Hole in vinyl liner - lost a lot of the water

[Barb Bell]

Having problems this year. Here's the story;
We have a 23-year-old liner. I know...it should have been replaced before now. The pool was opened on May 29th. Green but full. The pool guy brushed the steps and the floor in front and to the sides and tore the liner, although we didn't know that at the time. We lost half the water overnight (including a 2000 litre addition) before the hole was found and patched on Sunday, May 30th. It was still leaking a bit so I went in and patched two spots on the edge of the original patch where I thought there were gaps on the edge. We are now losing about 1/8 inch each day. We added another 2000 litres before the pool guys came yesterday to restart the pump. The main drain is on with 2 returns to circulate the water which is about 8 inches below the returns, so they are little waterfalls! The new liner takes 5-6 weeks so we will operate at half? (i have no idea how many litres are in the pool now???) capacity. But... before I knew it, one of the guys emptied a 20-litre container of 12% chlorine into the pool! So I'm not sure what to do regarding a SLAM. I can't test the pH now and I'm not sure about other tests. The pool is 15 x 32 and holds about 85 000 litres or 22 500 US gallons. We added 2000 litres this morning raising the level by about 6 inches which I can't quite figure out. Seem a lot for just 2000 litres. The FC level with the 20 litres from yesterday afternoon is now 11.5 (23 drops in a 10 ml sample). The CYA was on the low side when we started (30) and the pH was 8. I didn't lower it or start the slam last night I added about 400 mg of last year's stabilizer. Still waiting for the pool guy to come to vacuum the bottom sludge away. We can't do that as there is no water in the skimmer and it is closed off. Oh my... any advice or suggestions would be appreciated! Nice warm day in Nova Scotia!

 

[Mdragger88]

If you want to run the pool & clear it up you will need it to be full so perhaps live with the daily water loss & get the SLAM Process going so u can possibly see to do some more patching to get u through until liner replacement time.
** Be extremely careful vacuuming & brushing if the liner is in a fragile state.
If you go this route let the fc come down below 10ppm so u can adjust ph.

Otherwise the other option is to let it drain down below the leak (at which point it will stop) & leave it alone until replacement time. Maybe throw some mosquito dunks in there.

@jimmythegreek

 

[Barb Bell]

Thanks for your reply. So if I let the chlorine drop to 2 or 3 - it's 8 ppm now, I can check adjust the pH and CYA. I think the pool may have 65 000 or so litres in it now. Why can't I SLAM it to get rid of algae? The water is circulating from main drain to returns. And it's MUCH better since the chlorine was up to 16 ppm! I sure would like to be able to go for a swim before the end of July!

 

[Mdragger88]

Thanks for your reply. So if I let the chlorine drop to 2 or 3 - it's 8 ppm now, I can check adjust the pH and CYA. I think the pool may have 65 000 or so View attachment 341755litres in it now. Why can't I SLAM it to get rid of algae? The water is circulating from main drain to returns. And it's MUCH better since the chlorine was up to 16 ppm! I sure would like to be able to go for a swim before the end of July!

So long as the fc is at or under 10ppm you can check & adjust ph then continue SLAM Process so long as you have circulation. Also it is perfectly safe to swim at fc levels up to slam level for your cya so long as you can see the bottom of the pool.

 

[Barb Bell]

Thanks, but we still can't see the bottom! I'll keep at it. We hesitate to brush too much for fear of creating another hole, but I stir the algae up twice a day.