Converting swamp to pool (pics included)
- Thread starter ntshclr
- Start date
mynewpool said:
That kit is the TF100 XL which comes with larger reagents for CYA and the FAS-DPD tests.
Thanks for the replies again, and sorry for the delay. Was busy with work for a few days and the weather has been cold and cloudy so that didn't exactly make me want to go out and scoop leaves.
Today I finished getting most of the leaves off the cover, and I pulled it off. Turns out there's just as many leaves on the floor of the pool than there was on the cover.
I have a hose going to get the water level up and soon I'm going out to turn on the pump. I still have to open up the filter and clean it out.
When I asked about DE at the pool store the guy tried to sell me a cleaner to soak the filter grid in. Should I get that or is hosing it down good enough?
I can't wait to start shocking. I have 20 bottles of bleach waiting in my kitchen. Hopefully in the next couple of days.
Today I finished getting most of the leaves off the cover, and I pulled it off. Turns out there's just as many leaves on the floor of the pool than there was on the cover.
I have a hose going to get the water level up and soon I'm going out to turn on the pump. I still have to open up the filter and clean it out. When I asked about DE at the pool store the guy tried to sell me a cleaner to soak the filter grid in. Should I get that or is hosing it down good enough?
I can't wait to start shocking. I have 20 bottles of bleach waiting in my kitchen. Hopefully in the next couple of days.
I don't know what he tried to sell you, but it was almost certainly extremely overpriced! If your grids need cleaning beyond hosing them down, the DE filter folks can help you get exactly what you need for probably much less money.
Can't wait to see the change once you start shocking!
Can't wait to see the change once you start shocking!
Thanks, got it soaking now.frustratedpoolmom said:
I got the pool cover off and it's just sitting off to the side. I still have to rinse it off and let it dry before I can put it away. The leaves you see around the fence are what I've been scooping out of the pool still.
Close-up of the water without the pool cover:
A little frog hanging out inside the skimmer:
Dirty filter:
Filter soaking in dish detergent:
I'm a little concerned about the water level in the pool. It's been constant but yesterday I was adding water from the hose and got it up to about 2 inches inside the skimmer and today it's about 4 inches lower than it was last night. I was playing around with the filter and pump yesterday so I figured I left something open and some water leaked out overnight, but the area by the pump and the backwash hose was pretty dry so I don't know where it would have gone. Any ideas what happened?
Another thing is the handle that you lift up to backwash filter, I can't get it down into the locked position. I try to push it down and lock it but it just won't go. I opened up the piping a little and I couldn't find any obstruction so I have no idea why I can't get it into the locked position. Obviously this is a problem because running the pump without it locked makes water spew out of the handle and some leaks into the backwash line.
I'm off to the pool store to buy some DE and muriatic acid.
Close-up of the water without the pool cover:
A little frog hanging out inside the skimmer:
Dirty filter:
Filter soaking in dish detergent:
I'm a little concerned about the water level in the pool. It's been constant but yesterday I was adding water from the hose and got it up to about 2 inches inside the skimmer and today it's about 4 inches lower than it was last night. I was playing around with the filter and pump yesterday so I figured I left something open and some water leaked out overnight, but the area by the pump and the backwash hose was pretty dry so I don't know where it would have gone. Any ideas what happened?
Another thing is the handle that you lift up to backwash filter, I can't get it down into the locked position. I try to push it down and lock it but it just won't go. I opened up the piping a little and I couldn't find any obstruction so I have no idea why I can't get it into the locked position. Obviously this is a problem because running the pump without it locked makes water spew out of the handle and some leaks into the backwash line.
I'm off to the pool store to buy some DE and muriatic acid.
Back from the pool store. We figured out that the water loss over night was probably due to a leak we found yesterday. We have a Janty energy filter hooked up on the discharge side of the pump. The o-ring for this filter was missing so water was leaking out. We have a new o-ring ordered so hopefully that was the problem. The good thing is that we can just close off a valve and there shouldn't be any more water going through there.
We also asked the guy about the backwash valve not locking and he said that if we open it up and lubricate the o-rings in there that should fix it.
I asked how much their liquid chlorine was compared to supermarket bleach. He started telling me that the supermarket bleach wasn't as good because it puts extra stuff in your water that's bad (he named specific things, I just don't remember them) and we should always use the pool store liquid or tablets. He seems very knowledgeable so I guess he's just told to say that to sell the store's products? Pool school on here says the liquid chlorine and bleach are identical aside from the concentration and that the tablets are bad because they keep on increasing your CYA.
Anyways, I'm off to clean filters/scoop leaves and whatever else needs to be done.
We also asked the guy about the backwash valve not locking and he said that if we open it up and lubricate the o-rings in there that should fix it.
I asked how much their liquid chlorine was compared to supermarket bleach. He started telling me that the supermarket bleach wasn't as good because it puts extra stuff in your water that's bad (he named specific things, I just don't remember them) and we should always use the pool store liquid or tablets. He seems very knowledgeable so I guess he's just told to say that to sell the store's products? Pool school on here says the liquid chlorine and bleach are identical aside from the concentration and that the tablets are bad because they keep on increasing your CYA.
Anyways, I'm off to clean filters/scoop leaves and whatever else needs to be done.
He seems knowledgable but that statement is false with regard to "original" or "unscented" varieties of bleach. The active ingredient is Sodium Hypochlorate, in both Pool Store shock and regular clorox/generic versions - you don't want "scented" varieties or "outdoor" etc. just regular bleach.
I find my pool store's $2.99 per 128 oz of 12.5% to be a better price than the Wal-mart brand at 182 oz for $2.54 so sometimes the pool store is good for somethings....
Glad you figured out the leak.
I find my pool store's $2.99 per 128 oz of 12.5% to be a better price than the Wal-mart brand at 182 oz for $2.54 so sometimes the pool store is good for somethings....
Glad you figured out the leak.
Their price ended up being the about the same compared to Walmart. Since they're a lot closer and the bleach will be half the volume it's a no-brainer for me to get it from them. Too bad I didn't check on that before going to Walmart.frustratedpoolmom said:He seems knowledgable but that statement is false with regard to "original" or "unscented" varieties of bleach. The active ingredient is Sodium Hypochlorate, in both Pool Store shock and regular clorox/generic versions - you don't want "scented" varieties or "outdoor" etc. just regular bleach.
I find my pool store's $2.99 per 128 oz of 12.5% to be a better price than the Wal-mart brand at 182 oz for $2.54 so sometimes the pool store is good for somethings....
Glad you figured out the leak.
We have the pump and filter running now. I'm a little worried about the psi though. I did a full chemical cleaning of the filter grid and when I put it back in the filter was running at about 15 psi. Now it runs at 18 psi right after a backwash, and in less than 2 hours it's up to 30, the maximum for my filter. Shouldn't it be lower than 18 after backwashing? Pool store guy it should run between 8-15 psi normally. And shouldn't the backwashing have to be done way less than every 2 hours? Or is this normal considering how filthy the water is?
And one more question, there's still a decent amount of leaves in the pool, can I start shocking or should I wait until I get most of them out?
And one more question, there's still a decent amount of leaves in the pool, can I start shocking or should I wait until I get most of them out?
Get the leaves out and go ahead and start adding the bleach.
I have read on the forum DE filters can be a pain when trying to clear up a swamp, so this is probably normal considering your water situation.
You did add the DE back after cleaning the grids, right? did you do both the TSP and the acid diluted bath?
Do you have a "recirculate" on your filter valve? If you can have a way to bypass the filter and circulate while you begin to kill the algae...
I have read on the forum DE filters can be a pain when trying to clear up a swamp, so this is probably normal considering your water situation.
You did add the DE back after cleaning the grids, right? did you do both the TSP and the acid diluted bath?
Do you have a "recirculate" on your filter valve? If you can have a way to bypass the filter and circulate while you begin to kill the algae...
OK call me crazy but I have a question as I have a friend with a similar pool in a similar shape.
Would it not save a huge amount of time to use a good sump pump and pump most of that fetid water out? Maybe 2/3 of the water at least?
Would it not save a huge amount of time to use a good sump pump and pump most of that fetid water out? Maybe 2/3 of the water at least?
Not crazy, certainly an option.
With Vinyl, I wouldn't go down more than 1/3 at a time to be safe. ntshclr, is this the original vinyl?
One must also consider their water table; the refill from what water source? a well may introduce metals and put a strain on the well....
sure, worth considering. Would speed up the process of clearing it, absolutely.
With Vinyl, I wouldn't go down more than 1/3 at a time to be safe. ntshclr, is this the original vinyl?
One must also consider their water table; the refill from what water source? a well may introduce metals and put a strain on the well....
sure, worth considering. Would speed up the process of clearing it, absolutely.
Well, we just picked up this little gem.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=93819
and used a 20% coupon that brought the price to $42 out the door.
Used it to pump out the water in my gunite shell, approx 2000 gallons of rain water, couldn't believe the pressure this thing was generating, the water was just gushing out of the 24 foot 1.5 inch hose we used.
Not bad for a low price sump pump, exceeded our expectations by far.
We plan to use it on my neighbors swamp this weekend, we are going to put it on a plastic bench approx 1 foot from the bottom of his pool, and pump out the majority of the fetid water. Refill comes from the local municpal water supply, fairly low on metals and mostly natural soft water.
Should be interesting.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=93819
and used a 20% coupon that brought the price to $42 out the door.
Used it to pump out the water in my gunite shell, approx 2000 gallons of rain water, couldn't believe the pressure this thing was generating, the water was just gushing out of the 24 foot 1.5 inch hose we used.
Not bad for a low price sump pump, exceeded our expectations by far.
We plan to use it on my neighbors swamp this weekend, we are going to put it on a plastic bench approx 1 foot from the bottom of his pool, and pump out the majority of the fetid water. Refill comes from the local municpal water supply, fairly low on metals and mostly natural soft water.
Should be interesting.
frustratedpoolmom said:
Yes, I added DE after cleaning the grids and after each backwash. And yes to the bath, except I used dish detergent instead of TSP.
No, it only locks down into place to use normally, or you unlock it and lift it up for the backwash. No other rinse or circulate positions. What I can do is take the filter grid out and run it like that?frustratedpoolmom said: