Newbie Here

[bigblueho]

Hello All, I am a new member to the forum. Glad to be part of this awesome pool community. A little about me. My name is Robert. I have lived in Oregon all my life with no pool until now. I just recently moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and rented a house with a pool in April. First pool ever. I have learned a lot in the past 2 months but wanted to share my pool and experiences thus far.

Here she is in all her glory. Freshly Filled and Opened:


My problem when I came home from work to find the landscapers blew all the yard debris into my pool and turned it green:
Quickly cleared up with 2lbs of Shock


Everything was going well up until last week when I left it alone for a week and it turned Swampy on me:
This is after 3 Cups of Muriatic Acid and 2lbs of Shock


Pulled my filter to find out the consequences of my neglect:


After a good cleaning, we are good to go:


With Chlorine Good and PH Good I added 9 cap fulls of Pool First aid:


Here is the jankie pump and filter setup I cant comprehend:

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP!

 

[Butterfly]

Hi Robert and welcome to the forum

 

[BoDarville]

Welcome to TFP!

 

[joshs2000ss]

Welcome.

Read pool school, multiple times. Stop adding shock (we need to know what kind you are adding though) in case it contains CYA (aka: Cyanuric Acid, or Stabilizer). You could end up with bigger issues to deal with. Too much will lead to timely and sometimes costly water replacement. Most here manage chlorine levels in the pool with just liquid chlorine (bleach). You don't get all of the extra stuff in the water that you don't need.

If you don't have a good test kit, (t 100 is popular here) we all suggest you obtain one so you can know what the chemistry of your water is doing.

 

[bigblueho]

Welcome.

Read pool school, multiple times. Stop adding shock (we need to know what kind you are adding though) in case it contains CYA (aka: Cyanuric Acid, or Stabilizer). You could end up with bigger issues to deal with. Too much will lead to timely and sometimes costly water replacement. Most here manage chlorine levels in the pool with just liquid chlorine (bleach). You don't get all of the extra stuff in the water that you don't need.

If you don't have a good test kit, (t 100 is popular here) we all suggest you obtain one so you can know what the chemistry of your water is doing.

I have read pool school. Im sure I will have it memorized by the time im done with this rental property. I have used Power Powder Plus until I was told it was not good for fiberglass pools by my Leslie's. So this last time I used Chlorabrite. I planned to use Bleach from here on out. I learned that in pool school. Same with my Phosphates being at 300 and declining the purchase of PhosFree.

I have a test kit that came with the house. Its a Leslie's 4way. I believe the drops are old and need replaced.
Thats my next purchase. The Chemicals I now have on hand are Muratic Acid, Bleach, 3"Tbs, and Pool First Aid. We like how silky and soft it makes the water. Is it ok to use this weekly?

 

[bigblueho]

Also does my pump and filter setup look backwards?

 

[joshs2000ss]

Welcome.

I have a test kit that came with the house. Its a Leslie's 4way. I believe the drops are old and need replaced.
Thats my next purchase.

Don't buy the test strips, go ahead and get a good test kit. They aren't capable of measuring all of the things you need to know accurately, especially if you ever need to shock, which you might with the current state of your pool.

 

[joshs2000ss]

Also does my pump and filter setup look backwards?

The flow appears correct, although I will say that setup is quite interesting. If I were the one putting in a pool, I wouldn't have let an installer get away with that mess.

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP!

 

[bigblueho]

Also does my pump and filter setup look backwards?

The flow appears correct, although I will say that setup is quite interesting. If I were the one putting in a pool, I wouldn't have let an installer get away with that mess.

So what is my 3 way valve for if its at the end of the system vs begnning? Also in the position shown the skimmer works and returns work. Turned the other way my pool does nothing. Calm.

 

[joshs2000ss]

I'm not familiar with those valvet types, but I've seen several posts here concerning them. Can you get a wider shot of the equipment so we can see all of the pipes and valves?