Fiberstar rope lights broken

[akd]

Hi All, First off, thanks a ton for all the advice and suggestions being offered. Never owned a pool before and last year we bought a home which came with a pool. I was looking to get to know about the pool and stumbled upon this forum..and ever since I've learnt a lot and still learning..First thing I did, last year after enrolling was to ditch all of the di/tri chlor which the previous owner had bought and replaced them all with 12.5% hypochlorite and had a pristine pool all last year.

Unfortunately, I used the pool company to close the pool last year since I was still relatively new to pool ownership and wasn't home when they closed it and didn't get the chance to clear up all the dead leaves. Those guys just closed it in spite of all those leaves and I was hoping for the worst when I opened the pool last week. To my surprise, the water was almost clean despite the dead leaves and I waited no time to dump 4 gal of liquid chlorine and in less than 3 days, I've this.

My actual problem being that one of the suction skimmer has no flow at all though the other one seems to work fine and the filtration is going through that one skimmer. I believe the deep end drain is working fine too. I believe there is something stuck in the plumbing and I've ordered the Drain King declogger and will try flushing out the skimmer line once I receive it.

The real concern now being, the perimeter rope light (fiber optics) seems have been broken and I'm not sure if they any longer sell those. Any advice on how to remove that safely?

Thanks in advance.

 

[akd]

When the pool was opened for this season

 

[akd]

I could see the floor at the deep end in just 2 days. Last year it took me 2 weeks to clear the milky water. Partly because I didn’t discover TFP until later.

 

[akd]

Broken rope lights and the color wheel unit. It was at least a 20 yr old unit and hoping someone here might had a similar unit and knew how to remove it safely.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Are you sure that the fiber is broken? You can fix about any thing else that's wrong with them and they're pretty awesome lights when they're working. You can even buy the fiber, but it's pretty expensive.

Except for the light box, the fiberstars are all fiber optic cables. There is no electricity running through them. Once you remove power form the light box, you can remove the fiber any way you need to, as there's no danger of electrocution.

 

[akd]

Are you sure that the fiber is broken? You can fix about any thing else that's wrong with them and they're pretty awesome lights when they're working. You can even buy the fiber, but it's pretty expensive.

Except for the light box, the fiberstars are all fiber optic cables. There is no electricity running through them. Once you remove power form the light box, you can remove the fiber any way you need to, as there's no danger of electrocution.

Sorry about the delayed response. I did check and looks like the casing that covers the fibers bas been broken at multiple places. I did turn on the light box and felt that it was trying to run the color wheels but I didn't notice any lights or either in the fiber rope lights or on the spots located in the niche. Looks like I'm out of luck. Is there any proper way to terminate the rope after I remove it?

 

[MannyT]

If your Fiberstar is like mine it has a lamp on the inside. Your lamp might be burnt and you need to replace. I don't have a rope I just have it as a single pool light. I've had it for 14 years with very little use. The colorwheel is not working now and the remote. The colorwheel worked a couple of months a go.

 

[Bama Rambler]

If the fibers in the cable sheath aren't broken I think I'd check it out and see if I could get it working. If you want to check out the lamp you can remove the cover from the box and press the limit switch and see if it lights. Those lamps aren't too expensive if you wanted to see if you can get it working. However I understand if you don't want to fool with it.

If you decide to remove them, then what you do to the fiber cable after you remove the light ropes depends on where the terminal end is. If it's over dirt, just bury it in the soil. If it's on concrete then I'd cover it with epoxy just to keep someone from stubbing a toe on it.

 

[akd]

If the fibers in the cable sheath aren't broken I think I'd check it out and see if I could get it working. If you want to check out the lamp you can remove the cover from the box and press the limit switch and see if it lights. Those lamps aren't too expensive if you wanted to see if you can get it working. However I understand if you don't want to fool with it.

If you decide to remove them, then what you do to the fiber cable after you remove the light ropes depends on where the terminal end is. If it's over dirt, just bury it in the soil. If it's on concrete then I'd cover it with epoxy just to keep someone from stubbing a toe on it.

Thanks for the tips. I intend on poking with it over the weekend and keep posted on what I end up with.

 

[akd]

I had to get the water addressed and didn't have time to look into this. I believe the lamp must have been blown off since I can hear the color wheel spinning. I'm going to remove the box and check that out. Mean time, what are my options to bond the fiber optic side glow track to vinyl? The fiber optic cables are within a track and the track was tucked inside a wedge attached to the concrete. The piece that was wedged in is the one broken partly and I want to try to see if I can bond the track to vinyl liner with any luck. I bought a silicone clear adhesive/sealant from lowes. But want to get some confirmation before I test it out.

 

[Bama Rambler]

All you can do is try it, but the silicone should stick to the vinyl. I prefer Lexel as it'll stick to anything.

 

[akd]

Thanks. I’ll try it out and update with pics since I haven’t seen any videos or pics on it. It’s been busy with parties and rain lately that I haven’t been able to get to it.