Hello, new around here, great reading so far. I inherited a troubled pool with the house we bought. I know now I have created some of my own problems but it seems to be getting better. Long story short, we bought a house with a pool last year. The liner was mostly in the bottom of the hole and was pretty nasty. We were going to put a liner in ourselves and the seller was going to give us 5k toward the pool repairs. Well, we used VA for financing and they wanted to see the pool operate so the seller put in the cheapest liner she could find, filled it and showed them it worked....then just left it. We moved in late summer and fought it all last year with algae. The filter cartridges were ancient and barely worked we had to clean them all the time and they needed replaced. By the end of the season we were still fighting algae and out of frustration and coming winter freeze we put the mesh cover on and left it. This spring due to unforseen circumstances we are just now opening the pool. Over the winter I ordered a new VS Pump motor but the supplier shipped the wrong one and I am waiting on the correct one at the moment. We ordered new filter cartridges, a SWG and replumbed everything at the pump pad and suction side. This pool has inground lines but nothing goes through the liner, all of the plumbing comes up out of the concrete and goes over the side into the water. The pool is really old and was built with a concrete bottom and concrete block walls. it is a 20x40 with a 3ft shallow end and 8ft deep end, one constant slope. The plumbing consists of a single buried 1.5 schedule 80 for suction and another for return. The return splits into two returns along the shallow end. The suction side is a pipe that reaches the bottom with a Tee on the end, and a no niche skimmer. I changed them this year and added 2, 3 way valves so that I can control the skimmer, "main drain" and vac port all seperately. These all junction together and go into one 1.5 buried suction line. Therefore, Max flow rate is around 45-50gpm with 10psi on the filter. All of the plumbing with the exception of the buried stuff is now 2in.
Now to the good stuff. Of course due to the poor closing last year and the delayed opening this year, the pool looked more like a shallow dark green pond and smelled like one too. It was full of leaves and debris, had lots of stuff growing in it and was a total mess. If I knew then what I know now, I would have just drained and refilled. Too late. We have made some mistakes along the way but we finally have it mostly blue, but very cloudy. Along with lots of scrubbing and fishing Crud out of it, we have dumped nearly 45lbs of cal hypo in to get to this point and never had any FC. I am quite certain we had ammonia in there but seem to be over that hump now. So last night I added 3 gal 12.5% Chlorine and checked after 10 minutes. Results with the TF-100 were:
FC 1.5
CC 0.5
CH 250
TA 120
CYA 0
PH 6.8
Temp ~75
I also added 4 lbs sodium carbonate to bring PH up and another 3 gal Cl to bring chlorine up to ~12FC.
This morning I had:
FC 6
CC 2
CH 250
TA 120
CYA 0
PH 7.2
Temp ~76
I brushed the sides and bottom, dumped in 6 more gal Cl and 4lbs Sodium Carbonate, retested in an hour or so. It was overcast all morning and the first test the pool was still in the shadow of the house.
FC 15
CC 0.5
CH 250
TA 170
CYA 0
PH 7.5
Temp ~77
Thinking I am over the ammonia issue now so added ~5 lbs CYA in a sock in the skimmer. After about 4 hours I checked again.
FC 8
CC 0.5
CH 250
TA 170
CYA still 0 but getting slightly cloudy in the test tube.
PH 7.2
Temp ~77
I think I am trying to raise CYA now to prep for a SLAM. Also began to aerate the water to help bring PH up due to adding CYA. Water is almost the correct color but is so cloudy we can't see the bottom, I suspect this is from all the Cal-Hypo and will eventually clear. Anyone have anything additional to add? Am I on the right track? I know that may be lots to digest.
THANK YOU to everyone on this forum as I have been reading for several days now and have learned so much!
I tried to add all the specs into my signature but it wouldn't let me, said something went wrong, maybe looked like spam.??? So here they are.
33k IG vinyl, 3/4 hp Super II pump, System 3 300 sqft cartridge filter, The Pool Cleaner 4wd. Soon to be VS pump and SWG.
Now to the good stuff. Of course due to the poor closing last year and the delayed opening this year, the pool looked more like a shallow dark green pond and smelled like one too. It was full of leaves and debris, had lots of stuff growing in it and was a total mess. If I knew then what I know now, I would have just drained and refilled. Too late. We have made some mistakes along the way but we finally have it mostly blue, but very cloudy. Along with lots of scrubbing and fishing Crud out of it, we have dumped nearly 45lbs of cal hypo in to get to this point and never had any FC. I am quite certain we had ammonia in there but seem to be over that hump now. So last night I added 3 gal 12.5% Chlorine and checked after 10 minutes. Results with the TF-100 were:
FC 1.5
CC 0.5
CH 250
TA 120
CYA 0
PH 6.8
Temp ~75
I also added 4 lbs sodium carbonate to bring PH up and another 3 gal Cl to bring chlorine up to ~12FC.
This morning I had:
FC 6
CC 2
CH 250
TA 120
CYA 0
PH 7.2
Temp ~76
I brushed the sides and bottom, dumped in 6 more gal Cl and 4lbs Sodium Carbonate, retested in an hour or so. It was overcast all morning and the first test the pool was still in the shadow of the house.
FC 15
CC 0.5
CH 250
TA 170
CYA 0
PH 7.5
Temp ~77
Thinking I am over the ammonia issue now so added ~5 lbs CYA in a sock in the skimmer. After about 4 hours I checked again.
FC 8
CC 0.5
CH 250
TA 170
CYA still 0 but getting slightly cloudy in the test tube.
PH 7.2
Temp ~77
I think I am trying to raise CYA now to prep for a SLAM. Also began to aerate the water to help bring PH up due to adding CYA. Water is almost the correct color but is so cloudy we can't see the bottom, I suspect this is from all the Cal-Hypo and will eventually clear. Anyone have anything additional to add? Am I on the right track? I know that may be lots to digest.
THANK YOU to everyone on this forum as I have been reading for several days now and have learned so much!
I tried to add all the specs into my signature but it wouldn't let me, said something went wrong, maybe looked like spam.??? So here they are.
33k IG vinyl, 3/4 hp Super II pump, System 3 300 sqft cartridge filter, The Pool Cleaner 4wd. Soon to be VS pump and SWG.
