New house, New-to-me pool, new adventure!

I got some silicone lubricant, cleaned the O-Rings really well including gunk from the lid as well, soaked it good and reconnected everything. I poured several buckets into the pump basket to help charge the system.

Turned it on and after some pretty decent burps and such, jets are running aeration free except maybe a rare mist of air once or twice in about 10 minutes.

Was only able to run it for 10 mins due to being on lunch break, but pressure was steady at 15psi the whole time.

Turning on the filter when I get home and letting it run for a while, then hopefully before the day is out getting some testing done to see where I am.

Note: I'm starting to see tiny black squirmy specks in the water so I fear tadpoles are starting to hatch. [emoji30]

I need to get chemicals in before they start growing more and I feel bad about killing them. I can block out nasty black squirmy things pretty easily.
 
They are within maybe days of hatching, so they are barely visible. I have run the leaf net over the surface and dumped it over the side of the fence... There's a wooded area behind it.

But I keep seeing more and more. I don't think this area is hurting for frogs... They are kind of deafening at night.
 
I noticed something yesterday after turning the pump off. I saw a steady release of air bubble coming up from the inlet side of the pump basket. It was a trickle of air bubbles but evident nonetheless.

Also pulled off both drain plugs under the pump basket and lower near the pump itself... One o-ring is broken and the other looks well worn out.

I'm curious though if that telltale bubble stream could be coming from air getting into the male adapter I put in? I didn't Teflon tape there due to things I read about the need to tape PVC.... I would have to probably rebuild the whole section including T and ball valves because there is hardly any extra space to cut and refit.

Updated: the picture shows what I'm thinking

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You could put some silicon caulk around the joint. Kind of a ghetto fix, but keeps you from having to cut out any piping.

Does it make me ghetto that I was already thinking about this and wondering if I had silicone caulk in my garage??

[emoji38][emoji106]

Is it necessary that I get the Pentair specific O-rings for the drain plugs or can I go buy some plumbing O-rings from the hardware store? Difference is about 3-5 days shipping and $6 versus getting tomorrow and spending $1.50.
 
Got new orings for drain plugs and they are in. Went a little crazy on the silicone caulk around most PVC connections.

Observation: when the pump is on and skimmer is open (main drain is closed) the aeration seems to be significantly less (it's still there a little) but doing the opposite yields much more air in the lines. I'm getting a little frustrated that I can't move forward on getting this thing cleaned due to a silly air leak that I'm having a hard time sourcing...

Thoughts? Help?

Is it so bad that I can't run it at all?
 

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I would run it! So long as the water is moving and getting into and out of the pump I would get it going. When you have time we will work backwards on fixing the pump and pipes.

OH and sorry noone got back with you on the o-rings. An o-ring is an o-ring so get one that is the correct size from you home store and go with it.

Kim:cat:
 
First tests are in!! After following very close instructions and even doing a few tests twice, here is what I have come up with.

Ph: 8.2 (see picture to confirm)
FC: 0
CC: 0.5
CH: 275 (doesn't matter as much)
TA: 140
CYA: 20-30? (See info below for thoughts on CYA)

Each test went well and I believe they are fairly accurate (go go speedster!)

Ph level I believe most closely matched the highest level and I can believe it due to me running the pump with aeration going on.

CYA was done indoors (11pm haha) and it never really went away but became cloudy towards the middle of 20-30. I will do this test again tomorrow as it is our last day of sun for the next week... Boo rain!

Now, can you confirm my Ph assessment?
e438a7c77db144cfd68d6ee88f358984.jpg



Time to start punching in stuff to pool math!
 
I know it's late there. Headed to bed myself soon. You may want to boost your CYA by 10ppm depending on where you are tomorrow. You want it to be a measurable amount but not too high for your slam. You can put some chlorine in there (not at the same time as the MA), but don't go too high until you get the pH down to 7.2-7.4.
 
I know we want to get Ph down first to a good level before slamming, so I'll look into that tomorrow. I need to look at the chemicals they left me anyways to see if any of it is useable.

OHHHHH! So the pump and filter are running atm and there are NO (that is zip, zilch, zero, nada, nein, goose egg) bubbles in the pool, i found a small area where I didn't caulk right by the PVC and pump connection, filled that in and put filter on recirculate for a bit. Switched it over to filter and when I made the switch, I noticed the basket was holding the water and no noticeable bubbling or air leak. Turned pump on and as of running for about 3 hours now, no bubbles!!

Fuuuuullllll steam ahead!
 

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