Drain and refill or?

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Tere said:
I had a similar problem in that my patio block supports where just not in the right place as we filled the pool. all the vertical posts were level to with in 1/2" off on 2 posts. It only had 4" water. The vertical post was at the very edge of the patio block so I dug around the patio block under my polystyrene foam too scooped out the dirt and mixed cement so it would be a sister patio block 6" thick, added heavy duty wire to reinforce the concrete. I made sure the top of new concrete was level with the patio block. Not sure if after the fact additions of cement are cool of not but I feel better knowing my vertical support has a sister cement spot to be next to it. My soil lol is clay never dug before and was under 6: deep xeriscape river rock. We are high mountain desert. There are actually water pillow people use to store water in that are very strong. It might be in the farming section. It's just like a huge water bladder. Great for temporary water storeage you can move when empty.
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Interesting! Thanks for the info! The soil here is very similar. Like you, I use term "soil" loosely. When you start digging into undisturbed stuff, it's more like old concrete than it is soil. I'm right at 5000 feet, so technically pretty similar to your locale. Some of my wife's family lives in Highlands Ranch, so we've spent quite a bit of time there and know the area well.

I bet you're fine with your little concrete patch. I don't know how different your pool is than my Intex, but on my Intex, there isn't that much weight on the legs themselves. The vast majority of the weight is on the bottom of the liner. I can just barely budge my legs, but it was very easy to lift it with a simple lever, so I'd guess they're in the 300 pounds per leg ballpark. I'm hoping spread out on my piece of 4x4, there's plenty of base there and the "soil" is very dense, so it shouldn't settle much. As of yesterday, there wasn't even an 1/8" difference between the top of the patio and the top of my 4x4 block.

Cheers,
SC
 
Well, the wife and kids made it back home. I got the Taylor kit yesterday so I thought I'd run a couple of tests before I let the kids in the pool.

- pH was right around 7.7.
- Cholorine test was a fail. Gave up getting it to turn from red back to blue. Need to try it again. I know I'm low.
- Calcium hardness test was a fail. The solution didn't turn cloudy. Maybe because it's so hard. The water is VERY hard here. I noticed there's an alternative procedure for high calcium hardness.
- Realized there was no salt test. That's separate - another $40. Oops. Not sure if I need to monitor it since the SWG is monitoring it, and I can test chlorine to see if the generation is working correctly.

The Intex SWG was saying "low salt" because I'd only added around 100 of the recommended 125.

The kids were excited to tryout the pool though, so I let them swim. I had to get in with them. Water temp is up to about 79, so it was still a tad chilly for my taste - especially when the ambient air temp was about the same. I'm a wuss - I don't like to be cold. But, it's come up about three degrees a day (from 68 to 80 in four days), so a couple more days of hot sun, and I'm hoping we'll be getting close to 90 were I'll like it more.

When we got out, I skimmed it with a net and poured the rest of the third bag of salt in for a total of 120. I'll grab another bag tonight and dump some more in to bring it up to 125 pounds total, then wait until tomorrow night and try doing some more tests.

Cheers,
SC
 
Finally!

SC

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What did you do about the foot slipping off the pad? Once you get it back on, lay a landscape timber on the ground along the edge of the pad, drill some holes vertically through it into the ground, then drive some 1/2" rebar through it a couple of feet into the ground to keep it from moving. This will form a lip at the edge of the pad to keep the feet from slipping off again.
 
ecrabb said:
- Cholorine test was a fail. Gave up getting it to turn from red back to blue. Need to try it again. I know I'm low.
- Calcium hardness test was a fail. The solution didn't turn cloudy. Maybe because it's so hard. The water is VERY hard here. I noticed there's an alternative procedure for high calcium hardness.

Cheers,
SC
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Check your test instructions again, make sure you are using the right reagents. Chlorine test (FC) isn't supposed to turn from red to blue, it is supposed to become clear, you count the number of drops it takes to make the sample clear and divide by two if you are using a 10ml sample (which you should be) Calcium test doesn't turn cloudy either, all the tests are color change tests except the CYA test which does turn cloudy but it is difficult to tell if it is cloudy without using the vial with the black dot in the bottom in bright sunlight with your back to the sun and looking down into the vial with it held at arms length.
 
jeffchap said:
What did you do about the foot slipping off the pad? Once you get it back on, lay a landscape timber on the ground along the edge of the pad, drill some holes vertically through it into the ground, then drive some 1/2" rebar through it a couple of feet into the ground to keep it from moving. This will form a lip at the edge of the pad to keep the feet from slipping off again.
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That's a great idea. I sort of gave up trying to get back on the pad. I figured it would just put more stress on the joints and on the liner to force the foot 2-3 inches back onto the pad. What I ended up doing was in this "There. I fixed it." post. ;)

Admittedly not the ideal solution, and not exactly how like to do stuff, but it appears to be working fine so far and I didn't have to dump 3,000 gallons of water. I'll check it again when I get home as the kids were going to swim again today while I'm at the office. I noticed the pool was a little more wobbly than I was expecting, but I suppose that wave energy has to go somewhere, and in this case, it pushes out on one side of the pool, which pulls the adjacent two "sides" in, which creates more wave motion. It was making me nervous, but I suppose I'll get over it once I feel more confident in how it's holding up.

BTW, I don't think I ever PM'd you back to thank you for the size info on your base, either. Thanks!

Cheers,
SC
 
Sand filter-use ONLY pool sand. Do NOT use play sand! We have another pool on here where the former owner used play sand and they are not able to clear the pool. It has been 6 week of trying! :(

Please look at these videos to make sure you are doing the right tests with the right stuff.

JimSwim.com FAS-DPD Testing with Taylor K-2006 - YouTube

Once your watch these please retest and make sure to take notes of how you test so we can make sure you are doing it right.

Kim
 
PridgNYC said:
Check your test instructions again, make sure you are using the right reagents. Chlorine test (FC) isn't supposed to turn from red to blue, it is supposed to become clear, you count the number of drops it takes to make the sample clear and divide by two if you are using a 10ml sample (which you should be) Calcium test doesn't turn cloudy either, all the tests are color change tests except the CYA test which does turn cloudy but it is difficult to tell if it is cloudy without using the vial with the black dot in the bottom in bright sunlight with your back to the sun and looking down into the vial with it held at arms length.
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I know I used the correct reagents for whatever test I was doing, so I think I just misdescribed whatever I was testing. I assume it was the Calcium test that was supposed to change from red to blue. It was CYA I was testing that was supposed to turn cloudy, I believe - which it did not.

It's funny... The kit manual goes into a lot of detail on the changes you make based on the testing, but unless I missed it, there isn't a whole lot of info in there (beyond what's printed on the lid) about the testing itself.

Cheers,
SC

- - - Updated - - -

kimkats said:
Sand filter-use ONLY pool sand. Do NOT use play sand! We have another pool on here where the former owner used play sand and they are not able to clear the pool. It has been 6 week of trying! :(
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That's why I asked. I wasn't going to do anything without asking. Using the cartridge filter for the time being. So, is a pool supply about the only place to get the correct sand?

kimkats said:
Please look at these videos to make sure you are doing the right tests with the right stuff.

JimSwim.com FAS-DPD Testing with Taylor K-2006 - YouTube

Once your watch these please retest and make sure to take notes of how you test so we can make sure you are doing it right.
Click to expand...
Will do. Thx!

SC
 

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Excellent. Thanks, you two! I looked at Home Depot, but didn't see it (but that certainly doesn't mean they didn't have it). I'll make a few phone calls before I drive all over tomorrow.

I suppose I should just rename the thread at some point, since it's from a problem thread into more of a newbie's thread on a problem to finalizing assembly, filling, and getting the water right.

Cheers,
SC
 
morzh said:
Quikrete 50 lb. Pool Filter Sand-115350 - The Home Depot

I do not think you can beat that, and you have time (has to be mail ordered).
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Hmm. When I look at your link, I can't see a price. When I try to "add to cart", I get a red error, "Item is not sold at your local store. Please choose an alternate pickup store." I tried several different zip codes and no dice. It also doesn't show up in a search; I can only get to it from the "recently viewed items" heading. I can't see any way to order it from Home Depot. Weird.

SC
 
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