool with 4 feet on each side except for one side that has about 10 feet. I assume it would be pretty obvious, right?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

saturated ground would be obvious, yes.

When the water is clear, you can do a dye test on the bottom drain. You'll have the pump off, you'll dive down and put some red food coloring in a bottle, hold it about an inch from the bottom drain, and if there is a leak I think it pulls the red dye thru the drain. I think that's right...

Have you read this article on leak detection:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/leak_detection

 

[purple_duckk]

Yeah, I read that. I was hoping there was a way to find the leak before the water was really clear. Just out of curiousity what makes you think it is the main drain as opposed to a skimmer line or return line? If i is the main drain line leaking would I just plug it off and pull through the skimmers? I assume a leaking line is going to be a boatload of money to fix eh?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Well, I figure a leak elsewhere would be obvious - saturated ground, visible leaks, etc.

Any leak underground could be expensive. If it's the bottom drain you can plug it and just use the skimmers/returns for circulation. Not the ideal situation but maybe the only alternative. You have to be super-diligent with the FC levels if you lose the bottom drain for circulation.

 

[purple_duckk]

Would it be possible to plug the main drain, and each skimmer individually and run the pumps to figure out which input is leaking? Also how would I figure out if it's a return line. I was thinking the area between the pump equipment and one whole side of my pool is covered in concrete so if the ground was saturated there I would have no way of knowing. How bad is it to run the pool with a leak of this size? Other than the cost of water to refill it.

 

[purple_duckk]

After trolling through the forums I think I may have an answer. Since my pool is quite old and my light pots look just like the ones someone else losing water posted would the hole the wires comes through be big enough to lose that kind of water? If so is there an underwater sealant I could use around the lights? I don't plan on turning them on because when I removed one when I first pulled the cover off the light housing had water in it and they both just look really ragged and I don't really like being electrocuted. I want to put in new LED lights next season, but I just want to get swimming this one!

 

[purple_duckk]

This spring the pool was down about 20-24 inches below ground level when it was holding water. The only things above this are the skimmers and the return lines so I am imagining the leak has to be one of those places. Also I didn't notice the fast water loss until about 2-3 days after I filled the pool and turned on the filters. Here are the numbers and actions I have done to test where the leak is: Skimmers and main drain running from 11 PM to 7 am lose 3/4 of an inch or about 250 gallons Close the skimmers valve, run from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM on a very cloudy humid 70 degree day lose 2 inches or 660 gallons of water. Now I am going to turn off the pumps and plug the skimmers and wait 12 hours. Any suggestions/ideas for me?

 

[launboy]

I'd be concentrating more on the return side of things. USUALLY, a suction side leak won't lose water when the pump is running because the pipes are under negative pressure. Another sign of a suction side leak is bubbles in the pump strainer pot, do you have these?

Another thing to check, aside from the Light Niche, is in the main drain, you may have a hydrostatic relief (or Pop Off) valve that's leaking.

Good luck,
Adam

 

[Jennifer_in_Clyde]

I had a leak this year in my lighting conduit - the pool would only drop about 3 inches so I thought it was a waterline tile leak or maybe a skimmer issue - NEVER expected the lights since the water level was much higher than that. I got a leak detection company out for about $350 - they found my leak quite quickly and even fixed it for me! Given all the places your leak could be it might be worth calling one - I think American Leak Detection has offices all over the place and/or you might have a smaller co based in your area. For me it was money well spent (even if I didn't really want to spend it!)