New House came with a neglected pool - SLAM DONE!

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Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

The storm only left a mess in the skimmer. Still making good improvements, I can see out through the shallow part now. Gotta get more bleach and DE, but making good progress. I think I've used close to 24 gallons so far. I can't wait to see the end result. I appreciate y'all so much!
Do all inground pools have an auto drain?
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Glad you're making good progress. Good job! No, an overflow is an option that can be installed when it is being built.
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

MickeyB23 said:
Thanks! They are calling for potential severe thunderstorms here tonight - should I do anything to the pool ahead of time to help keep things on track or will it be ok to keep doing what I am already?
Click to expand...

Yes. Divert your gutters to the pool of you need any more water.

Too late I guess. Oh well.


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Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Ok, thanks for the tip about the drain spouts. Good idea!

Today is day 5 (31 gallons of bleach) and I can see out through the entire pool. There is a lot of fine dirt and a few leaves on the bottom. Should I vacuum that up through the filter, or bypass it?
I'm trying to upload pictures to photo bucket, but it's not cooperating at the moment.

Also, after the morning backwash, the level of water in the skimmer closest to the pump gets really low. I scooped out debris from it just before backwashing and the water level was fine, but then after a backwash and rinse it is so low it almost doesn't have enough water. This doesn't happen at the other times I backwash and it's roughly the same amount of time. I also run the hose, adding water as I am backwashing. There is some leaking from around the variflow when in backwash and rinse, but not during filter - could that be all it is and overnight things build up more? I can tell from the water flow in the morning to backwash, so I haven't seen the gauge in the morning - I'll have to check that tomorrow.
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

bdex said:
Yes. Divert your gutters to the pool of you need any more water.

Too late I guess. Oh well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Careful about asphalt sediment coming off the roof, might want to run it through a settlement tank or something.
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Good point, I don't think it's a simple option in our case.

Here are the pictures from this morning. I have a sick child at home today and I need more DE. I don't think I'm getting out to the store today though...
The pool definitely needs painted, if not resurfaced. I'm not sure how to tell when it would need resurfaced.

Another Starting picture:




Day 5:


 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Thanks, I've been busting my butt! Backwashing has been a pain, but I think it makes a big difference - that and keeping the FC higher than 12. The temps are dropping tonight and tomorrow, will that affect anything? My husband picked up some DE tonight, so hopefully I can get out there and vacuum some tomorrow.
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Not really, if anything it might help a little by slowing the algae growth if the water temp drops enough.
 

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Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

There is a lot of fine dirt and a few leaves on the bottom. Should I vacuum that up through the filter, or bypass it?
Click to expand...
I just wanted to post this question again since it was lost above - looking at the last picture posted, what should I be doing to get the bottom of the pool clean?
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

As far running the multiport set to waste or filter, I always vacuum on filter with my sand filter. Mostly because I have a single speed pump and if I vacuumed on waste, my pool would drop 4 inches in depth due to the very high flow rate. In your case, it's either doing lots of filtering, backwashing, adding more DE if you vacuum on filter or vacuum to waste and not worry about the filter. If there's alot of sediment and because you have a DE filter, I'd vacuum to waste if that's practical from a water standpoint.
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Thank you Joel! I tried vacuuming on filter today and I didn't have very good suction. My husband and I cleaned the filter grids and all, but when I went to try and vacuum again, the handle on the vacuum snapped off. I will have to go and get a new one now. I think we would lose too much water too fast and we are on well here, so I will try it through the filter once I can get the suction right.

With all of the dead algae on the bottom, will my SLAM be prolonged? I have kept FC at or above 16 for 6 days - the water is pretty clear when I'm not messing with trying to vacuum it (in the morning you can see the deep end - the picture above was taking yesterday morning) and the CC was at .5 for the last 2 days. Should I try an Overnight loss test, or is it too soon for that?
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

I just wanted to say " hello and good job". I sort of chanced upon this thread and subscribed because I was curious what you would find out you had once you got the pool clean. I've been following your progress and you are doing a great job!! Really starting to look a lot better!
Michael
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Thanks Michael! The pool will need work, but at least we will know if we like having a pool or not for a season before we have to make any big changes. Everything seems to be working fine and there are areas at the bottom that are down to what looks like stone. Assuming a replastering job will be the way to go, but I know nothing when it comes to these things.
I went to vacuum today and realized how much gunk was still in 2 areas, so I scooped out what I could reach with the leaf rake. I'm hoping we are getting close. FC isn't changing as much and the water was really clean this morning. It's all stirred up now, but I'll keep working on things tomorrow once I can see clearly again. I'll probably post some new pictures tomorrow.
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

Ok, so last night I did the overnight test and it may have passed, but my first bottle for testing was running out as I was counting so I'm not 100% positive on my number. If it was correct I only lost 1ppm overnight. In the morning,the day before, the water was very clear and the CC has been at .5 for a while. This morning the water was cloudy, but between vacuuming and brushing, things were stirred up and it probably needed backwashed again overnight. I did it this morning and cleaned out the filter again after a bit.
I will redo the overnight loss test tonight and if that is good I'm all done? There is still a lot of what looks like sand (but isn't) and some leaves on the bottom of the pool. I used the leaf rake after I tried the vacuum yesterday since I could see the pile of leaves. What is the best way to remove the rest of it? It's too much for the vacuum, I had to backwash every 10 mins and then wash the filter after a few backwashes. I can run it on waste, which was going to be my next attempt since I don't know if stirring things up with the brush is helping. Any other options? Thoughts?
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

So will the test not be over while there is still this sand looking stuff in the bottom? I guess I am confused. The pool is clear in the morning (aside from this morning), then if I brush it or try and vacuum it, it gets cloudy from whatever I moved around from cleaning. Yesterday, I tried to vacuum the pool and the filter was needing backwashed too often so I stopped and just brushed the pool again. Since the filter was more dirty than usual from me trying to vacuum and I could only backwash it last night, it didn't work as well last night to clear the pool by the morning. I backwashed it before bed, then again in the morning. Then after breakfast, I took the filter lid off and rinsed it all down again and put it back together. I've let it alone, aside from adding bleach and backwashing, all day and the water is back to being almost fully clear again. I'm sure in the morning it will be very clear - will that still count as clear since there is still stuff that needs vacuumed from the bottom of the pool?
 
Re: New House came with a neglected pool - Starting SLAM 4/18/15!

For the most part yes, but there is risk in letting the chlorine level drop when there is still organic material in the pool. Need to keep filtering and get that out of the pool. Do you have a bottom drain? Can you switch the pump suction to mostly bottom drain and brush the debris toward the bottom drain?
 

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