Hello TFP,
My girlfriend and I have been in our home for a year and a half. Our pool was in VERY bad shape when we moved in and having never had a pool before we decided to hire a “professional†to get our pool into swimming condition. About halfway through the summer we realized he was a scammer and not doing us any good for the money we were paying him. Subsequently we fired him and finished out the summer on our own, doing pretty well utilizing the knowledge found at the local pool supply store. However while these guys were nice and more helpful, they still didn’t seem to be able to help us with everything we were looking for. So we decided this year we would just take in on ourselves with me doing the learning and manual labor.
I waited too long to get going and the pool is now a cesspool (I tried to attach picture but I can't get them small enough). I have spent the last couple of days reviewing everything I can find in this forum and feel confident that I am ready to take on my pool. Tonight as the sun was setting (so as to lose as little chlorine to the sun as possible) I began to bring the pool to shock level (20 ppm). I only had the Walmart test kit on hand so went to Lowe’s and bought some strips that at least had a CYA test. My CYA test came back in the 30 to 50 range so I let it rip on the Chlorine. I had already bought a bunch of dichlor at Sam’s when it was off season to save some cash so I am going to use that up first.
My testing capabilities only allow me to test my TC up to 10 ppm, so I have to do a little guessing but I am trying to guess on the liberal side. I put in the initial dose and tested and added more the times over the next four hours. I scrubbed the entire pool surface and skimmed as best I could. I will be getting up early to test it before work, leaving the pump on overnight.
Now I have a couple of questions.
One of our fall backs last year was our sweep never seemed to be doing anything and got stuck on the steps all the time. I am reading in here that many pressure sweepers require a booster pump. With my pump and filter is that what I am looking at? I have noticed however that if I take all of the flow from the two returns and send all the flow through the sweeper it has plenty (maybe too much) power.
Our main drain does not seem to function. I purchased a Drain King and utilized the Jandy Valve to figure out which run was Skimmer and which was Main drain. Obvious flow through skimmer. Nothing through main drain. Any suggestions? Thoughts?
Thanks ahead of time for the help. I’ll continue to post pictures as the pool progresses.
My girlfriend and I have been in our home for a year and a half. Our pool was in VERY bad shape when we moved in and having never had a pool before we decided to hire a “professional†to get our pool into swimming condition. About halfway through the summer we realized he was a scammer and not doing us any good for the money we were paying him. Subsequently we fired him and finished out the summer on our own, doing pretty well utilizing the knowledge found at the local pool supply store. However while these guys were nice and more helpful, they still didn’t seem to be able to help us with everything we were looking for. So we decided this year we would just take in on ourselves with me doing the learning and manual labor.
I waited too long to get going and the pool is now a cesspool (I tried to attach picture but I can't get them small enough). I have spent the last couple of days reviewing everything I can find in this forum and feel confident that I am ready to take on my pool. Tonight as the sun was setting (so as to lose as little chlorine to the sun as possible) I began to bring the pool to shock level (20 ppm). I only had the Walmart test kit on hand so went to Lowe’s and bought some strips that at least had a CYA test. My CYA test came back in the 30 to 50 range so I let it rip on the Chlorine. I had already bought a bunch of dichlor at Sam’s when it was off season to save some cash so I am going to use that up first.
My testing capabilities only allow me to test my TC up to 10 ppm, so I have to do a little guessing but I am trying to guess on the liberal side. I put in the initial dose and tested and added more the times over the next four hours. I scrubbed the entire pool surface and skimmed as best I could. I will be getting up early to test it before work, leaving the pump on overnight.
Now I have a couple of questions.
One of our fall backs last year was our sweep never seemed to be doing anything and got stuck on the steps all the time. I am reading in here that many pressure sweepers require a booster pump. With my pump and filter is that what I am looking at? I have noticed however that if I take all of the flow from the two returns and send all the flow through the sweeper it has plenty (maybe too much) power.
Our main drain does not seem to function. I purchased a Drain King and utilized the Jandy Valve to figure out which run was Skimmer and which was Main drain. Obvious flow through skimmer. Nothing through main drain. Any suggestions? Thoughts?
Thanks ahead of time for the help. I’ll continue to post pictures as the pool progresses.