What to fix first?

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UPDATE:

I Sawed a pipe and took the top off. THERE IS SAND!! It is 12" from the top of the filter hole that sits in middle. I took garden hose to it 45minutes ago and it is still running dirty. I have gently stuck straight down and it went easily. I have scraped hose tip down sides and it was harder to get through, felt like hard sand but I have loosened it up. I stick my hand in and stir the sand around and all sorts of yuck comes out.

Do I do this until it runs clear? Will it ever run clear? Probably never done in 25 years. Should I just get new sand?
 
Seems to run clear when left in one spot unless I stir it up so after 70 minutes I think most yuck is settled on top. Going to attempt to put back together and backwash. No lubricant on hand so using coconut oil. lol. Here goes nothing.
 
Good grief! Every time I fix something it leads to something else!

I tried to fix small leak where pipe meets pump. We replaced the cleaning line lever hoping to get more suction now being able to turn that off.

Now I have LESS suction all around, barely enough to circulate! Water is also leaking from underneath pool pump. Lots of tiny air bubbles, not sure where it's sucking that from.

Help! I'm thinking in the end $2000 to have pool people get all this going might be my only choice. I am so frustrated. Why won't this thing work? It keeps getting worse than better!

I would post pics but it says exceeded quota and I can't find where to manage photos (my 1.5 year old computer crashed too so I'm doing this on a 4 yr old phone.) see why I can't be bothered with pool issues?! Ugh!
 
wowens said:
The difference in the above pictures is actually 12 bags of 1lb shock and two 1liter bottles of black algae killer (w/second 6 bags) 1bottle algicide (w/first 6 bags)

A new cheap gauge was screwed on. It goes to 9-10 on filter, zero on off and back to 9 on recirculate.

Added 1gal bleach, 4lbs stabilizer and 16lbs baking soda last night. Will test later today. Hoping to shop for unions.
Click to expand...
the reason I said your spider gasket might be bad. 9-10 filter on, that is OK. but when in recirculate mode it should be re-directed
straight back to the pool by-passing the filter altogether...."no reading of pressure." are you sure it is recirculate?
or is it set to rinse....rinse would give you the "9 reading." but it dumps to the back wash line not the pool.
hope that helps.

wowens said:
After 4lbs stabilizer and 16lb baking soda:
TA 100 (made water clear, not red, not green)
pH 7.3
Chlorine almost 1
CYA less than 20

Now what? remember pump not working properly. Hoping for big boost of self confidence tomorrow to saw some pipes. If all goes wrong, I could be without circulation all together.

I just added one gallon of bleach. Not really understanding SLAM yet with not being able to vacuum and FC and CC and all the testing and math.
Click to expand...
I had hoped you might have gotten back to reading your original forum postings rather than
starting a new one with out redirecting other where you are posting. I gave you some suggestions what to do and what to look out for.

as for your filter, if you are sure you have your filter director set to the filter mode.
are you getting any pressure like the 10 at the filter gage, and if you put your hand in front of
any out let jet you feel good pressure there check all jets you have. good pressure there, then lets go on.


it sounded like you were doing fine until the pipe cut. leaks can be repaired, a good PVC plumber might be of help
if you know anyone.

now to the other problem, since you did not go back to your other forum postings.

you added 4 pounds of ACID cya stablizer. this alone just took you from a stable balanced pool to the panic mode.
adding 4 lbs wow! if it was liquid or crystal makes a difference to what can happen.

crystals, well it eats up your chlorine fast. this is the why I recommended you put it in just
one pound at a time. it takes CYA a week or more to totally dissolve.
during that time it will change your PH and TA some times fast. I might have recommended going to your local pool
shop or wallys world has them AQUACHEK Yellow Swimming Pool Spa Chlorine 4 in 1 Test Strips Aquacheck 50pk - Walmart.com
use these to check your water several times a day to be sure there is some kind of chlorine,
PH is close and TA holds. adding the acid you did might change things in a hurry. you need to stay on top of it.

now that your pool has been back flushed and a reading of 10 PSi you should not have to back flush again until
your pressure goes above 20 PSI....do it at 21 PSI in other words.


I said panic mode. let me explain the more CYA you add the MORE CHLORINE YOU NEED TO SHOCK YOUR POOL.
OH! that is the why when you missed my post in the other forum...cautioned you of this. the reason why I said just one pound.
CYA amount large number costs a lot for enough chlorine to shock a pool.
a very low amount or no CYA just a few bottles of chlorine is enough. my pool at my just bought house a year
earlier had a CYA of about 300 or there abouts. chlorine cost me abundle, nearing $300 plus as CYA kept
eating the FC up as fast as I could put it in.


your signature does not say exactly how many gallons your pool is. the bottom of the pool calculator page is a
compute method for you. since it might be some what clear now. do you know the depth at each end or is
it just a 4' 6" lap pool. or does it have a deep end near 10 feet. the difference is almost 9000 gallons.
flat sides or is it like mine. I have slanted side at the deep end and about a 8' X 12' bottom,
mine is 1/2 and 1/2 24,400 "3 1/2' X 9' deep end" if you do not have the near exact gallons you might
put too much chemical in. 19,000 or 29,000 gallons. it helps me and others know what your situation is.
 

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find a picture of your filter control valve cover so you know exactly what position you are in with your valve.
you pictures leave a lot to be desired. you might see one on utube.
at times I see them advertised as there are replacements on flea bay. you just need a picture so you know
the difference between rinse and recirculate. mine is so old I can read it but I have to use high power magnifiers.
it will assist you. replacement part is usually plastic and just glued on to the cover.
Amazon.com : Hayward SPX0710G - SP710 Series Multiport Backwash Valve Label Plate : Swimming Pool And Spa Parts And Accessories : Patio, Lawn Garden as a example.

if you are reading 10 lbs at the filter. it may not look good but put your hand in the water and if you have
good pressure. lets just assume your pump good, and filter is pumping back to the pool.
we go on from there.

do not add more algicide.

get your chlorine up. just guessing (before you added the CYA) it might take about 1 jug of clorox a day.
I would add two until the CYA you added absorbs it all. use the test strips I recommended. if you see the level
drop add another jug. my guess is until the CYA is fully mixed in you may add a dozen extra jugs over the one a day.


PS a PVC plumber might be able to repair your leaks for a few hundred at most including the parts needed.
it might let you get to the pool mater at hand and save you a few $1K+.

I would not even think of changing the sand, that is possibly 400 lbs you would have to dig out by hand.
the lowest level is usually 100 lbs of pebbles, is your arm that long?
I would first, want to see if the water is circulating out the jets.
 
Last edited:
Welcome to TFP!

Here is a nice tutorial about Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter

If your filter is clogging quickly and often then you probably have algae in the pool and need to SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

If you don't have one, get one of the Recommended Test Kits, I use the TF100 from tftestkits.net.

Here are some of my fave Pool School articles in case you missed any of them.
TFPC for Beginners
ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry

Here are the Recommended Levels for your pool.
Here is the Water Balance for a saltwater pool.
Here are the Recommended Pool Chemicals and how to add them.
Use PoolMath to figure out how much to add.
 
First off my 1.5 yr old computer blew up so I'm doing this from my 3 yr old phone that isn't working well. My last thread was on a green pool and every time I do something with the pool, something else goes wrong so I started this thread making the other obsolete.

I had great circulation but NO suction to vacuum. Can't get a clear pool without that! So after cleaning sand that took an hour to run clean and replacing the broken lever that cuts off cleaner line I get ZERO circulation. No pressure. Lots of air. New steady leak underneath pump motor that in fact leaks slowly even when turned off. I have reached out to everyone in my area that might help. Pump motors get too technical. Pool people coming Thurs. Depending on price I may or may not have fixed. There is speculation that air is getting in line from under ground. That will be too costly to fix.

Meanwhile. Algae grows. As for CYA which was zero, it was my understanding per forum and friend that I had to have SOME but low in order to keep some chlorine in pool.

I do not know exact depth so been guessing 7' or 8'. Slanted sides. Around 24,300 gal.
 
first. is the pump primed? set your filter valve to recirculate. open your pump basket and with a garden hose fill it
until the water goes backwards. quickly close the pump cover and turn the pump on.
then see if there is circulation in your pool....anything coming out the jets or return line. a hand in the pool will tell.
let it run for several minutes until most of the air clears the filter basket.
 
eaamon said:
crystals, well it eats up your chlorine fast. this is the why I recommended you put it in just
one pound at a time. it takes CYA a week or more to totally dissolve.
during that time it will change your PH and TA some times fast. I might have recommended going to your local pool
shop or wallys world has them AQUACHEK Yellow Swimming Pool Spa Chlorine 4 in 1 Test Strips Aquacheck 50pk - Walmart.com
use these to check your water several times a day to be sure there is some kind of chlorine,
PH is close and TA holds. adding the acid you did might change things in a hurry. you need to stay on top of it.

now that your pool has been back flushed and a reading of 10 PSi you should not have to back flush again until
your pressure goes above 20 PSI....do it at 21 PSI in other words.


I said panic mode. let me explain the more CYA you add the MORE CHLORINE YOU NEED TO SHOCK YOUR POOL.
OH! that is the why when you missed my post in the other forum...cautioned you of this. the reason why I said just one pound.
CYA amount large number costs a lot for enough chlorine to shock a pool.
a very low amount or no CYA just a few bottles of chlorine is enough. my pool at my just bought house a year
earlier had a CYA of about 300 or there abouts. chlorine cost me abundle, nearing $300 plus as CYA kept
eating the FC up as fast as I could put it in.
Click to expand...
A few comments that I will leave in this thread so as to not confuse the wovens. If eaamon would like to discuss any of this, then please do so in your own thread that I created with the rest of your posts.

- CYA does not "eat up" chlorine whether it is crystals or not. And adding CYA should actually result in a lower FC loss due to the sun.

- TFP recommends backwashing when the pressure rises 20-25% over the clean pressure. Waiting for a 10psi rise is old advice and waiting much too long

- TFP does not recommend the use of test strips as they are just not accurate.
 
wowens said:
Good grief! Every time I fix something it leads to something else!

I tried to fix small leak where pipe meets pump. We replaced the cleaning line lever hoping to get more suction now being able to turn that off.

Now I have LESS suction all around, barely enough to circulate! Water is also leaking from underneath pool pump. Lots of tiny air bubbles, not sure where it's sucking that from.

Help! I'm thinking in the end $2000 to have pool people get all this going might be my only choice. I am so frustrated. Why won't this thing work? It keeps getting worse than better!

I would post pics but it says exceeded quota and I can't find where to manage photos (my 1.5 year old computer crashed too so I'm doing this on a 4 yr old phone.) see why I can't be bothered with pool issues?! Ugh!
Click to expand...
We've all been through what you're going through at some point. It's very frustrating, but calm down and stick with it. I can't tell you how many times I've fixed something just to have something else fail.

Seeing tiny bubbles in the pump basket is why you have less suction. You may have disturbed an old o-ring when you tried to fix the leak and that's where the air leak is.

Remember, this is not an emergency. If you have to take a day off from it to calm down a little, it's not the end of the world.

Once you've calmed down a little just go back out there and start looking for where the air is leaking into the pump. Having to redo PVC a couple of times is no big deal.

People have written a lot of stuff above, but don't let that overwhelm you. Lets tackle one problem at a time and we'll work through your issues before long and you'll be having a truly trouble free pool.

Post back once you're ready to start and we'll help you through it.
 
Bama Rambler said:
We've all been through what you're going through at some point. It's very frustrating, but calm down and stick with it. I can't tell you how many times I've fixed something just to have something else fail.

Seeing tiny bubbles in the pump basket is why you have less suction. You may have disturbed an old o-ring when you tried to fix the leak and that's where the air leak is.

Remember, this is not an emergency. If you have to take a day off from it to calm down a little, it's not the end of the world.

Once you've calmed down a little just go back out there and start looking for where the air is leaking into the pump. Having to redo PVC a couple of times is no big deal.

People have written a lot of stuff above, but don't let that overwhelm you. Lets tackle one problem at a time and we'll work through your issues before long and you'll be having a truly trouble free pool.

Post back once you're ready to start and we'll help you through it.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the calm patience. I had to break from it as pool guy couldn't come for a week and it doesn't work anyway. I was thinking the vibration from sawing pipes caused the pump seal to move/break. Messing with the motor is more than I can manage so in having to call in the pool guy. I hope he is truthful and nice and doesn't take his time fixing since it's by the hour. The other small places can be fixed with plumbers tape. Beyond that, it has to be underground and that's where we call it quits. Thanks all. Will update after tomorrow's pool guy visit.
 

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