Newbie warnings: cracked filter manifold and pucks on pebbletec

[ar26pt2]

So I’m pretty good at making mistakes and here are two this year:
1. Over winter I covered the filled pool and let the filter pump run a couple hours a day, in hopes of having an easy open. I ran filter 24/7 for a week before uncovering. Was still too cold for SWG to kick on, bleach was in short supply so I used some pucks and what bleach I had to get FC up- basically throwing them under the cover right on the pebbletec. Upon opening the pool I could see a fair amount of sediment on the bottom. After sweeping just a tad and running the Polaris, it became evident this was a LOT of DE. I checked the filter outflow and indeeed VERY dirty. Broken filter manifold! And within an hour or two the pool was completely swampy gray- opaque with 2 ft visibility! I put cover back on for safety (kids). Fortunately by this point the SWG kicked on so at least I had a good bleach source. I put filter on recirculate and opened things up to confirm manifold damage (original I think 18yr old). Ordered new from amazon 5 day delivery. After 1 week of new filter parts, running, backwashing, checking pressures, backwashing etc the pool looks great! Lesson is uncover the pool and check filter output before emptying all DE into the pool like that. Also I now recall hearing a popping sound in the filter that apparently was the plastic cracking at rising pressures but I assumed was air bubbles.

2. ahh those pucks. I’ve never used them.Friend told me I screwed that up- sinking 10 pucks on the pebbletec bottom. They can bleach the pebbletec grout OR cause heavy metal dark deposition stains. I lost sleep over this. Pool too opaque to scoop them out. I ran thePolaris Nonstop in hopes of moving them around enough. Polaris got the jets clogged by the DE daily. Ugh. Long story short the damage caused by the pucks to the pebbletec is minimal, hardly noticeable and not mentionable but did result in some darker swirly stains. Only I will ever notice. Fortunately no bleaching happened. Going to find a way to maybe acid treat those areas maybe. Not sure. Practically no one will ever notice though- phew! And yay pebbletec!

 

[ajw22]

Rookie mistakes.

Better to check here before you do things instead of after.

 

[Richard320]

 

[ar26pt2]

I suppose this is the most important photo- what pebbletec looks like when a trichlor tab sits atop (I don’t use any heavy metals in the pool though so your results may vary). I have a handful of darkened areas like this, this is the worst.

the FNS plus 48sf filter manifold cracked where it commomly does on every pic I saw online. It was original with the pool I think 19yr old. I’ve never seen the pressure get above 25psi but I suppose it could have when unattended over the winter and high pressure failed it, but probably age. The color of pool was darkgray/ not green- looked like backwash. I put my Polaris hose in a white bucket and immediately see the DE and filter contents pumping in. After uncovering, pool was kind of clear but sedimented on floor before I started sweeping it. Then visibility went zero. I added back only half of recommended DE to new grids at first, built pressure within a day so did mini backwashes daily until pool clear then manually cleaned all Grids and added back 80% proper DE. Adding a tad more this weekend.