Inherited a mess

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C

country living

Active member
May 30, 2019
38
Virginia
Hello Everyone!

New member here and first time pool owner. This site is a miracle for a pool owner.

A little background.

I purchased a house in January with a 20x40 rectangular vinyl liner pool approximately 3 feet on the shallow end and 8 feet on the deep end. I am rough guessing 35k gallons of water. The pool has 3 return lines, two skimmers and main drain in the deep end. The drains are independent of each other and there is a separate valve at the pump to control each. A Hayward 1 1/2 horse power super pump and a Hayward s200 sand filter with a side mounted multi-port valve handle the maintenance duties.

From what i have been able to determine is the previous owner put in the plugs, covered the pool, drained the filter and called it a day. Since January I have been reading everything I can about owning a pool and maintaining it myself. After realizing all of the pool equipment left behind is broken I started buying things I knew I needed. A wall whale wash brush, ProTuff 23.5 skimmer net, Milliard manual vacuum head (there is a smart pool nc52s robot here but it has no bottom or leaf bag) and most importantly TF-100 test kit.

I pulled the cover off two days ago just to see what the condition of the pool was in while I waited until the TF-100 kit arrived(which it did today) The pool is green with leaves in the deep-end. The water level is right at the half way point of the skimmers. I have not turned on any of the equipment nor have I removed any plugs as I wanted see what the chemical readings are before I start.

Here are the results of those tests just now.

CYA=100(high)
TC = clear (I guess this means there is no chlorine at all in the pool.
PH= the color was yellow. Definitely lower than what the tester is able to read. It was more in line with the 2-4 range from the TC side of the tester.
Chlorine drop test = Also clear. More confirmation there is no chlorine in the pool
Calcium Hardness= 150 ppm. 6 drops of blue R-0012 were required. So 6x25
TA= went straight to red before I could add R-0009. Meaning PH is lower than or equal to 4.5

These numbers are so out of whack I don't know where to start. I have 4 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine from Wal-Mart but other than that no other chemicals. I am trying to plug everything into PoolMath.

Can someone please advise me on what I should do first to get started.

TIA
 
1. Get as much of the crud out as you can with a net.
2. Get the water circulating. You can't do much if the equipment doesn't work.
3. Get a good check on CYA, PH and TA once the water is mixed.
4. See step three, post the results and we can help you from there.
 
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Oly said:
Take a look here..... CYA - Cyanuric Acid Test - Trouble Free Pool and follow the directions in #8.
Its possible your CYA is higher than 100.
I expect you will need to drain some of the water so get the facts first then work on a game plan.
There are many good folks here to help you out so rest easy.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I ran the CYA test two times and the dot disappeared both times right around 100. I will try the additional test in the link.

One other question I do have relates to getting the crud out of the pool. Since the water level is at the half way point of the skimmers. If i vacuum using the waste setting on the filter. How quickly will the water level drop lower than the skimmer? I don't want to burn up the pump. Should I overfill the pool first, then use the waste setting?

I would hate to put all of that junk into the filter using the filtration setting. Or is that what i should do?

One other thing I forgot to mention. When I was taking the cover off and not knowing the history of the sand filter. I did a deep clean it was surprisingly clean. There wasn't much junk in the filter.
 
CYA at 100 is going to be tough to manage so you are probably looking at a partial drain and fill. I'd vac to waste since you are going to need some new water anyway. Keep an eye on the skimmer level it won't drop so fast that you can't stop what you are doing. Do you have a main drain? Can you shut the line to the skimmer? If you have a main drain you can close the skimmer line and just pull from the main drain.

I'd keep as much out of the filter as I could. You have options for getting the water out. Let's start with the steps I outlined and plan that you will have to replace some water along the way.
 
DorsalSpine said:
CYA at 100 is going to be tough to manage so you are probably looking at a partial drain and fill. I'd vac to waste since you are going to need some new water anyway. Keep an eye on the skimmer level it won't drop so fast that you can't stop what you are doing. Do you have a main drain? Can you shut the line to the skimmer? If you have a main drain you can close the skimmer line and just pull from the main drain.

I'd keep as much out of the filter as I could. You have options for getting the water out. Let's start with the steps I outlined and plan that you will have to replace some water along the way.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Yes. there is a main drain at the bottom of the deep end. I can shut off the skimmers and just use the main drain.

What I was hoping to do was vacuum the gunk out using the skimmer vacuum at the same time as I was draining the water to fix the CYA issue. I guess I could run a hose into the pool and fill at the same time until the vacuum is done then turn off the hose and focus on draining the water with the main drain and shutting off the skimmers to fix CYA.
 
Don't fill while you are vacuuming, you'll just end up using more water than necessary. You will also want to leave at least a foot of water in the shallow end so you don't float the liner. How high is your water table? There is an element of risk to this if your water table is very high. I've drained mine this way and so have others but you need to be aware of this.

The other approach is to drain and fill at the same time. However, you don't want the new water to mix with the old water. Cold water sinks and warm water rises. If your fill water is colder than the pool water you add new in the deep end and pull the old from the shallow end. There can be more to it than that but this is the quick version.
 
When you get a chance click on your account name in the upper right of the screen. Add your pool details to your signature file. That makes it easier for people to offer the correct advice.
 
You might not want to hear this but......

I recommend you drain the pool completely and refill it. It's going to take a long time to fill that pool with your every day garden hose, so you may want to ask around at the local fire departments what they might charge you to bring in a tanker of water. It will give you a very good head start at the least and you'll start out more or less with a clean slate. It could very well end up costing you a few hundred dollars, but you might easily end up there or worse by the time your done pumping water in out of the garden house and the gallons upon gallons upon gallons of bleach you'll need to get that pool back in shape.

I seriously think your life would be much easier if you just rented, borrow or bought a sump pump to drain the pool and had some fresh water trucked in. It might sound like a big expense, but again consider just how expensive and time consuming it could be to fight those 15,000 to 17,000 gallons of thick pea soup you have going on now. I'd lean even more that way if the pool walls look like they might need some repair or could use repainting.

I don't want to 100% shy you away from trying to clean it up, but realize you may be in for a fight! I'd say the first step is to get all of the solids / debris you can out of the pool, raise the water volume and steadily chlorinate while you figure just where you stand on your actual CYA. You'll want that below 100.... easily down in the 40 to 60 range. I typically keep mine between 20 and 40. If your CYA is well beyond 100, you'll have to dilute and drain a few times... at that rate you might at well empty and start over.
 

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Thanks for all of the reply's.

Looks like I will be doing a partial drain and fill. Maybe multiple times to get the number where it needs to be. I did find a bunch of chlorine tablet wrappers so I know why the CYA is so high.

All of the equipment is running fine but I did notice the Hayward S244S filter is leaking at the drain. Whoever engineered that piece must have had a bad sense of humor. Two flat spots in the thread cut.. smh.

While this is not the best way to start pool ownership. I will be an expert on this pool real quick.
 
You can exchange some water without draining.

If you place a low volume sub pump in the deep end and pull water from there while adding water in the shallow end (through a skimmer or into a bucket on a step so you lessen the water disturbance) you can do a fairly efficient exchange. That is assuming the water you are filling with is the same temperature or warmer than your pool water. If your fill water is much cooler than your pool water, then switch it. Add the water to the deep end (hose on bottom) and pull water from the top step.

The location of the pump and fill hose may change if you have salt water, high calcium, etc.
In my pool, with saltwater and high calcium when I drain, I put the pump in the deep end and hose in shallow end. The water in the pool weighs more per unit volume than the fill water from the hose.

Be sure to balance the water out and water in so the pool level stays the same. Also be sure your pool pump is disabled during this process. Once started do not stop until you have exchanged the amount of water you wish.
 
So. I just read and understand you should not use well water to fill a pool and we are on a well. So, I need to research having water brought in.

At what point do you say screw the high CYA value. Dump in a ton of chlorine. Just to use the pool?
 
You can use well water. I do and my pool's fine. Only potential issue is if you have high levels of metal in your well water (iron, copper, etc). That stuff's almost impossible to get out.

I'd worry about pulling out all the leaves first (use net or wet/dry vac). Get everything you can. Then get the pH somewhat normalized so the acidic water doesn't destroy your equipment. Then get the equipment running to start filtering out the fine stuff. While you're filtering, you pump out some of the old water while replacing with new and SLAM. shouldn't take all that long to clear up unless the sediment has turned to mud/sludge.
 
I use my well for makeup water but I fill with water I have trucked in. If you have a good well and no metals (no smell, no iron stains on fixtures, etc) you can use well water. It cost $400 to have 18,000 gallons of water put in my pool when I put in a new liner. It took a couple of hours since I'm only six miles from town.

As far as high CYA goes you can live with it. It's going to be a pain to keep it clear. I've lived with high CYA, I've had to do partial water changes as well. My problems with CYA brought me to TFP. No problems since then.

If it was me I'd see how much trouble new water would be and go from there. If new water wasn't too expensive, I'd do a partial change to knock down the CYA and get rid of some of the green. Manage what's left. It might just be a simple phone call to arrange for water.

If new water is a real hassle work with what you have. Just realize you may work your Rear off cleaning it up and still end up having to change water. Been there, done that, your mileage may vary.
 
shanebo said:
You can use well water. I do and my pool's fine. Only potential issue is if you have high levels of metal in your well water (iron, copper, etc). That stuff's almost impossible to get out.
Click to expand...

I'll add that copper is basically impossible to remove except by dilution; iron on the other hand is actually quite simple. The free chlorine during the SLAM will bring it out of solution after which it will precipitate out as fine orange rust particles that can be vacuumed to waste or filtered. It will simply add to the time it takes the water to clear.

This process will likely stain plaster pools, however. The stains can be cleaned up with ascorbic acid, however it is a labor intensive task.
 
I took a sample of water to the pool store just to see what their readings were and it turns out the CYA is at 219 ppm. I have scheduled water to be delivered on Friday so I will drain as much as I safely can and refill and start from scratch.

Here were their numbers:
FC=0.21
TC=0.21
CC=0
PH=6.3
TA= 0
CH= 59
CYA=219
Copper= 0
Iron=0
Total Dissolved Solids=0
Phosphates=1776
Saturation Index=-2.2
Endure=0

I also had the well water tested. Here are those numbers:
FC=0.14
TC=0.14
CC=0
PH=7.1
TA=208
CH=168
CYA=0
Copper=0
Iron=0
Total Dissolved Solids=0
Phosphates=0
Saturation Index=0
Endure=0
 
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