My first post here, because I'm at my wit's end with this pool.
I have a 16' x 32' inground pool, 3ft at the shallow end, 8ft at the deep end. It is part of the house I bought last year, and it has been a nightmare. We started looking at the house in the June of 2012. At that point, the pool had not been opened yet, since the occupant was moving out in July, but they agreed to have the pool opened as part of the closing costs. Well, the sale took forever, and did not complete until February 2013, so the pool was never opened in 2012. We tried opening it in 2013 with a professional pool guy, but after removing the cover, found that the electrical wasn't working at all. It took me a few months to get the electric repaired, so it was never opened in 2013 either. Also, the cover had fallen into the pool over the winter before purchase due to a falling branch... so there was effectively no cover.
Now, 2014 I have the time and money to get this thing going. When we first started, it was a complete swamp. Frogs loved it. Deep dark green, no more than an inch of visibility. We've found tons of problems here. Much of the plumbing needed to be replaced, as it was cracked or poorly sealed. Fixed that. The flex pipe from the main drain was not even connected to the pvc pipe underground, so we dug that up and fixed that. The drain still does not work, as we haven't been able to bust the clog yet. I need to get down to the drain cover, but visibility is impossible.
Today, I found a vacuum head at the bottom of the pool. Definitely has been there since before I bought the place. At this point, I'm pretty sure the pool was not running in 2011 either, which means the previous owners lied. Too late now.
I've been working with professionals, but we're not getting anywhere. Color has dramatically improved, but is just not good enough. I have a 200lb sand filter that is roughly 30 years old (by their estimate) that I believe should have the sand replaced, but my guys disagree. I feel like it is doing nothing for the clarity, but it gets jammed up multiple times per day and needs a backwash.
Clarity is really the problem. I can get the color to improve, but I can't gain any clarity. Yesterday, my guys threw some Poly 60 into the pool and a couple handfuls of "lump alum" into the skimmer basket. Once again, color improved, but clarity has not. We had previously tried over-chlorinating to kill the algae, but it has had little effect. There was copper in the pool, but a quart of Conquest last week took care of that. Levels were really good a few days ago, but the high chlorine count is lowering my pH. It's about a 6.9-7.0 now. Debris is nearly gone, but not perfect. It's hard to find what is hiding in the pool since I can't see anything. I've been raking the pool 3-4 times per day for a couple weeks now and still find surprises - like that vacuum head.
Here is a picture of the pool to help. There is some floating debris in this photo, but I was just brushing the surfaces and hadn't skimmed the water yet.
At this point, I'm close to giving up on this and just pack it up again. I've been trying for about a month now to get it nice. While the water feels nice, and the surfaces are not slimy, I still don't want to have to explain to people that the water is just discolored.
I have a 16' x 32' inground pool, 3ft at the shallow end, 8ft at the deep end. It is part of the house I bought last year, and it has been a nightmare. We started looking at the house in the June of 2012. At that point, the pool had not been opened yet, since the occupant was moving out in July, but they agreed to have the pool opened as part of the closing costs. Well, the sale took forever, and did not complete until February 2013, so the pool was never opened in 2012. We tried opening it in 2013 with a professional pool guy, but after removing the cover, found that the electrical wasn't working at all. It took me a few months to get the electric repaired, so it was never opened in 2013 either. Also, the cover had fallen into the pool over the winter before purchase due to a falling branch... so there was effectively no cover.
Now, 2014 I have the time and money to get this thing going. When we first started, it was a complete swamp. Frogs loved it. Deep dark green, no more than an inch of visibility. We've found tons of problems here. Much of the plumbing needed to be replaced, as it was cracked or poorly sealed. Fixed that. The flex pipe from the main drain was not even connected to the pvc pipe underground, so we dug that up and fixed that. The drain still does not work, as we haven't been able to bust the clog yet. I need to get down to the drain cover, but visibility is impossible.
Today, I found a vacuum head at the bottom of the pool. Definitely has been there since before I bought the place. At this point, I'm pretty sure the pool was not running in 2011 either, which means the previous owners lied. Too late now.
I've been working with professionals, but we're not getting anywhere. Color has dramatically improved, but is just not good enough. I have a 200lb sand filter that is roughly 30 years old (by their estimate) that I believe should have the sand replaced, but my guys disagree. I feel like it is doing nothing for the clarity, but it gets jammed up multiple times per day and needs a backwash.
Clarity is really the problem. I can get the color to improve, but I can't gain any clarity. Yesterday, my guys threw some Poly 60 into the pool and a couple handfuls of "lump alum" into the skimmer basket. Once again, color improved, but clarity has not. We had previously tried over-chlorinating to kill the algae, but it has had little effect. There was copper in the pool, but a quart of Conquest last week took care of that. Levels were really good a few days ago, but the high chlorine count is lowering my pH. It's about a 6.9-7.0 now. Debris is nearly gone, but not perfect. It's hard to find what is hiding in the pool since I can't see anything. I've been raking the pool 3-4 times per day for a couple weeks now and still find surprises - like that vacuum head.
Here is a picture of the pool to help. There is some floating debris in this photo, but I was just brushing the surfaces and hadn't skimmed the water yet.
At this point, I'm close to giving up on this and just pack it up again. I've been trying for about a month now to get it nice. While the water feels nice, and the surfaces are not slimy, I still don't want to have to explain to people that the water is just discolored.