Nasty Black Pool Inherited from Home Purchase

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I just read the whole thread and I have a question for those of you with more pool experience than me.

Since the OP has well water available, why would he not be better off draining all the water out of his pool, removing all muck and then re filling the pool with well water? Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper than trying to turn the black water into crystal clear water?

I ask because I'm a new pool owner that's gone through something similar. I'm on city water but by the time I got my pool back to where it should be, I wondered if it would have been quicker and easier to drain and fill.
 
Somewhere in the 5,000-10,000 range is the tipping point for a drain and refill. Plus, many times with wells you end up with iron in the water.

Other issues come into play depending on the pool such as vinyl liners floating/being destroyed or gunite pools floating out of the ground due to high water tables.
 
tim5055 said:
Somewhere in the 5,000-10,000 range is the tipping point for a drain and refill. Plus, many times with wells you end up with iron in the water.

Other issues come into play depending on the pool such as vinyl liners floating/being destroyed or gunite pools floating out of the ground due to high water tables.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, the floating pool issue didn't cross my mind. I live in the desert. :D
 
It would never have ocurred to me without this forum. In addition to wells containing metal, many of them like my well, cant take the stress of filling a pool. This varires in a hundred ways, but if I pump more than about 15 GPM for several hours, my well will start giving me sand, and eventually pump off. It will come back, but it might be 12-36 hours before I can pump again without getting sand. Some wells, it's just limited to what the pump will do.
 
I honestly don't know the capacity of my well either. It probably has more than 16k gallons in it but I don't want to find out while I'm trying to fill my pool and pray that the liner doesn't shift on me. Update coming in the next post. It's not a good one either. :(


16k gallon IG, Hayward Super Pump, Polaris Booster Pump, Hayward DE filter, 2 skimmers and a main drain?, 4 returns that I can see, Vinyl liner w/aluminum coping
 
So I was going to start the SLAM today. I got my TF-100 today and took my readings. Added three gallons of bleach in the pool and checked 30 mins later. I had reached my mark of 12ppm FC.
I had the filter running but needed to backwash after about 20mins of it running. Again with that terrible hose. As I said before it had made me mad for the last time. So I went to the store and bought enough PVC to plumb a line out to the street from the hose connection. Turned out pretty good I just need to bury it now.
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So that was all done and I tested it for leaks. Everything was holding marvelously. Here's where the bad news comes in. Today while running the filter the gasket that is in between top and bottom was leaking. I bought a new one of those from Leslie's with the $10 in points I earned from buying their junk before. Only cost me $16.
I haven't replaced it yet, but when I decided to continue with the slam and run the filter tomorrow after replacing the gasket, I had water coming out of the backwash piping at the street. My multiport was on recirc. So now I'm thinking the gasket inside there is leaking. It makes an awful noise when you turn it so it is going to need some TLC as well.
So needless to say, since I can't run the pump on recirc, that I didn't continue with the SLAM. Hopefully tomorrow, after I take the multiport apart, and hope nothing is broken in there; I can continue with the SLAM and run my filter too.
I tested really quickly before stopping everything for the night. I still have some FC in there and it's above 5ppm. I didn't do the FAS just because I wasn't concerned about specifics. Didn't test for CC.


16k gallon IG, Hayward Super Pump, Polaris Booster Pump, Hayward DE filter, 2 skimmers and a main drain?, 4 returns that I can see, Vinyl liner w/aluminum coping
 
It's ok. Doing it now is better than some other day during the hot summer and not having recirc or filter capabilities after I did all this work to get it cleaned up. At least it wasn't clean already or halfway through the SLAM.
That's my optimistic side talking. He's not around very often.


16k gallon IG, Hayward Super Pump, Polaris Booster Pump, Hayward DE filter, 2 skimmers and a main drain?, 4 returns that I can see, Vinyl liner w/aluminum coping
 

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Hopefully it's just the spider gasket in your multiport that needs reseating or replacing. I replaced mine this winter. You will probably be luckier in that than me as I discovered I have the one and only multiport made by Hayward that does not have a replaceable gasket which meant I had to replace the whole piece that it was attached to. That meant removing the handle and spring which in turn meant I had the fun of getting the spring compressed in order to reassemble.

Most of them just seem to be, undo some screws, remove gasket, clean up, lubricate and replace gasket. Replace screws.

As an aside, just to be extra sure (you probably already know but...) always turn the pump off before changing settings on the multiport.

Hoping for a quick fix for you!
 
Sometime if you just move the multi-valve around again you can get it to seal. I have had mine leak out the backwash a few times and not know to check to make sure it is not leaking before thinking all is well. I also have my backwash partially hard plumbed ... I now leave the union open some so that I can see if it is leaking.
 
That's a good idea on leaving the union open just a little. I did try to move it around to reseat and it got better but still didn't stop leaking. We shall see tomorrow.


16k gallon IG, Hayward Super Pump, Polaris Booster Pump, Hayward DE filter, 2 skimmers and a main drain?, 4 returns that I can see, Vinyl liner w/aluminum coping
 
When mine started leaking I didn't realize it until I noticed there was water in my ghetto backwash hose that I always leave attached and sort of folded up next to the filter. One day I noticed it was looking round instead of flat. I thought "Hmmmmm what's happening here?" and when I loosened the hose clamp and pulled the hose off I found the nice steady drip drip drip... Blah.
 
Is there a way that I can lube up the parts of the valve? Like the moving parts? Does the pool lube used for the gaskets work for that? Like on the spring and all that? I just want to clean it up and make it work smoothly.


16k gallon IG, Hayward Super Pump, Polaris Booster Pump, Hayward DE filter, 2 skimmers and a main drain?, 4 returns that I can see, Vinyl liner w/aluminum coping
 
Just a quick note since your wife goes to Food Lion. They have a store brand called Home 360 that is $2.50 a gallon in our area for the regular 8.25% bleach. Good luck
 
You could disassemble the valve, clean out any debris, and use a silicone based plumbers lubricant on all of the o-rings and seals. That would certainly help, but isn't likely to completely solve you issues. Of course, while you have it apart you can look around and see if anything is actually broken, which might well turn up the problem.
 
If it's broken for real, I'm putting the cover back on the pool and going to take a nap. Lol.
Yeah my wife has told me a few times about their bleach. I'll have to go get some.


16k gallon IG, Hayward Super Pump, Polaris Booster Pump, Hayward DE filter, 2 skimmers and a main drain?, 4 returns that I can see, Vinyl liner w/aluminum coping
 
Since we are talking about the spider gasket... this is a good time to remind you that it the lever should only be rotated in one direction. I'm also going through my first season of pool ownership after buying a house. At pool opening, the person we hired to help told me this and I've seen this several other places since. I was told it could be either clockwise or counter-clockwise, but to be constant.
 

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