Save The Swamp! Er, pool...

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Yes,

Get the Cya to 30 and start a SLAM. As soon as you put the Cya into a sock and hang it in front of a return, or put the sock in the skimmer you are good to get with the first boost to SLAM level. Keep squeezing the sock from time to time until it all dissolves and assume it is there. No need to test for it unless you change out a whole lot of water. If you start with a good pH (7.3-7.5 for SLAM) you don't need to test for it either until you are done. The pH will be skewed by high FC, so it isn't a good number with FC over 10.0 anyway.
 
Off to a great start!

-Add CYA by:
putting what you have in a sock or two. Hang the sock over the side of the pool in front of the return. Give the sock several squeezes as often as you think of it. (Don't bother testing for CYA until a week later. It does not show up on the test right away.)

-FC-dose as if the CYA is already in the pool. Get it and keep it at SLAM level as much as possible.

Look at your filter-what does it say? You will need to backwash it when the pressure goes up 20% above the clean pressure.

Take a pic or two of you pool from the same spot so we all can watch it clear up!

Kim
 
Well, now I've got major problems. Put the stabilizer socks in, added 2 gallons of chlorine, and started to set up the vacuum. Had the hose completely full of water and the vacuum submerged and as soon as I hooked the vacuum to the skimmer the pump cavitated. Shut it down in less than 30 seconds so it shouldn't have damaged the pump. However, when I went to start it back up, the filter started spraying water out of the flange seal. Three times now I've pulled the filter head, cleaned the gasket and sealing surfaces, lubed with Vaseline (I know, but its all I've got and the pool stores are closed until Tuesday, and it looks like the gasket is going to need replaced anyway) and retorqued the clamp but its still leaking like a faucet. Why would it have caused the gasket to start leaking and how do I get this thing to seal until I can get a new gasket?
 
Thinking WAY outside the box but..........a bike innertube? Walmart plastic bags? Plastic shower curtain? I am just trying to think of anything that might at least slow down the leak.

I know I am really reaching but.............one of these might work. My poor husband has had to try some of my reaching ideas and a few of them ended up working long enough to get the right part.

Good luck!

Kim
 
Thank you ladies for the suggestions but hopefully I have it fixed temporarily. In spirit of pool owners persistence, I went back out and pulled the filter head again. Cleaned the gasket, sealed, and put it back on. Torqued the spring bolt down until the coils touched, smacked the clamp ring with a hammer a few times, and fired the pump back up. It had a small drizzle running out so I put a bucket under it and let it run. We went back to skimming and scrubbing. After about 15 minutes I went back down, smacked it with the hammer again and cranked the bolt down a bit more. Down to a couple drops this time. An hour later its down to about a drop or two every minute. I can handle that for a few days. Probably try the hammer, torque technique again later.

Now the next question, the vacuum we have appears to be the cheap HTH (Walmart special) unit. We manage to get it running without sucking air but after about 15 minutes of vacuuming it had lost all suction and the skimmer attachment floated off. The pump still had plenty of suction through the skimmer but it wasn't pulling anything through the vacuum no matter what we tried. Is there something wrong with the vacuum, vacuum hose, skimmer?
 
Went over to a friend's house for a bit. Came home and the pump sounded funny. Only up about 6psi but cavitating. Shut it off and bumped the filter, back down to initial precoat pressure. Tested again, FC down to 1.5 again and CC up to 2.5. Added three gallons this time. Hard to tell in the dark but the water looks much more cloudy but less green. A little concerned about leaving the pump running overnight with the filter short cycling like this though.
 

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Does your filter have a recirculate setting? I know some do and some don't. If you have a recirculate setting on your multiport you can turn to that setting and it will bypass the filter. That way you are still keeping everything moving properly but don't have to worry about anything building up overnight while you're sleeping.
 
DE filters usually don't have a recirculate. I know mine doesn't. The also clog a lot faster than any other filter because they are so good at filtering the water. They basically need babysat.
 
Well, I stayed up with the pool pretty late last night. The filter clogged again and was cavitating the pump around 3am so I just shut it down and went to bed figuring I can buy a whole lot more chlorine for what a new pump costs.

This is what it looked like right before the sun went down:




Then we woke up this morning to THIS!



ITS ACTUALLY SORTA BLUE!!! Water test at 9:30am showed FC of 2.5ppm and CC of 0.5ppm. Added two more gallons and went on a mission to get the pump and filter cleaned up and running. Went down to my shop and got the box of TSP I use for degreasing engine parts and stopped at Lowe's and got a couple gallons of MA and some silicone grease. Bumped and drained the filter, got a whole bunch of nasty, green tinted DE sludge out of it. Pulled the filter head and hosed everything down as best I could. Soaking the filter membranes in TSP now. Will probably do a 15-30min dilute MA bath before bolting everything back together. Hopefully this will get my pre-coat pressures down to a reasonable level and help with the short cycling. FC was still at 12.5ppm and CC at 0.5ppm at noon so I didn't add any more. Will test and add more if needed after the filter is up and running in a bit and start trying to vacuum again to get the rest of that algae off the bottom.
 
Added 2qts of chlorine around 3:30. Pump and filter are back up and running after the TSP and MA baths. Precoat pressure only dropped 2psi to 18psi starting but the pump sounds much happier now and the pressure isn't rising nearly as fast. We put a skimmer sock on the basket and all I can say is WOW. I had to shut the pump off and change the sock after less than an hour of run time because it was already BROWN! Put on a clean sock and running again. FC still at 12.5ppm and CC at <0.5ppm. Going to attempt to vacuum again after dinner.
 
I buy skim mor socks and change them at least once a day. I let them stack up and wash them once a week. Works great amd at the end of the season I toss them and start with new ones for the season. Using the socks is awesome I only backwash once every 6-8 weeks.
 
Well, we managed to vacuum as much as we could and scrub what we couldn't get/reach with the vacuum. Had to bump the filter 6-7 times during the vacuuming. Bumped and drained as soon as we were done vacuuming and the DE that came out was disgustingly greenish brown. Added new DE and got it running again. Water is super cloudy but looking much more blue than green.

Just went out to check the skimmer and the pump was down to 12psi or so. It had sucked the skimmer basket crooked in the skimmer and I actually broke the basket getting it out. The sock had about a 1/4" coating of nastiness on it. Luckily there was a spare basket in the bucket of parts left by the previous owners. New sock and bumped the filter. FC is at 12ppm and CC at 0.5ppm. Will check again in about an hour.

rdw1961 said:
Quick suggestion on the skimmer sock. I buy knee highs at Walmart for $0.33 a pair. They do a fine job and are cheap.
Click to expand...

I got a 5 pack for $5 from the local pool store only to hold CYA granules but I'm glad we started using them on the skimmer.

Chrissykr said:
I buy skim mor socks and change them at least once a day. I let them stack up and wash them once a week. Works great amd at the end of the season I toss them and start with new ones for the season. Using the socks is awesome I only backwash once every 6-8 weeks.
Click to expand...

Right now I'm changing them every hour. Just spraying them out with the hose to clean.
 

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