My TFP success story

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aaronp

aaronp

0
Aug 28, 2008
40
We bought a repossessed house in October of last year.
It came with a pool. We weren't sure what the condition was of the pool, but the house was only 4 years old.
The trustees for the bank (we guess?) had strung 2x4's across the pool to hold up a pool cover. They left the nails in the 2x4's and they poked multiple holes in the cover. Half the boards were floating. The cover was sinking.
The pool was an actual swamp, there were frogs, tadpoles, bugs, and other critters in the pool. The algae was really thick.
Our first step, since winter was approaching was to hire a pool-guy and make sure that the pool was winterized.
While he checked everything, I had him explain what everything was and what it did (it turns out that the stuff he told me was WRONG in a couple of instances, but I know it's hard to figure out a whole pool layout just from the pipes sticking out of the ground).
Then we ignored the pool for the next 5 months (winter).
During the month of March, while it was still cold, I uncovered the pool and this is what it looked like:
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I bought a leaf rake, and scooped TWO TRASHBAGS full of leaves, dirt, debris, trash, dead frogs (4), etc out of the pool. That was my hobby for a couple of weeks, scooping stuff out of the pool.
We tried to contact the pool guy to help us open the pool, but his phone was disconnected and we couldn't find him.
As the weather started warming up, I figured I'd start trying to open the pool, I had discovered TFP back in October, and figured if I got stuck I could ask for advice here. I started putting the equipment back in service and dewinterizing things. The pump was disassembled. This scared me, but I found all the parts and everything looked to be in good shape, so using an exploded diagram from the internet, I put it all back together. It worked! -Continued in next post-
 
-Continued-
The filter had a broken pressure gauge. The pump filter needed a new o-ring. The distribution thingee for the in-floor cleaning system needed a new pressure gauge. A couple of the PVC pipes were broken.
One by one, I fixed each part, until they were back into new condition.
Once I had the pump and filtration system up and running, I started adding chemicals. All my levels were basically zero. No CYA, the CH level was VERY low. No TA, obviously no FC.
I think my first trip for bleach was 12 bottles. I went through this pretty quick, but I held a shock level in that pool for about a week, I was afraid to let it drop any lower than about 10.
After a week, it looked like this:
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From the blueish color, I was pretty convinced that everything in the pool was dead. I brushed the pool mostly daily, even though I couldn't see what I was doing.
I had a bunch of stuff in the pool, and the filter was clogging up every 2 hours, I'd run the pump for about 2 hours and then clean the filter, this went on for several weeks. I cleaned those filters at least a dozen times. It became my second job, whenever I had the time.
It was VERY frustrating, because I didn't seem to be getting anywhere.
I even tried some HTH Clarifier (I know, not BBB). This stuff actually helped some, maybe just mentally. It clumped the stuff together and made it fall to the floor. I could then actually see how much stuff was left in the pool.
Once I turned the filter back on, the in-floor cleaning system would stir everything up and I'd be right back where I started.
At one point I realized that I could vacumn to waste by turning off the returns and opening the filter drain. This allowed me to actually vacumn out some of that stuff that the clarifier was sinking to the bottom. - Continued-
 
-Continued
At some point I realized that I was only gettin a small trickle of water from the main drain. It seemed clogged.
Using a friend's advice, I used a rubber plug with the wingnut removed, and my air compressor to blow air down the line. This dislodged a big clump of stuff. The drain worked better, but still not right, something was blocking the drain. Using my brush I started brushing around the main drain, all of a sudden the main drain was working!! It turns out, there was another pole and leaf rake in the bottom of my pool. The leaf rake was covering the drain.
Now that the main drain was working, my debris collection canister started sucking up all kinds of debris. I had big 2 inch chunks of stuff that looked like caked chemicals (someone suggested that it migh be dead algae) coming up. This stuff had been blocking the pipes, but I think I knocked it loose with the compressed air.
Slowly the 2 hour filter cleanings became 4 hour. Then 8. Finally I could leave the pump running all night. We could start to see the second step, then weeks later the third.
I started bringing the chemicals up to normal levels, clorox, baking soda, muriatic acid, 20 mule team borax (my wife wondered what kind of chemistry experiment I was doing in the pool). I forgot to mention that I bought a TFP test kit in October.
On May 20th, it looked like this:
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Finally the pool filter was running 1 day between cleanings, then two. The pump was running 24 hours a day. It ran for 8 days straight. Slowly more steps appeared. We could see the floor in the shallow end. My wife invited people over for a swim on Memorial Day monday. I wasn't sure it would be clear, but figured it would be clear enough. - Continued
 
On Memorial Day monday morning, I got up and looked at the pool. For the first time, we could see the main drain!!
You kinda had to know what you were looking for, but you could see it.
We finally shut the pump off, and only run it about 8 hours a day since Memorial Day weekend. The filters haven't been cleaned in a week and a half, and they don't NEED it yet. Each day the water looks better and better.
I tried to take some pictures of it, but the camera doesn't do it justice. Here's what it looks like now (the one on the right is looking into about 8 feet of water):
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This is at night, from the shallow end. You can actually see the main drain (which is in 9 feet of water):
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Night, deep end, main drain visable:
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If you threw a quarter in the deep end, I could tell you whether it landed heads or tails.

THANK YOU TROUBLE FREE POOL THANK YOU TROUBLE FREE POOL THANK YOU TROUBLE FREE POOL THANK YOU TROUBLE FREE POOL THANK YOU TROUBLE FREE POOL THANK YOU TROUBLE FREE POOL THANK YOU TROUBLE FREE POOL
 
"And on Memorial Day Morning I opened my window and the water was blue and sparkly clear and the birds were singing and the violins and harps were playing "aaaaaaeeeeeeoooooooo" I actually choked back tears as I could imagine your reaction to that sight! :party: On the party day no less.... :goodjob:

Great story, thanks for sharing your wonderful pictorial. :wink:
 
frustratedpoolmom said:
"And on Memorial Day Morning I opened my window and the water was blue and sparkly clear and the birds were singing and the violins and harps were playing "aaaaaaeeeeeeoooooooo" I actually choked back tears as I could imagine your reaction to that sight! :party: On the party day no less....
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was pretty happy. We were GOING TO HAVE THE POOL PARTY whether I could see the drain or not, but it did make it that much better. We'd been swimming in the water for a couple of days at that point, but my wife adamantly refused to get in until she could see the bottom (because she saw all the stuff I pulled out of the pool). She got in that day.

I'd run the pump for about 2 hours and then clean the filter, this went on for several weeks. I cleaned those filters at least a dozen times. It became my second job, whenever I had the time."
Click to expand...

I actually feel like I've lost my second job.
For the last 2 months it seems like every spare minute was spent working on the pool.
Now I walk out there and all it needs is a jug of Clorox every couple of days.

I feel like I should be cleaning a filter or something.
 

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I converted to BBB last summer and have never looked back. I was fortunate enough not to have had an algae problem, but was tired of the constant cloudy water and the constant draining of my pocket book everytime I visited the PS for a water analysis. I love reading success stories such as yours. I am no expert by any means, but this site is the best thing that has ever happend to me - next to my granchildren, LOL! Thanks to this website, i even opened my pool by myself this spring, and, hopefully, plan to close it this fall. Conversions just take POP and lots of bleach. Maybe this website is the cause of the dramatic increase of the cost of bleach? LOL. I am soooooo glad i stumbeled across this website - many, many, many thanks to everyone's input and asisstance. I have only had my pool for three years now, but the past one and a half years, my pool water has absolutely sparkled! My TF 100 test kit is the greatest. It has enabled me to realize the correlation between PH, TA, CYA, etc. Whenever I went to the PS, they would tell me what was wrong, but never the reasoning behind it. I never understood why. THANKS TO EVERYONE!!!!!! YOUR ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I look at those pictures above, and I see that my pool has continured to improve since I shot those "success" pictures.
Maybe it's because the camera really can't capture how clean and sparkly it really is...
Or maybe it's because the sun is finally out now.

When the water is calm, the main drain (9 ft down) looks like it is about 2 inches under the surface.


I am now officially changing my signature...
It used to say:
_________________
In-Ground. White Marbelite plaster. 21'-7" x 38' Figure Eightish Custom diving pool with 9' deep end. 24,750 Gallons. Surface area 612 sq ft.
Pentair Challenger 2 hp 1.5 SF pump, Pentair Clean and Clear Plus CCP420 Cartridge Filter, Paramount PCC-2000 In Floor Cleaning system with Paramount Water Valve and Debris Containment Canister. Pool came with house (foreclosure). It sat dormant for at least 2 years. I'm slowly bringing it back to life. I have a TF100 kit, and I know how to use it (mostly!). Never owned a REAL pool before.

Now it says:
 
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