Need help with flow

[Tnutt]

I think there might be junk stuck in the suction lines for my pool. The cover for the main drain has been missing since we bought the place last year. Once we got the pump running we kept finding tile pieces in the pump screen / prefilter. Once we could see the bottom of the pool there were more tile pieces in the main drain basin.

What is the best way to clear the lines? We don’t have good flow, particularly with the skimmers and would like to get things running better.

Also any advice on where to find a replacement cover?

Thanks so much for any help.

 

[Texas Splash]

Sounds like you may have a couple things to consider:
1 - Removing any tile particles from the main drain line. Maybe it's best those pieces don't go forward towards the pump. While you should have a pump strainer basket in place, you wouldn't want any hard pieces to flow into the pump itself. Some may be unavoidable, but it may be good to minimize it. At winter closing, many folks use a compressor (i.e. Cyclone) to blow-out the lines. Maybe you could cover the drain with a netting (skimmer sock) or something and blow air backwards? Try to catch most of it.

2 - I would be curious about the water chemistry and age of the pool for tiles to be falling off. Good test numbers might tell us if the water is too aggresive which would cause the mortar to fall apart. It's possible it's just age, or that the previous owners may not have managed the chmistry properly, but it would be good to see those numbers anyways.

I'm no help on the cover, but I'm sure others will see this therad and jump-in.

 

[Tnutt]

Thanks. We’ll give that a try and let you know how it goes.

As for the test results, here are the most recent from this week:

FC: 9.5 (we are slamming right now)
pH: 7.5
TA: 90
CH: 150 (ordered some calcium chloride to bring this up)
CYA: 30

 

[Texas Splash]

Your water was definately what we refer to as "aggressive" to some degree. For how long we don't know, but over time that may have contributed to the tile pieces falling off. Much would also depend on the water temp while your CH was low. You can see what I mean by using the PoolMath tool. Enter all of your test results and the water temp on that tool, then look at the lower row called "CSI". Place your curser over the results and it will say if the water is balanced or has a potential for corrosion, scale, etc. PH has the most immediate effect on helping to adjust the water CSI if another parameter is off. So while you wait for more CH, you can let the pH rise a bit more to compensate. If you have any questions, let us know.