Hi, I am new the forum and a new pool owner. I just bought a foreclosed house that has a pool on the property. From what the neighbors tell us, the house has been vacant for 3 years, so the pool has been left to it's devices for 3 years. When we bought it, it had a cover over it, but we suspect he cover was a recent addition. Here is what has happened so far:
-After removing the cover we tried to scoop out as much debris as possible. When we thought we had most of it out, we started working on getting the equipment up and running.
-Changed out the sand in the polaris filter (TA-60). Installed brand new Hayward variable speed pump. Found a clog in the jet line, so we by passed the return line by sending a pipe directly into the pool to return the water to the pool. Water started circulating.
-Started slamming the pool in combination with vacuuming. We got a leaf vacuum that works with the hose to get up more leaves from the bottom, so used that and also the manual vacuum to waste. Been doing that daily since July 15th.
-We got into the pool with goggles on to see what exactly was going on at the bottom of the pool since we couldn't see anything. Found even more debris that wasn't removed. Also found some stone pavers at the bottom of the pool (weird, right?). Removed everything from the bottom. As of this week, pool is 100% free of debris.
-Continued slamming it. Every evening we dump enough chlorine to raise the FC to shock level. Every morning we vacuum up the algae that settled. It's not looking better day by day like I imagine it should. Still green. Still can't see to the bottom of the deep end. Usually at night we shock it to 17ppm, when I wake up it's down to about 10ppm, by mid day it's down to 7ppm. Then we repeat the process.
-The really weird thing is that in the middle of this process there were 2 days when we weren't home because we went on a trip. When we returned from the trip the pool hadn't been vacuumed in 2 days and had just one jug of chlorine put in for us while we were gone...and it looked the best it's looked since we started this process. I thought that meant we were close to the end. Got the chlorine levels up to shock level again, and pool returned to it's ugly green swamp state. I am at a loss...
here are our test values as of this morning:
FC: 11.6
CC:0
pH: 7.5
TA: 110
Calcium: 30
CYA: I added some this week, but my test kit only goes as low as 30, and it is still showing below 30. I don't want to add more until I know what is in it is fully dissolved. Started out the process at 0. Right now somewhere between 0-30.
It's a liner pool that is about 25k gallons.
I am soooo confused and disheartened about the pool. Am I on the right track? Am I doing something completely wrong? Is it normal to take this long and see NO improvement??
-After removing the cover we tried to scoop out as much debris as possible. When we thought we had most of it out, we started working on getting the equipment up and running.
-Changed out the sand in the polaris filter (TA-60). Installed brand new Hayward variable speed pump. Found a clog in the jet line, so we by passed the return line by sending a pipe directly into the pool to return the water to the pool. Water started circulating.
-Started slamming the pool in combination with vacuuming. We got a leaf vacuum that works with the hose to get up more leaves from the bottom, so used that and also the manual vacuum to waste. Been doing that daily since July 15th.
-We got into the pool with goggles on to see what exactly was going on at the bottom of the pool since we couldn't see anything. Found even more debris that wasn't removed. Also found some stone pavers at the bottom of the pool (weird, right?). Removed everything from the bottom. As of this week, pool is 100% free of debris.
-Continued slamming it. Every evening we dump enough chlorine to raise the FC to shock level. Every morning we vacuum up the algae that settled. It's not looking better day by day like I imagine it should. Still green. Still can't see to the bottom of the deep end. Usually at night we shock it to 17ppm, when I wake up it's down to about 10ppm, by mid day it's down to 7ppm. Then we repeat the process.
-The really weird thing is that in the middle of this process there were 2 days when we weren't home because we went on a trip. When we returned from the trip the pool hadn't been vacuumed in 2 days and had just one jug of chlorine put in for us while we were gone...and it looked the best it's looked since we started this process. I thought that meant we were close to the end. Got the chlorine levels up to shock level again, and pool returned to it's ugly green swamp state. I am at a loss...
here are our test values as of this morning:
FC: 11.6
CC:0
pH: 7.5
TA: 110
Calcium: 30
CYA: I added some this week, but my test kit only goes as low as 30, and it is still showing below 30. I don't want to add more until I know what is in it is fully dissolved. Started out the process at 0. Right now somewhere between 0-30.
It's a liner pool that is about 25k gallons.
I am soooo confused and disheartened about the pool. Am I on the right track? Am I doing something completely wrong? Is it normal to take this long and see NO improvement??