Lap pool neglected for 7 years - DIY re-opening

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The pool was unattended for the past few days (unavoidably); starting mid-next week it should be attended full time so that will help a lot! Can't do a real SLAM right now; just trying to make incremental progress or at least keep it from getting worse.

In the meantime-- I'm back at it for today and tomorrow to do some care-and-feeding of the pool. Updating here while waiting for a thunderstorm to pass!

Cleaned the filters and started the pump again. Still not getting water from all the jets, but pressing ahead with other issues for now. No eyeballs in any of the jets, if that matters?

Put skimmer socks in the skimmer baskets and they're filling with goo SUPER quickly. The force of water flow is kind of low today; I'm thinking that's because the goo is filling the skimmer socks so quickly? Better the skimmer socks than the filters, I guess. I'll keep cleaning them (ordered some hair nets but they're not here yet).

FC was 5 ppm (it was 16 ppm on Sunday, no chlorine added since then).

Pool color is definitely more gray, less bright green. Lots of goo that could be vacuumed off the bottom (no vacuum yet, will have that next week).

I keep releasing air from the purge valve on top of the filter assembly, but it still sputters a bit. Indicative of an air leak somewhere? Between this sputtering, and the lack of water from some of the returns, I feel like there are some plumbing issues to resolve.

Added 4 lb of baking soda-- TA was 20 ppm; PoolMath says 4 lb should raise this to ~40 ppm.

pH is 6.8 and dropping (measured when FC was 5 ppm). Time to add some borax?
 
volcano said:
The pool was unattended for the past few days (unavoidably); starting mid-next week it should be attended full time so that will help a lot! Can't do a real SLAM right now; just trying to make incremental progress or at least keep it from getting worse.

In the meantime-- I'm back at it for today and tomorrow to do some care-and-feeding of the pool. Updating here while waiting for a thunderstorm to pass!

Cleaned the filters and started the pump again. Still not getting water from all the jets, but pressing ahead with other issues for now. No eyeballs in any of the jets, if that matters?

Put skimmer socks in the skimmer baskets and they're filling with goo SUPER quickly. The force of water flow is kind of low today; I'm thinking that's because the goo is filling the skimmer socks so quickly? Better the skimmer socks than the filters, I guess. I'll keep cleaning them (ordered some hair nets but they're not here yet).

FC was 5 ppm (it was 16 ppm on Sunday, no chlorine added since then).

Pool color is definitely more gray, less bright green. Lots of goo that could be vacuumed off the bottom (no vacuum yet, will have that next week).

I keep releasing air from the purge valve on top of the filter assembly, but it still sputters a bit. Indicative of an air leak somewhere? Between this sputtering, and the lack of water from some of the returns, I feel like there are some plumbing issues to resolve.

Added 4 lb of baking soda-- TA was 20 ppm; PoolMath says 4 lb should raise this to ~40 ppm.

pH is 6.8 and dropping (measured when FC was 5 ppm). Time to add some borax?
Click to expand...
Re test in 30 minutes- an hour & u can add more baking soda to get to around 60 ta - point the jets up to aerate the water - see if ph comes up on its own.
 
Mdragger88 said:
Re test in 30 minutes- an hour & u can add more baking soda to get to around 60 ta - point the jets up to aerate the water - see if ph comes up on its own.
Click to expand...
Can’t point the jets up, unfortunately, because there are no jets. Perhaps eyeballs were removed when pool was closed, but so far all pieces have been easily found and there’s no sign of loose eyeballs anywhere 🤷‍

I’ll re-test the pH in a bit and see how it’s looking!
 
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IceShadow said:
The eyeballs are pretty universal and can be purchased online.
Click to expand...
Are eyeballs always used on the return jets? It is possible they weren't used for this pool, or is more likely that we just haven't found them yet (and/or they went missing in the ensuing 7 years)? (Regardless, we'll buy some! Just curious if they're likely around here somewhere).
 

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Twice now* I’ve measured CC = 0, which really surprises me— is that plausible if all of the algae is now dead (but obviously still present)?

*The first time was when FC = 5 ppm (had dropped over the two days while the pool was unattended), and the second time was after I brought FC back up (overshot SLAM and got it to 16 ppm).
 
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