Hi, I am a complete newbie to pools, never had one before in my life. Bought a foreclosure last summer and this summer have been trying to open an inground pool that has sat for at least 3 years. Luckily it had a Loop-Loc mesh safety cover, so there was little actual debris, just lots of algae, and nice dark green/black colored water. I replaced the non-working pressure gauge on filter.
I had been shocking it plenty, having samples tested at pool store, and adjusting ph, alkalinity, calcium, etc. as advised. I will be buying my own test kit as well, since I've read that is what's best. With running the pump 24hrs a day, brushing the sides & bottom, skimming, it was showing very little improvement (just a slightly different color, dark brownish). After reading many articles on here, and again at the advice of the pool store, it was determined that the sand must need changed in the filter.
So a couple days ago I tackled that one...scraped out 300 pounds of very smelly, greyish/black sand (more like sludge) and replaced it with fresh new sand. Now I've put it back together and running (and am shocking again), but I have a couple of questions: I put the V-clamp back on the filter exactly the way I took it off, and tightened it down, but when turned on there is a little water dribbling out from under it in a couple of spots. Does this mean I still don't have it tight enough? Or is there some sort of gasket/seal that I didn't notice that may need replaced? (forgive me, I am not the most mechanical person).
My other question is: How much movement should I be seeing in the water? Even before I changed the sand it seemed like I did not see much movement from the returns...right after I would turn it on to filter, or after backwash/rinse/filter I would see a jet of water out of each of the two returns. But then it would go away and the water seems to be almost still. Now that I've changed the sand it appears the same way. Is this normal, or does this indicate another problem?
Thank you in advance for any guidance you may offer!
I had been shocking it plenty, having samples tested at pool store, and adjusting ph, alkalinity, calcium, etc. as advised. I will be buying my own test kit as well, since I've read that is what's best. With running the pump 24hrs a day, brushing the sides & bottom, skimming, it was showing very little improvement (just a slightly different color, dark brownish). After reading many articles on here, and again at the advice of the pool store, it was determined that the sand must need changed in the filter.
So a couple days ago I tackled that one...scraped out 300 pounds of very smelly, greyish/black sand (more like sludge) and replaced it with fresh new sand. Now I've put it back together and running (and am shocking again), but I have a couple of questions: I put the V-clamp back on the filter exactly the way I took it off, and tightened it down, but when turned on there is a little water dribbling out from under it in a couple of spots. Does this mean I still don't have it tight enough? Or is there some sort of gasket/seal that I didn't notice that may need replaced? (forgive me, I am not the most mechanical person).
My other question is: How much movement should I be seeing in the water? Even before I changed the sand it seemed like I did not see much movement from the returns...right after I would turn it on to filter, or after backwash/rinse/filter I would see a jet of water out of each of the two returns. But then it would go away and the water seems to be almost still. Now that I've changed the sand it appears the same way. Is this normal, or does this indicate another problem?
Thank you in advance for any guidance you may offer!
