Sadly, no updates to report. It seems like every time I think I will have enough time to work on the pool, something more urgent comes up that needs my attention. I have no clue when I am going to be able to work on it now. May is a pretty busy month at both of my jobs. Draining and refilling is looking like a better option every day. I'll keep everyone updated once I actually have the time to work on the pool.
Dark Green Pool
- Thread starter primaeq
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Sadly, no updates to report. It seems like every time I think I will have enough time to work on the pool, something more urgent comes up that needs my attention. I have no clue when I am going to be able to work on it now. May is a pretty busy month at both of my jobs. Draining and refilling is looking like a better option every day. I'll keep everyone updated once I actually have the time to work on the pool.Just an update. Started draining the pool last night. I got it down about half way (while scrubbing the walls). Stopped at around half, that way I can continue draining and scrubbing tomorrow. I don't want it to be completely empty for too long in fear of the wind collapsing it. Hopefully all goes well and I can get it clean and start refilling it tomorrow afternoon. I'll post some pictures when I get home in the morning. I haven't figured out how I'm going to get the last few inches that will be left after draining. I'm just syphoning it out, so I imagine I'll have about 3 or 4 inches left in the bottom that won't syphon out. Maybe a shop vac? I also recall Richard320 suggesting to not completely drain to keep from wrinkling the bottom. If I should leave the last four or so inches in, how should I go about getting (what I assume will be) the thick green sludge out but still keep water weight on the floor to keep from wrinkling?
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If you have a manual vacuum, you can try setting it up as the base of the siphon and vacuum the sludge off the bottom and away from the pool. You will need a lower spot to rest the discharge end of the hose, somewhere lower than the bottom of the pool.
I went out and bought all of the stuff for a manual vacuum, but I don't think it will hook up to the "stock" skimmer that is on the Intex pool. From what I've seen on the forums, I would need to convert the skimmer to an in-wall skimmer to be able to use a manual vacuum (other than the supplied venturi vacuum that I think was thrown away because it didn't work). I will try just using a shop vac and limit the amount of time the pool is empty.
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I use a manual vacuum with my intex pool. I remove the hose that connects inlet to skimmer (inside of pool) and stick my vacuum hose right in the inlet hole. I have the big blue hose they sell in walmart and a pole and vacuum head from lowes. The suction holds the hose in the inlet. (Make sure you get the hose full of water before you let it suck onto the inlet. While vacuuming the skimmer just sits there with the hose dangling in the pool. When I'm done I get the vacuum hose back out and stick the inlet to skimmer hose back in...(I was pretty ghetto so I didn't even have a fitting on the inside for the skimmer hose because I got sick of unscrewing it. It was just sucked up into the hole too )
*edit*
For what Richard is suggesting you don't need to be able to attach to the skimmer or pump in any way. You just siphon the water out through the vacuum/hose connection.
I have done this too. It is sort of the equivalent of vacuum to waste. Attach vacuum head to pole, attach hose to vacuum head. Throw whole hose in pool to fill with water, stick your hand over the end of the hose to keep water in and quickly pull up and over side of the pool to the ground. Siphon action will pull the water from the hose and u can vacuum while pulling water straight from the bottom.
I usually had to have someone helping to hold the hose where it was over the side of the pool because gravity wanted to just pull the whole hose out of the pool (weight of the water makes it heavy).
It works really well and doesn't pull quite as fast as I imagine vacuuming to waste would.
)*edit*
For what Richard is suggesting you don't need to be able to attach to the skimmer or pump in any way. You just siphon the water out through the vacuum/hose connection.
I have done this too. It is sort of the equivalent of vacuum to waste. Attach vacuum head to pole, attach hose to vacuum head. Throw whole hose in pool to fill with water, stick your hand over the end of the hose to keep water in and quickly pull up and over side of the pool to the ground. Siphon action will pull the water from the hose and u can vacuum while pulling water straight from the bottom.
I usually had to have someone helping to hold the hose where it was over the side of the pool because gravity wanted to just pull the whole hose out of the pool (weight of the water makes it heavy).
It works really well and doesn't pull quite as fast as I imagine vacuuming to waste would.
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I had to work 24 hours on Saturday, so I was planning on coming home Sunday morning and getting straight to work. Apparently my parents and girlfriend had worked on the pool all day on Saturday (I think they're ready to go swimming). This is what I came home to.
Wow, they did a lot of work. They actually went out and bought a submersible pump to use (they plan on using it later in the year to transfer water around to and from rain barrels). They said that the whole time it was draining, they scrubbed the walls and "stirred" it so that the pump would get as much sludge out as possible. So Sunday we worked on the rest. Got all of the water and sludge out of there. We decided to go ahead and completely empty the pool because there were a few low spots, the side furthest away from the return and skimmer was about 2 to 3 inches lower than the side of the skimmer, so we added some sand and did a quick re-level of the pool.
After we got it all clean and ready to start refilling, we found some troubling spots.
These spots are in a 4 square foot area or so. I'm assuming this was caused by the previous owner just dumping in chemicals? I'm not sure, but my assumption is, that the only way to fix such a large area, would be to buy a new pool liner. Any ideas there? Should I be concerned at this point? It's on the bottom, so there shouldn't be too much stress on this area. You can sort of see the area in question in the next photo.
Anyways, the pool is all clean and refilling as we speak. I'm refilling from the well and have the water just barely turned on, so it's just above a trickle of water. Slow enough that I don't have to worry about running the well dry.
Thanks again to everyone that has gotten me this far. Can't wait to get it full (probably about a week or so, filling at this rate) and get all the levels right!
Wow, they did a lot of work. They actually went out and bought a submersible pump to use (they plan on using it later in the year to transfer water around to and from rain barrels). They said that the whole time it was draining, they scrubbed the walls and "stirred" it so that the pump would get as much sludge out as possible. So Sunday we worked on the rest. Got all of the water and sludge out of there. We decided to go ahead and completely empty the pool because there were a few low spots, the side furthest away from the return and skimmer was about 2 to 3 inches lower than the side of the skimmer, so we added some sand and did a quick re-level of the pool.
After we got it all clean and ready to start refilling, we found some troubling spots.
These spots are in a 4 square foot area or so. I'm assuming this was caused by the previous owner just dumping in chemicals? I'm not sure, but my assumption is, that the only way to fix such a large area, would be to buy a new pool liner. Any ideas there? Should I be concerned at this point? It's on the bottom, so there shouldn't be too much stress on this area. You can sort of see the area in question in the next photo.
Anyways, the pool is all clean and refilling as we speak. I'm refilling from the well and have the water just barely turned on, so it's just above a trickle of water. Slow enough that I don't have to worry about running the well dry.
Thanks again to everyone that has gotten me this far. Can't wait to get it full (probably about a week or so, filling at this rate) and get all the levels right!
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