Foreclosed House - Green Swamp

[Zorph]

I bought a foreclosed house that had a neglected in ground pool for at least 2 seasons.

What we have done so far:

Removed 3 wheel barrel full of leaf, frogs, etc... from the bottom of the pool.
2 days ago we got the pump and filter going.
Added 14 ounces of dichlor that we already had and one pound of cya
Over the course of 3 days have added 6 gallons of 12.5% bleach
It only takes 15-30 minutes for the psi on the filter to increase by 8, so we are doing tons of backwashing. Also I am not able to keep the filter going over night, since it builds up to much. The color of the pool has changed dramatically and a ton less leafs are showing up.
Still can't see into the pool but when pulling a sample it looks clear instead of green.

Current numbers:

FC 20 Had this up to 26 yesterday and it dropped to 16 in 14 hours.
CYA 25
PH 7.5

How long before will it take for the filter to last 8 hours? Changing it every 15-30 minutes cleaning the baskets, catching leafs and scrubbing the pool is a full time job Thanks for any help.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Usually sand filters don't have that problem, so either the filter is very small or your pool is much dirtier than most. If the filter is quite small relative to the pool you may need to keep close watch over it for a while yet.

 

[Zorph]

This last time it made it 45 minutes so hopefully it will start to increase.

I am using a 180T Hayward with 150 lbs of sand. I have a small pool at 6700 gallons, I would think it is large enough. Thanks for your help, we were going to empty the pool before going to this site.

6700 Gallon IG Vinyl (I believe) Pool using a sand filter with a 1hp pump

 

[fordfampool]

Hi Zorph!

I don't have any good technical advice for you, but wanted to tell you we were almost in the EXACT same position. It was a mud pit for three years, foreclosed home, holes in the liner, and now at least it resembles a pool. Ha!

Hang in there!! We almost had it filled in but thankfully we've kept going and it gets better.

Good Luck!!
-Sarah

 

[fordfampool]

Hey Zorph,

Do you have an option on your sand filter multiport to vacuum to waste? We did that for a while in order to get the bottom gunk out without having to watch the filter so closely. What is your "normal" filter pressure reading, and then you are backwashing at 8 pounds plus from that normal reading, correct?

Do you have a manual vacuum? If not, it is a fairly cheap investment.

-Mike

 

[Isaac-1]

This is one of those things where it takes as long as it takes, just hang in there and keep the bleach going.

Ike