Vacuum help

[Piper Mike]

Hi
I'm not sure if you are willing to help or not, but my pool only came with a vacuum that you hook the hose upto on one end and on the other is a mess sack. When all the dead algae has settled to the bottom. Every time I go in the pool now it stirs up and goes back to being green and cloudy until it settles again. So my question is how to I clean it up from the bottom?
Thanks
Mike

 

[Patrick_B]

You need to vac it up using the suction from your filter.

Unfortunately, you will keep having this issue until you get adequate Free Chlorine in the Pool and keep it adequate at all times.

Start with clicking on the ABC's in my Sig line and here> http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/155-guide-for-seasonal-temporary-pools

 

[Piper Mike]

But how do I get suction from filter? That's why I posted in the first place.

 

[DogsHouse_MyPool]

I would expect you can hook it up to your skimmer.

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so it would look like:
sweeper head->hose->leaf bag->skimmer->pump->filter or something to that effect.

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I have a leaf sweeper that hooks up to a water hose. Thats not what you have, is it? If so, it hooks up to a garden hose as a pressure side sweeper. In my case, I can hook it using either a water hose hooked to the house, or I can put a water hose fitting on my filter waste port and use pool water to pick up leaves.

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But that leaf vacuum has such a course mesh bag, it wont pick up algae, as it will pass right through the nylon bag. For that you would need a different type of vacuum setup.

 

[Piper Mike]

I have the intex 18 feet by 4 feet above ground pool. I only have an intake valve and an outtake valve. I do not have a skimmer.

 

[freetime]

I have the intex 18 feet by 4 feet above ground pool. I only have an intake valve and an outtake valve. I do not have a skimmer.

You can buy AG vac kits that include hoses and various adapters to connect directly to Intex side outlets - e.g. bestway 58234 or Skooba vac.

How big is your pump/filter? any less than 1000 GPH will struggle with a vac, also cartridges get blocked very quick - I ditched the tiny cartridge/pump that came with my pool for a sand filter so I could vac to waste, but it keeps the pool so much cleaner so I don't need to vac very often!

As per previous replies, do read pool school and sort out your chemistry too, I never had any algae in my pool thanks to TFP!

 

[Piper Mike]

Thanks Freetime. I have gone thru it. And my pool water was perfect all summer. What happened was that we had storms and strong rains all last week and I was unable to attend to the pool because of a family emergency. The bottom of the pool had a layer of leaves and when I went to vacuum with my garden hose vac on Saturday a green cloud came up from under the leaves and filled the pool in a greenish cloud. I finally was able to kill the algae and then yesterday it all settled to the bottom. I do just have the timer pump that came with the pool. It has worked just great for me. I changed the filter last night and stirred the pool up and have been running it none stop. Is starting to turn a bluish color but still cloudy. I don't know what else to do as my mesh on the vac won't pick up the settlement. It's nice that you were willing to give me advice. I was about to think I was going to have to ask a pool store guy as they would be a bit more helpful
Mike

 

[freetime]

No problem glad to help! I have learned so much from this site so it's nice to get a chance to give something back

If you are happy with your pump filter I would just look out one of the vac kits - they are not very expensive. Most of the AG pool set pumps seem to have about 4-6 hour turnover so with your 6500 gal pool chances are it does plenty GPM to run a vac.

Another free/quick option is to rig a temporary bottom drain - find a length of 2" plastic pipe, cut one end at a slight angle and lean the pipe at an angle to the bottom of the pool (ideally to the center of a round pool - cut the pipe to length) with the other (angled) end fitted loose over the suction outlet - be careful not to damage the liner - move the pipe around until the suction will hold the pipe in place, it doesn't need to be a perfect seal over the outlet. Then you can very, very gently sweep the pool floor towards the bottom end of the pipe, where the debris gets sucked in. It's tedious but it does work!

Or just keep stirring it up, and let the filter do its thing - will take a while but it will get there!

Cleaning the filter is a hassle but it shouldn't do any damage and if it's just a one off I guess its not too much work either