NJ Swamp Revival / Mini Rehab

[JoyfulNoise]

Nice job on the replumbing and electrical cleanup. Much nicer looking than the junk you started off with.

I’m looking at your equipment pad picture in Post #16 and I noticed one minor detail - the band clamp on the filter is not properly tightened. The spec for those is that the brass long nut needs to fully compress the spring so that the there is no gaps in the spring coil. That’s considered fully tightened. If the band clamp seems tight, you can gently tap it around the waist with a rubber mallet to help it sit closer against the filter body. That usually makes the brass nut easier to snug down. I also suggest hitting the threads on the T bolt with either moly disulfide grease or a non-hardening mechanical grease. That way the threads stay protected from moisture and your less likely to gall the brass threads on the nut.

 

[wireform]

If it's sitting on the pool floor it won't register for CYA yet but it can do a number on the liner if you don't get it out into the water stream.

 

[Newdude]

the band clamp

This one time, at band clamp......


Great catch !!!!

 

[Stump]

Awesome attention to detail joyful!!!! We had a supervisor at our plant 30 years ago and his famous one liner was "It`s what the eyes don`t see"

 

[dan0788]

Nice job on the replumbing and electrical cleanup. Much nicer looking than the junk you started off with.

I’m looking at your equipment pad picture in Post #16 and I noticed one minor detail - the band clamp on the filter is not properly tightened. The spec for those is that the brass long nut needs to fully compress the spring so that the there is no gaps in the spring coil. That’s considered fully tightened. If the band clamp seems tight, you can gently tap it around the waist with a rubber mallet to help it sit closer against the filter body. That usually makes the brass nut easier to snug down. I also suggest hitting the threads on the T bolt with either moly disulfide grease or a non-hardening mechanical grease. That way the threads stay protected from moisture and your less likely to gall the brass threads on the nut.

Nice catch! I haven't ran the filter yet, I plan on swapping out the grids and cleaning up all of the seals today before switching to filter. I'll be sure to tighten it down as described!

 

[wireform]

Nice job on the replumbing and electrical cleanup. Much nicer looking than the junk you started off with.

I’m looking at your equipment pad picture in Post #16 and I noticed one minor detail - the band clamp on the filter is not properly tightened. The spec for those is that the brass long nut needs to fully compress the spring so that the there is no gaps in the spring coil. That’s considered fully tightened. If the band clamp seems tight, you can gently tap it around the waist with a rubber mallet to help it sit closer against the filter body. That usually makes the brass nut easier to snug down. I also suggest hitting the threads on the T bolt with either moly disulfide grease or a non-hardening mechanical grease. That way the threads stay protected from moisture and your less likely to gall the brass threads on the nut.

I think the spec is something like 1/8" gap between the black band ends but that can be hard to attain if not worked properly. Get the spring compressd then start from the band hinge working it with a rubber mallet evenly towards the spring then tighten some more and repeat. 1/4" gap is perfect too. Careful not to strip the brass nut by overdoing it without clamp movement. By design the nut is brass so you'd only be replacing the nut if it strips out and not the complete clamp assembly.

 

[PieterS]

What method did you use to add your CYA granules?

 

[dan0788]

What method did you use to add your CYA granules?

I used the sock method in the skimmer but after about 6 hours yesterday there was still quite a bit and wasnt sure if I should leave it over night. Ended up broadcasting what was left around the pool. I found quite a bit on the lawn when I vacuumed to waste today so it must be sitting on the bottom. I added more in a sock that will stay in the skimmer until fully dissolved

 

[dan0788]

7:00pm update

Starting to see some green/blue! Much better than yesterdays chocolate milk color. I was able to run the filter for about 4 hours today but had to disassemble to clean and recharge twice after getting completely clogged. The pressure gauge sticks and jumps from 10 to 30+ out of no where so it's hard to judge - plan on replacing that tomorrow.

Still not getting a CYA reading after 24 hours but I did vacuum quite a bit of it to waste today. I guess I broadcasted it in a little prematurely. I added another .5lb to a sock in the skimmer overnight to make up for some of what was lost.

FC - 10
CC - 2
CYA - 10?
pH - 7.2
CH - 100
TA - 70

Should my ch and ta have changed in the past 24 hours? The only thing that I've added is bleach. Maybe im just getting better with the test kit?

 

[dan0788]

8:00am

No visual improvement but FC surprisingly held at 10 overnight.

 

[PieterS]

I used the sock method in the skimmer but after about 6 hours yesterday there was still quite a bit and wasnt sure if I should leave it over night. Ended up broadcasting what was left around the pool. I found quite a bit on the lawn when I vacuumed to waste today so it must be sitting on the bottom. I added more in a sock that will stay in the skimmer until fully dissolved

OK - makes sense. I find that spending 15 minutes squeezing the sock after it has been soaking for several hours works surprisingly well. I suspect that you vacuumed out quite a bit of your CYA! Sounds like you're back at it with the sock - you should be able to get to 30 soon!

 

[PieterS]

Should my ch and ta have changed in the past 24 hours?

Probably not - but I wouldn't worry about these slight differences. Just keep on top of that FC and brush/vacuum for now! Looks like you're already making progress.

 

[dan0788]

Probably not - but I wouldn't worry about these slight differences. Just keep on top of that FC and brush/vacuum for now! Looks like you're already making progress.

Great thanks.

Wasted the morning fighting a suction line clogged with pine needles but back up and running now

 

[dan0788]

Does a leaf vacuum that runs on a garden hose work good with bottom of the pool sludge?

The bottom is made up of mostly large pine needles and those winged "helicopter" seedling things that fall. The past 4 times I've vacuumed my skimmer line gets clogged after 5 minutes. My plumbing is only 1.5" and Im guessing those two thing don't break down enough to soften.

 

[wireform]

Does a leaf vacuum that runs on a garden hose work good with bottom of the pool sludge?

The bottom is made up of mostly large pine needles and those winged "helicopter" seedling things that fall. The past 4 times I've vacuumed my skimmer line gets clogged after 5 minutes. My plumbing is only 1.5" and Im guessing those two thing don't break down enough to soften.

Maybe something like This

 

[PieterS]

Does a leaf vacuum that runs on a garden hose work good with bottom of the pool sludge?

Don't know - but whatever it takes, try to get most of that organic matter out of the pool, it's just eating your chlorine for you. Perhaps you can MacGyver some sort of inline filter or use a hairnet or something to trap things before they get to your skimmer line? Can you vacuum to waste? Don't recall what your water refill situation is.

 

[wireform]

Hayward W530 Large Capacity Leaf Canister with Mesh Bag Replacement for Hayward Pool and Spa Cleaners https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E2D62W/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_K8CDAG7ZB9RHBK5TFPAN

 

[dan0788]

Great suggestion thanks! Should have one here tomorrow.

I feel like I've been making good progress but zero increase in water clarity over the past 48 hours. Im constantly vacuuming to waste and no longer getting any large solids. There's still areas with silt that im seeing come out of the vacuum but im not getting the large brown clouds of dirt when I go over an area anymore.

Levels are all holding strong, FC only dropped from 10 to 8.5 overnight and CC is 1.5.
Should I be running the filter full time at this point? So far I've only be recirculating at low rpm.

 

[IceShadow]

Yes, you need to filter out the stuff suspended in the pool. FC is holding but you have a lot of dead algae in the water you need to start clearing out.

Keep an eye on the PSI and backwash/recharge when you go about 25% over the starting PSI. My understanding is that DE filters will get full of the filtered junk rather quickly at first, but help clear up things quickly.

 

[dan0788]

Filter was pretty spotty yesterday. After roughly a 10psi increase I get almost no flow out of my returns. Is that normal or should I be troubleshooting something? Its dirty when I open it up but certainly not dirty enough to look completely clogged to where I'd get zero flow. I backwash, rinse and pressure drops some, but still very low flow.

Im still using the old set of grids - could they be causing any type of issue? I have a brand new set I was waiting to put in once the pool was somewhat swimmable?