Help. First time pool owner in Nassau County, NY.

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I joined photobucket and I tried to upload a photo and sense it here but it didn't work. I uploaded it to this website. The pool looks lighter green in color but it is sunny today.
I turned the pump back on this morning, with the valve almost at the 9: position. The skimmers are working with the drain almost off.
The pressure gauge is now reading 17 PSI, the lowest since I installed the new gauge 2 weeks ago. All the returns are appear to be moving water at a higher rate.
Is this due to turning off the pump for about 14 hours or because the drain is almost off?
The FC has been holding during the SLAM ever since I started testing with the k2006. I test once per day and the FC is holding up well, always above shock level.
I will hold off on renting the trash pump and concentrate on the filter deep cleaning. I will do vacuum to waste with the valve turned to the skimmers and cover one of the skimmers
I had socks on the deep return and one of the shallow ones but there was no sand. I do see sand coming out of the pipe when I Backwash and vacuum to waste.
Suction from the skimmers were not working when the valve is at 9: position..and the drain off. I turned the the valve slightly and the suction returned. The drain is almost off but not completely. Is this normal?
 
Did one hour of vacuum to waste with valve turned towards skimmers only and drain off. Lots of debris or silt was picked up. Stopped vacuuming as the water level was about to drop below the skimmers. Is it right to stop here?
Are Weir skimmer doors needed?
 
Hi George....I just had a pool installed and turned to this website for information. I had some initial problems and found it pretty frustrating. I turned to this site and asked all sorts of questions...regarding the green color, the filter pressure, the pump air bubbles, the test results, the returns, etc. And, the wonderful people on this site who commented on my questions provided a ton of assistance.

Somewhere along the way, I found this thread and have been following your situation and reading the posts daily. To be clear, I didn't have any specific issue that came anywhere close to what you are dealing with on your pool. As such, I'm not in a position to provide any useful advice and can probably barely understand what you are feeling each day in going through this process.

Regardless, just to provide a little encouragement....I admire your continuing effort (through the back problems!)...people are reading the posts, pulling for you and hoping the pool clears up soon. Hang in there.
 
Thank you for the kind words Pool Novice2 and Thank you all for pulling for me. My back is feeling better every day. Hopefully I'll be 100% in a week or two. In the process of deep cleaning filter. There was only 1/4 sand and it was filthy. In the store buying new sand. The water was brown. Will get back soon.
 
George D said:
Thank you for the kind words Pool Novice2 and Thank you all for pulling for me. My back is feeling better every day. Hopefully I'll be 100% in a week or two. In the process of deep cleaning filter. There was only 1/4 sand and it was filthy. In the store buying new sand. The water was brown. Will get back soon.
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[emoji1] Great news! I'd expect that only 1/4 sand in the filter is a major contributor to the problem of poor filtration. Seeing as you have the filter open, and have very little sand in there anyway, it might be a good idea to do a visual check of the standpipe and laterals before refilling. You're basically 50% into that process anyway.
 
After a few calls to several pool stores, a worker from Leslie's Pools looked into their database and found one of their stores that carried 2 of the same laterals that I needed. Part #44362. I drive about it 1/2 an hour and I'm back home ready to set up the filter. Luckily my neighbor who has become a good friend, came with me to purchase the new sand. He lifted all 7 bags put them in the trunk and unloaded them.
Funny thing is, he brought some of his tools around 3 weeks ago to cut the pipes and check the status of the filter but I was advised not to do that yet.
With the filter running 24/7 with 2 cracked laterals for over 3 weeks, there must be lots of sand in the pool. That may be one reason why the filter was only about 1/4 full when we opened it.
He told me once the filter is up and running with the new sand and laterals, to add clarifier. I think it's too early for that.
Will update after filter is installed.
 
Hi Pool Amateur. Yes, I had to cut the pipe. It's all good and working. Psi is reading between 21-22. After my friend added the new sand I filled filter with the water hose a bit above the top of the sand. The brand name of the sand is Lighthouse. Is this quality pool sand?
I brushed the pool after adding 4 gallons of 12.5% chlorine.
The test results are in.
FC-13
CC'1.
The returns are working and it appears that the worst is behind me.
 
Fantastic, I hope the worst is behind you, but be ready for a few more bumps before this all over, but as you can see, good education lets you make a good plan. But you still have to deal with that green water, if it were blue I would say OK, filtration was the big problem but green is usually algae and sometimes other water problems but Swampwoman is great when dealing with these.

By the way did you put screwable unions back in, in case you want to remove valve in future?
 

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Awesome, George. For me that explains a lot.

I'm glad you ended up checking the laterals after all...even though I'd back-pedaled from actually going that far ;) As guides, we're encouraged to try to keep things simple and to make sure someone's following slam correctly before we go deeper into diagnostics, which can be distracting and at times fruitless, but I realize in this case I'd have served you better by trusting my intuition and having been more declarative about the laterals, so its a good lesson for me ;)

I can't wait to see that water clear. Floating is an awesome hobby for those with back issues, as I can attest. I have facet joint syndrome but it literally never acts up now that I have the pool ;)
 
Good morning George,
I realize no one answered your question:

The brand name of the sand is Lighthouse. Is this quality pool sand?
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I do not know anything about "Lighthouse" brand, but as long as it is "Pool Sand" it should be good.

Now that it is back together, what is the pump pressure when you started up, that should be your clean pump pressure? Still 17 PSI? Expect it to rise rather quickly now that it is filtering and backwash when 20-25% increase above clean. Getting the organics out, speeds process. Can also keep vacuuming as before. Hopefully once all organics out, Will turn blue.

Still may be a good idea to call the pool pro to go over the system with you. How to take heater online/offline, how to work heater, check out that return line valve as something does not seem quite right there.

Best of luck, keep us informed, we love pics.
 
Pool Amateur. ..no screwable unions. Will make sure to do that next year during the deep cleaning. I purchased the Lighthouse sand from a pool store so it should be good. Yes, I will call back that pool pro for a detailed lesson on the systems. The PSI is now at 21-22. The pressure from the returns were running slow late last night, so I checked the pump basket first. It was clear so I Backwashed and Rinsed for the first time with the new sand. They were working well after this.
Can you advise on how to use photobucket? I joined but was unable to send photos.

Swampwoman..at this point do you still recommend using a trash pump or should I hold off. I read a some of your suggestions in a thread from 2 years ago, that if one goes that route to use "the sheet method" by ductaping a bunch of visqueen. Is this something I should consider?
Should I keep the valve with the drain almost off at all times or only during vacuuming?
Thanks on the floating tip. I'll definitely do it.
Does having 2 cracked laterals and running the pump and filter 24/7 for over 3 weeks, send sand back into the pool? If yes, how do I get rid of a bunch of sand at the bottom of the pool?

Thanks, Ashton. I've come too far to stop now, especially since my kids are patiently waiting.

Got a little situation with my neighbor friend who's been helping me. He is insisting that I add Green Out to the pool to kill the remaining algae quickly and to keep the pump/filter working only at night. He does not believe that liquid chlorine will do the job. For the first time I can see the bottom (4h) step I'm the shallow end and the filter just started working properly last night.
I refuse to listen to him unless Swampwoman advises that it's alright to add Green Out.
 
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Hi George. Please don't use green-to-clean (green out) as your neighbor suggests. Just politely tell him that the method youre using is incompatible with it ...if he REALLY presses, tell him it has ammonia with sulphates, which can be tricky when you're already addressing a swamp.

Here's the part thats incompatible...its possible your test kit will give you false cc readings if you use it, making it difficult to tell if you've passed our SLAM Process criteria during an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test. Remember that "civilians" and even some pool techs don't read or use real test kits like we TFPers do ;) So if you were to use it, the rest of us would be kinda helpless to tell you where you're at, if that makes sense.

And just so you know, that product can be very hit or miss for people and isn't designed for those who choose the "know what's in your pool, know what you're putting in your pool" set ;)

Regarding the sand...I'm hopeful and very optimistic you'll get the top layers clear enough to confirm either drifts of sand or other matter that might be obstructive. Once the water clears a bit we should also get a sense of color change in a few days, provided you've keep your FC a bit above slam the whole time.

Once were at that point, we could better evaluate whether a few very slow vac session would be successful, or whether a trash pump would be more helpful.

The sheet method is generally for people with a high water table who want to do almost a complete water change. Its sometime preferable if there's serious gunk on the bottom, because it keeps the top water clean.

I've never done it, but there are two posters who have. i'll go find a link to one of them so you can read and think about if you'd rather do that. Smartjack might weigh in if you decide to and you want guidance, you can send him a pm.

Smartjack now officially knows more than me about the sheet method for water change because he's done it and I hadn't ;)

This picks up my first suggestion of it to him, a link where another did it, and Jack's story of how he did it.
New User - Doing first drain - What do I need to know? - Page 3
 
Hi George. Things are looking up if you can see the bottom, maybe just a filtering issue, kids maybe swimming very soon. I agree with ashtonfitzgerald, you deserve a break. However, you are much better equiped to handle problems as your knowlege has increased by leaps and bounds.

how do I get rid of a bunch of sand at the bottom of the pool?
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Vacuum it out, when brushing some will get stratified in the water and filtered out, If you still have a lot of silt on bottom that needs to be vacuumed out as much as possible, if it contains any organics it will keep using the chlorine to kill it. once all organics killed I expect water to turn blue, then when all small particles of inorganics filtered out will be clear and blue and ready to swim. One exception here, if there are metals here that can interact with other chemicals that can also tint the water green, then all chlorine will not work and you have to figure out what is reacting with what, which can be pretty difficult. Chem Geek who did a tremendous amount of work on this forum and has a tremendous knowledge of chemistry, wrote a post how there are only a few substances that sanitize a pool (which includes killing algae). Chlorine is one of those and then he goes through pros and cons of each and for pools chlorine is the best one. They are worth a read but very complex and deep and since I do not have a strong chemistry background, they were difficult to follow and many would say boring because they could not understand, even though he tried to keep it in layman's terms.

Have to go, comment on a few others later if someone else does not cover them.

Swampwoman was typing while I was, do not vacuum, as she is testing to further Dx problems. Always follow her instructions over my suggestions.
 
Vacuumed to waste around 1PM then I read your post, not to vacuum, Swampwoman. I thought with fixing the filter problems, I could go back to SLAM normally. Should the valve stay at skimmers only with the drain almost off?
I'll make sure not to vacuum until it clears up. I also brushed the pool including the bottom. I guess I shouldn't have done that either because I shook things up. So should I only brush the walls at this time?
Test results are in.
FC-13
CC-1.
I added 3 gallons of 10% and 3 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine. I should be holding no lower than FC-16 according to the Chlorine /CYA chart.
 
Good morning. No worries Pool Amateur. You have been a great help...and you brought in Swampwoman and her expertise. Unless I'm wrong, looks like I'm getting a little break after all, waiting for the water to clear up a bit. A couple hours of beach time should do.
Should I also turn the pump off at night or just keep it running 24/7?
 

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