My swamp to oasis thread

[gerardr]

AS suggested by Mdragger88 I'm starting a thread dedicated to opening the pool on my newly purchased home.

For some background: I was part of TFP many years ago when my girlfriend had a concrete inground pool that I took over maintenance for. I still recall the day I went out an bought 20 boxes of Borax and poured it all in the pool. Seemed strange but all the advice was correct: the. water was always sparkling clear and maintaining water balance values was a breeze.
Fast forward to today and I own my own home once again and it came with a ~16K gallon vinyl in-ground pool with Hayward super pump and sand filter.I also inherited two automatic pool cleaners, neither of which works. The Aiper smart is simply missing a belt that I've ordered and am awaiting delivery of. The Aquabot Tubro T-jet seems to have an electrical fault at the unit as the power supply is putting out 30Vac but the unit makes no noises when powered.

I've no idea how long the pool was covered up without anyone paying attention to it and when I opened it the water was fairly clear green and very low.

So I'll call this day zero. This was me figuring out how to open the pool, find all the plugs and verify there were no significant leaks anywhere. Happily the pump motor runs, the filter filters and all the ins and outs flow water properly.
The first photo was right after taking the cover off, the second after a first brushing of most of the bottom, all the sediment became suspended

 

[gerardr]

A week later with little done to the water other than adding about 8K gallons from the tap. The water is cloudy and the chemistry is all wrong. PH seems about 6.2, TC=1, FC=.5, Ph 6.6, TA=40, CYA=0.
I've added shock a few times over the week and finally have tabs in the water to maintain levels. and got some DE to dope the sand filter with. I've gotten enough borax to brig Pv and borates up to snuff but holding off until the water clears up a bit more, no sense in backwashing the just purchased borax right down the drain.

I also rewired the electric panel and motor to run off 240V instead of 120V hoping that will significantly lower operating costs. I've also determined that the light is burned out. I have power to the junction box behind the diving board but no light when powered on.

My last goal this weekend is to pressure wash the deck and diving board so they look a little less gross, then sometime later this week after, probably another two backwashes, to add the borax.

 

[PoolStored]

How are you testing your water?
Post a full set of results from your kit if you have one. FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA.
To clear your pool, you should follow the SLAM process. Link-->
SLAM Process