More questions please - Easy drained almost all the way

[Ebburns]

My easy set is near drained but I can't find a hose at a pool store to try to connect to a vaccuum head for a siphon method. I need some sort of vacuum contraption to suck any small green/brownish dust away and there is probably about 2 inches of water left. Are you guys saying that the little types of vacuums with the nets will just put the small particles back into the pool? I brushed something fierce while it's been draining through the host hoping most dirties would go out with the water.

How am I supposed to get this clean and drained all the way so nothing starts growing worse that might still be there. I have watched you tube videos trying to figure this out. I've got to move fast before I have a worse problem with stuff growing. My only idea is I get in with a bucket, brush up the dust on the water and manually bucket it out as much as I can then hope I knocked it down enough to refill?

Any suggestions on what I should do? Please help! Confused newbie.

 

[Ebburns]

Follow up question: How do other people vacuum out small particle dirt and I guess it's called algie dust??

 

[kellyfair]

Do you have a vacuum yet? If not, you can get one that connects to a regular garden hose.

 

[kellyfair]

And yes, hand skimmers won’t work to get algae out. If this were my pool, I’d fill it back up and follow SLAM to kill whatever is left, allowing the pool filter to filter the dead stuff out.

 

[Dirk]

My shop vac can vacuum up water. But I wouldn't want to do the 2 inches. If you got most of the water out by syphoning with a garden hose, a shop vac would do the rest, down to just a damp floor. Then subsequent scrubbing and vacuuming would get it as clean as you wanted.

But Kelly's right. If you're just looking to get rid of algae, a SLAM would work, too and save you a sore back.

 

[Ebburns]

I did a slam first. 3.5 days with FC of 12-14 range at slam level, but the pump won't pull in the dust efficiently enough because these easy set pumps are garbage. Even with brushing several times a day to stir it up and cleaning the cartridge often still wasn't clearing. Was told needed to vacuum. Which is part of the slam process so I guess that's the part that didn't have my water improving. I found something today and the only way I could get it to work was siphoning it out but I'm not sure it was really working. Guess I'll see because I'm currently refilling it and it was quite a bit stirred up during the process. All while batteling rain again which is why I think this happened to begin with.

Kellyfair could you explain how a vacuum works with a garden hose?

 

[kellyfair]

I don’t know why they work, they just do! Something to do with negative pressure causing a suction; effect.

 

[Ebburns]

I don’t know why they work, they just do! Something to do with negative pressure causing a suction; effect.

I guess what I'm asking is none of the vacuum heads that I saw would seem to attach to a garden hose? I don't know where to find and what it looks like.

 

[Dirk]

I think Kelly is talking about something like this. It's actually a Venturi effect that gets the vacuum to do it's thing. No pump needed. This thing is similar to the gizmo I used to use to empty my waterbed (yep, I'm that old)! But I've never used one of these so can't say if it'll do the job. And if you've already emptied the pool I'm gonna guess this may not work. I think it needs to be fully submerged. It's cheap enough to give it a go though, and from Amazon so you could send it back if it doesn't work for you.

 

[Ebburns]

I think Kelly is talking about something like this. It's actually a Venturi effect that gets the vacuum to do it's thing. No pump needed. This thing is similar to the gizmo I used to use to empty my waterbed (yep, I'm that old)! But I've never used one of these so can't say if it'll do the job. And if you've already emptied the pool I'm gonna guess this may not work. I think it needs to be fully submerged. It's cheap enough to give it a go though, and from Amazon so you could send it back if it doesn't work for you.

Oh I see the link- thank you! Um I think the problem with that is after I have killed ( I hope) whatever was in my pool the partucles are too small and will go right through that bag. I need some way to vacuum to a filter of some sort or a syphon type.

 

[Dirk]

It's called "vacuuming to waste" which means the "exit" of the vacuum is not into a filter but over the side. The water isn't filtered or returned to the pool, but rather to the sewer or some other appropriate destination (not a storm drain, please, as pool water is bad for where some storm drains lead). Whether you use your pool pump for the suction, or a stand-alone pump or my hair-brained shop vac idea, you remove the dust with the water and don't put it back into the pool. You then, of course, have to replace the water with new, which is great for the pool, but not always for the pocket book, depending on how much water we're talkin'. For you, that's academic, since your pool is all but empty anyway.

I know I'd want it out of the pool, even if it could be shown to me that was overkill. The idea of killing it all off and collecting it in my cartridge filter just doesn't sit well with me. I'd be able to ignore what little it did to my water bill and vacuum to waste. But that's just me.

I don't think you should use your pool pump for the last little bit. If you suck air and run the pump dry you could end up hurting the pump. Many here have accidentally run the main pump dry with no ill effect, but I wouldn't take the risk. I'd do what I suggested above (post #5).