Foreclosure With Neglected Pool, Please Help!

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Just a little update. We are on day 7 of our slam. Making wonderful progress! Each day clearer and clearer. We are starting to see down into the deep end, though it's still quite cloudy. Filter is running 24/7, we've been vacuuming with the robot multiple times per day, brushing daily, and of course keeping chlorine at 12 as much as possible. We've been able to be pretty consistent with it. I've also been using the leaf rake whenever I have time. There is still some very fine dirt/silt on the bottom which we can see clearer everyday. Would it be more effective to get that out by vacuuming to waste manually?

Here is a pic so you can see how much better it is looking. My son's birthday is next Saturday so I'm really hoping it's swim ready by then!

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WOW!

You have STEPS!! oh that is awesome! keep up the great work.

Yes, you could vac to waste or you could use a hair net as I do once I have all the big junk out, I put a hair net into my skimmer basket and vacuum away. Works really great for me.
 
When you brush, brush every thing down to one spot in the deep end. Then you can hit it with the vacuum in waste and won't lose very much water. I see your robot going though, if it's just fine stuff left it might get it all. Sometimes I'll brush little stuff into a pile and ... convince :) my robot to hit that spot.

Looking good, good job.
 
funandsun said:
WOW!

You have STEPS!! oh that is awesome! keep up the great work.

Yes, you could vac to waste or you could use a hair net as I do once I have all the big junk out, I put a hair net into my skimmer basket and vacuum away. Works really great for me.
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Ok so you don't vacuum to waste just normally but catch the stuff in the skimmer basket with a hair net? We haven't used our manual vac at all yet so just making sure I understand. Thanks!

I might even just let the robot do its thing until my brother in law needs it back, we can probably use it for another week or two. It's still picking up a lot of the fine stuff I guess I'm just seeing more of it in the pool since the water is clearing.

I'm in awe of the transformation of this pool. Thank you all so much, not just for help on my thread but just the wealth of information available here. I know I would have just blindly followed pool store advice had I not found this forum.
 
Yes, once my pool is down to the fine stuff, I use hair nets or common referred to as Skimmer Socks... but hairnets are cheaper and work just a well. They are so fine they catch all the dirt. I run a hairnet all season long again once I am past all the big junk.

Shameless plug but you will get a nice Badge of Honor for Supporting TFP like me and many others.

Once I got my swamp cleaned up, I couldn't help but chip in towards the light bill around here. ;o)
 
I'm including a pic of our water this morning, it's looking great. We can finally see to the bottom of the deep end! Still seeing some fine dirt on the bottom that's gathering mostly along the edges. So far we have just been letting the robot vacuum go but we may do a manual vacuum with hairnet in skimmer in the next few days as time allows.

I also have a few questions, if the filter cartridges reach the pressure level of needing to be cleaned, is it ok to run it for a few more hours until my husband comes home at lunch to open it up for me? Or should I turn it off right away. I noticed the pressure was up some this morning. We haven't had to clean the cartidges yet because the pressure never really went up. We discovered last night that somehow it was set up that not all the water was actually running through the filter. We changed it and started seeing the pressure rise right away but not by much. I'm sorry if this isn't making sense, I still don't know much about the filter.

My other question, once we can see the bottom clearly is it safe to swim even if the slam isn't quite done? We've had some very hot days and my kids are begging. I said absolutely not if the bottom can't clearly be seen in the deep end but we are starting to be able to see now. Just not sure when it would be safe to let them get in.
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aimee457 said:
I also have a few questions, if the filter cartridges reach the pressure level of needing to be cleaned, is it ok to run it for a few more hours until my husband comes home at lunch to open it up for me? Or should I turn it off right away.
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You can leave it running, it's not going to hurt anything. It just won't be moving as much water as it would otherwise, thereby not filtering as well.
 
aimee457 said:
if the filter cartridges reach the pressure level of needing to be cleaned, is it ok to run it for a few more hours until my husband comes home at lunch to open it up for me?
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yes, that is fine.


aimee457 said:
My other question, once we can see the bottom clearly is it safe to swim even if the slam isn't quite done? We've had some very hot days and my kids are begging. I said absolutely not if the bottom can't clearly be seen in the deep end but we are starting to be able to see now. Just not sure when it would be safe to let them get in.
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It is safe to swim at SLAM levels, seeing the bottom is a safety issue more than anything else. I say, Let them swim!

Congrats! It's looking great!
 

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I know I have a way to go on my slam, since the deep end is still cloudy. I feel like I'm using a ton of bleach. What can I expect once slam is complete as far as how much bleach I'll be using? If I'm going through a ton should I increase my cya to 40, will that make my chlorine last a little longer? Just trying to get a feel for what I'm looking at once I have it under control.
 
I’ve seen some around here targeting CYA at 50. You could go to 40, then see how that does for you. Better to do in stages so you don’t get it too high inadvertently.
 
Definitely increase your CYA to 40 or even 50 if you have hot summers. I run mine at 50 and lose 1-3 PPM daily depending on how hot it is. If you run it at 30, you will be getting very close to your daily minimum FC by the end of each day (if not going below). Bumping it to 40 or 50 will slow down the burn off from the sun and give you a little wiggle room in case you miss dosing one day. I can usually skip a day here and there because my FC will stay well above minimum, so it gives me a little piece of mind.
 
aimee457 said:
I know I have a way to go on my slam, since the deep end is still cloudy. I feel like I'm using a ton of bleach. What can I expect once slam is complete as far as how much bleach I'll be using? If I'm going through a ton should I increase my cya to 40, will that make my chlorine last a little longer? Just trying to get a feel for what I'm looking at once I have it under control.
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Great questions and yes, using bleach will certainly feel like you are using a lot when you look at all those empties on trash day.

Each pool and location is a bit different, how much direct sunlight does your pool get. On average it is said that a pool will lose 2-4ppm a day with no use. That can vary again based on location and sunlight exposure.

I add 2-3ppm of chlorine every other day during normal operations. I also use 12.5% Chlorine, so about 1 quart every other day is pretty normal for me based on last years records.

For me 1/2 gallon adds 5ppm to my pool. Your pool is a bit larger than mine, so your actuals will vary.
 
aimee457 said:
So should I go ahead and increase now or wait for my slam to be complete?
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I would remain on the SLAM you are on now. You won't be able to really get a feel for your pool until it is clean and free. If you increase your CYA you will have to increase your chlorine, you will still lose chlorine to the algae. So not really a win win.

Feel free to post pics daily and believe me, someone will point anything suspicious out and recommend increasing CYA IF they think it will help.
 

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