- Feb 21, 2013
- 52
- Pool Size
- 27000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Turbo Cell (T-CELL-5)
We bought a house May 2012 with a pool. We've never been pool owners and the pool is over 40 years old...built sometime around late 60s, early 70s. The previous owner had a guy coming once a week to clean and do chemicals, but we didn't want to spend the extra money each month and since I wasn't working I was "volunteered" to take over maintenance. We've done "okay", but have had too many times of "oh, the pool's green again". We didn't "close" the pool this fall/winter, mainly because we didn't know how/were supposed to. It got clogged up with leaves and debris. I *think* a pool cover was left with the house (it was an estate sale, we didn't get much of any info on anything about anything on the house), but no idea the condition and we haven't gotten it out to check. Anyway...back to the point...we got to the point where the filter pressure was just way too high and we didn't have the time or cooperative weather to clean it out so we just turned it off. And the pool sat, uncovered, unfiltered, uncirculated for about a month. Needless to say it was brown and murky, and we actually had some wild ducks land in it thinking it was a pond.
So, this past weekend we started getting it cleaned back up. We took the filter apart and cleaned it all out. Got it all recharged with de and tried to start getting the chemicals back in balance. Got the ph lowered to about 7.2 and have been shocking the Crud out of it. Well, the very first day of running, the drain plug on the filter broke off! Apparently the pressure got too high?? Was able to get it fixed about a day or so later only to find that the pressure would shoot up about 20psi in only 30-45min of running. Not being able to sit outside and watch it continuously to keep backwashing and recharging every half hour, we just turned it to recirculate and have just been doing that for about 3 days now and still shocking about twice a day. Now, I will say the water has now turned from brown to bluish green and you just just barely make out the last step and shadows of debris on the bottom at the shallowest end. A huge improvement from where it was without running the filter.
Now, where do we go from here?? Will any additional days of shocking while just recirculating clear the pool anymore? Should we try to vacuum even if we can't see the bottom? We got some black algae killer, but it says to clean and vacuum the pool before using it? When is it safe to turn the filter back on without fear it'll explode the plug again if we don't watch it continuously? We don't know if the filter grids have ever been chemically cleaned, would it be a good idea to go ahead and do that?
All I've got is the basic little $15 test kit so I can't tell exactly what the chlorine level is...at least as bright as the 5 at the high end of the vile. The ph appears to be about in the 7.2 range. And the TA is roughly 60. I plan to head to Leslie's this afternoon to get a new test kit (again, the one we have came with the house and NO idea how old it is) so I'll probably go ahead and get the water tested to see what else is out of sync. I'll post results as soon as I'm back home.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! THANK YOU!
So, this past weekend we started getting it cleaned back up. We took the filter apart and cleaned it all out. Got it all recharged with de and tried to start getting the chemicals back in balance. Got the ph lowered to about 7.2 and have been shocking the Crud out of it. Well, the very first day of running, the drain plug on the filter broke off! Apparently the pressure got too high?? Was able to get it fixed about a day or so later only to find that the pressure would shoot up about 20psi in only 30-45min of running. Not being able to sit outside and watch it continuously to keep backwashing and recharging every half hour, we just turned it to recirculate and have just been doing that for about 3 days now and still shocking about twice a day. Now, I will say the water has now turned from brown to bluish green and you just just barely make out the last step and shadows of debris on the bottom at the shallowest end. A huge improvement from where it was without running the filter.
Now, where do we go from here?? Will any additional days of shocking while just recirculating clear the pool anymore? Should we try to vacuum even if we can't see the bottom? We got some black algae killer, but it says to clean and vacuum the pool before using it? When is it safe to turn the filter back on without fear it'll explode the plug again if we don't watch it continuously? We don't know if the filter grids have ever been chemically cleaned, would it be a good idea to go ahead and do that?
All I've got is the basic little $15 test kit so I can't tell exactly what the chlorine level is...at least as bright as the 5 at the high end of the vile. The ph appears to be about in the 7.2 range. And the TA is roughly 60. I plan to head to Leslie's this afternoon to get a new test kit (again, the one we have came with the house and NO idea how old it is) so I'll probably go ahead and get the water tested to see what else is out of sync. I'll post results as soon as I'm back home.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! THANK YOU!