How do I remove a large amount of organic debris.

[Tallfellow]

So my pool guy and I were going round and round last year about when to close the pool, and as a result I ended up with a lot of organic debris in my pool. Leaves and stuff which has decomposed somewhat over the winter. But there's a lot of it.

I'm wondering what they best choice is for removing all this junk out of my pool. Straining it out with a pool rake seems like a futile task. Is there a tool or machine or product that will help me remove this stuff or am I just destined to spend hours of raking my pool. Honestly in the deep end it's so dark, I can't even see what's at the bottom.

 

[Texas Splash]

Do you have a sand or DE filter with a multiport valve? Be sure to update your signature so we know. If so, you can vacuum to WASTE. If not, you might look into a trash pump to vacuum out to waste.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

So in the end....was the cover ever put on? Are you able to close on your own if you had help and directions from us?

 

[Tallfellow]

I have a sand filter, and pool wand with a vaccum head on it, but I'd really like to find a way to get as much out with out using the filter just because there's so much in there. The pool did get shut down and it has a cover but by the time it all got taken care of there was a whole lot of leaves and junk in the pool. He was supposed to be providing a salt water system which never got installed. So This year, I'm just going to be using chlorine. I still need to hook up a chlorine system into the pool.

My home was abandoned for 7 years and the pool was a mess when I bought it. the liner shredded, the walls walls where a mess the floor pitted, so all that's been taken care of and the system has a pump and a filter but no way currently to sanitize the water. I want to do a slam and start the year off right, but I feel like I need to get all that stuff out of the pool.

 

[Wobblerlorri]

The only way to get the large debris out is with your trusty pool net. Net out all the big stuff, then let your automatic cleaner get the rest. Or your equally trusty manual vacuum.

Once you have done that, you can test your water and add chlorine and CYA, as well as adjusting the other chemicals. You do have your TF-100 test kit, right?

Oh, and welcome to TFP!

 

[Texas Splash]

As noted above, scoop, scoop, and scoop. Once you've grabbed all the junk manually you think you can get, you might run a manual vacuum by vacuuming to WASTE. WATSE bypasses the inner filter, but watch the water level. After that, it's a all about the SLAM Process. Please update your signature. It's helps so much. Depending on your pool type/size/condition, and partial water exchange might be beneficial as well. Your call. Add the test kit to your signature and if you are on a well.

 

[kimkats]

You have your hands full but we can/will help fix the HUGE blunder your pool guy did. I hope I can add the word FORMER to his name now that you have found TFP!

So get some skimmer socks for your skimmer basket. Amazon has hair nets for cheap that work great for this. They get full just take out and put in new one.

Get a deep net to use to scoop all of the bigger stuff. Once your arms/shoulders/back says enough then start vacuuming. Keep a CLOSE eye on the skimmer sock so you don't stop the flow of water to the pump. We can/will teach you how to deep clean your sand filter after the mess is up and out of the pool.

Can you take a pic of what you are working with? We LOVE to see the story while we help you get it right again!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Tcat recently bought what looks to be a nice deep net-

Replacement net

Seems there's dozens of pool rakes, but very few replacement nets. The one or two I found initially were almost as expensive as the whole rake. But saw this at Amazon and thought "probably won't fit" and "must be too coarse, or cheap". This fits both my 18" Purity Ultra Silt, and my 17"...

www.troublefreepool.com

Madde

 

[Tallfellow]

Ok, so I was so worried about the organic junk in the pool that I hadn't looked at the pump and plumbing with an eye toward "opening" the pool to get the water cycle moving and start working on the chemistry. So yesterday I opened the pump and pulled out the filter plug and put it on the filter with an eye to opening the pool. Then I looked closer and disaster.

Clearly there was water in the return lines that froze and burst the PVC fittings. I’m guessing at this point I need to pressure test those lines to see if the shattered pvc extends beyond these above the ground fixtures and into the ground.

 

[kimkats]

Gurrrrrrrr my first thought was "I would hunt down that FORMER pool guy and beat the money needed to fix it out of him" gurrrrrrrr

 

[Tallfellow]

Gurrrrrrrr my first thought was "I would hunt down that FORMER pool guy and beat the money needed to fix it out of him" gurrrrrrrr

So I’ve been dealing with this guy for over two years now and he’s horrible. He says he’ll call and he doesn’t. He tells me he’ll have someone here and no one shows. It took me two years to get him to fix the shell install the liner and install a pump. I can’t tell you how much I have struggled with this guy and if I hadn’t given him too much money to fix the problems previously he would have been gone long ago.

The work that’s left to do is install a sanitizing system. Fix this freeze damage and then SLAM the pool to get it useable. I’m pretty sure I can do all of that myself and if I waited for him to do this work I’d have a summer without a pool. It will take him till the end of July to get my work done.

 

[kimkats]

Well you found TFP so he is DONE!! Does he know he is done yet? Can I be the one to tell him???

 

[Tallfellow]

Oh, he knows he's done. He told me he woulr have someone over the next day to fix the problem. That was two weeks ago.

 

[kimkats]

How are things going?

 

[Tallfellow]

i'm slowly pulling out as much organic material as I can. I've ordered and receivedf the parts to reconstruct the part that was freeze damaged. I have a test TFTestkits TF-1002, I have a CL 200. And so now I'm ready to re-plumb the broken bits and put the chlorinator into the system.

I need to buy some liquid chlorine to start the SLAM.

I don't think I can get all the organic debris out of the pool, So there's that. I'm looking for the portion of this site that talks about how to use the test kit. I still haven't opened the skimmers or the return lines yet.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Water Testing Instructions - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[kimkats]

Here is a link to some videos of the tests as well:

TF100TestKit

The TF-100 sets the standard for excellence in Pool Testing Kits. It contains 7 separate tests to give you accurate readings on each important pool water parameter.

www.youtube.com

 

[Tallfellow]

I hate this ex-pool guy with a fury that can not be named. I re-plumbed the out going side of the pool. And went to prime the pump and water is flowing out of the pump where they pulled two plugs. Ok good on them that they removed them but I have no idea where they are. So I just ordered SPX1600V. I’ll contact my local pool supply place to see if they have them in stock tomorrow.

 

[kimkats]

Okay................lets think about this.............Look in the skimmer basket and pump basket to see if they are in there.

 

[Tallfellow]

I ordered two and put them in tonight. And that was one problem solved. Now next problem. Some of the joints are leaking. Most of them were solved by installing the missing o-rings or by tightening down the joint. But I have one that's not yielding to either of those solutions. This is the connector at the top of the pump. There is an o-ring there. The two pipes don’t align perfectly but close enough that tightening the joint gets it closed. I’m wondering if either the o ring needs replacing or if there’s a sealant material that should be lubricating the ring.