Please help. Haven't opened pool in 3 1/2 years. Never had a pool! Severe help needed

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PS to above post:
If you can fine tune volume of your pool during addition of CH, TA & PH. You can then figure out your CYA level more accurately without waiting 7 days for new test. If you need more CYA you can add, if you think you added too much originally you can figure out what your CYA is by using volume of pool and how much you added.
Then adjust FC level for your Slam.
 
PH is not reliable When FC is 10 or greater. Good news is FC will come down fast without CYA. I would add CYA, and start adding CH in increments so you can determine a more precise volume of pool although if you test FC 15 min after you added you can stat to fine tune volume. If your volume estimate is off you will miss your targets. Nothing worse than adding something to counteract something you added. I have done that and it was not fun.
 
Just reread your post, I would also retest PH now since FC was below 10, see where you are, you know FC went from 0 to 7.5 with 363 oz of ?% bleach so go to pool math and reverse the equation to give a more accurate pool volume it appears to be more than your initial estimate. Retest PH and do the same thing.
I would also start adding CYA and CH.
 
I do not worry about loosing chemicals when vacuuming to waste and you can always let FC drop below 10 for a retest. and adjustment, Early in slam it won't take long to drop below 10 if target is 12. By the time your done vacuuming it will probably be below 10. Also the crud you get out you do not have to kill takes less chlorine, less time.
What type of water are you filling with, well water or city water?
 
Ok everything seemed to be going fine until I attempted vacuum. Wanted to go to waste so the filter wouldn't get destroyed but no dice. I did everything it claimed in video I watched leaving hose in water blowing out air bubbles then attaching to skimmer without losing suction. Now also new problem the returns go on and off. Pressure is fine then completely drops. Takes a few minutes raises up then drops right back down. Any idea why? My water level seems kinda low but not sure if that's why. The water level in the pump filter also drops completely
 
It sounds like you need more water in the pool, or when you are trying to vacuum you are blocking water from going to pump. I will give more ideas a little later when I have time if someone else does not do it before. Do not leave pump run without water.
 
My guess is when vacuuming leaves or something on bottom is blocking the water from coming up the hose and feeding the pump. When set up to vacuum the only water feeding the pump is from the vacuum.Can you be sure that vacuum hose and vacuum itself is not blocked by running water through it. If when you put back to Filter and everything runs fine without vacuum attached, then you have enough water. (remember to only turn Multivalve handle when pump is off).

Did you ever verify that one of the 2 lines feeding the pump is bottom drain only and the other both of skimmers?
 

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OK, are you running again? are you vacuuming again? If vacuuming to waste you want all the water going to the pump to come from vacuum. That way you get strongest suction and are not throwing relatively clean water out of the pool vs the crud on the bottom. I can not tell how to do this until I understand your plumbing.
I assume (and you know what you do when you assume) and hope that 1 valve goes to bottom drain and the other valve to skimmers (mine unfortunately does not and is a pain). To get all water going to pump through the vacuum, you need to shut off bottom drain and and plug the secondary skimmer.
 
Yes I am back up and running but think will give it another hour and shut it off for the night I'm worried something might go wrong during the night and be a disaster come morning. I will attempt vacuuming tomorrow. Is there another way to figure it out besides using the shop vac?
 
When looking into skimmers, does 1 skimmer have 2 open pipes? With the pump on and filtering you could turn 1 of the valves off, make sure the pump is not being starved of water, then going to skimmers to see if they are still sucking, if only one is working the skimmers are on separate valve, if both are sucking or both are not working then they are both on same valve and I would assume (there I go assuming again) the bottom drain is on the other valve. I like shop vac idea better as more definitive and that the drain is not clogged, but this is definitely less work. But if pump is not starved when both skimmers are off, that shows bottom drain flowing (or getting water from somewhere). If 1 skimmer turns off at a time, still have to find out where bottom drain is plumbed. If one skimmer has 2 pipes to it, one is probably a bottom drain (like mine). If so Hayward makes a diverter which you may have laying around. Or there is a different way to turn it off. After we find out I can explain more if needed.
 
Good morning. My houseguest is still asleep so I thought I'd check in.

Delighted to hear chlorine is holding and no ammonia -- above all else, keep on top of the slam level and avoid letting it ever drop below the [fc/cya][/fc/cya] for slam ;)

So, here are a few tips about dealing with clogs, as that was the bane of my existence on my swamp recovery ;)

At first, I couldn't vac to waste without clogging the pump basket, so instead I kept using a leaf net. Do you have a leaf net? You might do better scooping with that first.

You will have a line to your main drain and your skimmer. If you're getting clogs, only turn the valve of the main drain open a smidge, eg. maybe an inch toward open. Or close that valve entirely. Keep the skimmer valve wide open.

When pressure drops, that usually means your pump basket has clogged. The pump basket is usually on the front end of the pump. To clear it, shut down the system. Unscrew the lid. Hose off the basket and pull out any debris that's gotten in there. Feel around to make sure something's not caught on the impeller inside. Pour in a jug of water even if pump is self priming. Clean off the O ring seal and make sure it's wet before you tighten the lid again so you get a good seal. Then turn the system back on and give it a few minutes to get the water flowing. The returns might bubble a bit at first.

Another tip if the lines seem clogged and the pump is starving is to toggle the skimmmer (and main drain if open) back and forth a bit...sometimes that will help clear a minor clog. If you end up with a major clog, a drain king hose attachment can be used down the skimmer line.

Always keep your water half way up the skimmer.

In the beginning, the top part of the water will start to clear first if you keep the main drain mostly closed. This will enable your filter to run and be doing its job through the slam. So if you have to, just close the main drain to get the top portion of the water circulating.

Can you post a pic of the pool again now? I'd like to get a sense of how much debris youre dealing with here. You may not actually be able to easily vac to waste right now...you might need to manually dredge more and/or get a leaf canister for your vac.

But keep slamming ;) And keep that filter running as much as humanly possible!
 
So i literally haven't started doing anything except turned the pump back on this morning and after utilizing 2 return jets this entire time i realized there is what looks like a 3rd one on the opposite side ( didn't realize because there are 2 other plastic spots in the pool that look like they are hooks for something across from each other ). I went to remove the plug that was on there but it was different than the previous 2 plugs. This had a solid plastic piece going across and when i went to attempt to remove the piece it completely shattered off and now I dont have a clue what to do.
 
I have a feeling that the 3rd return is not a return but a port for a pressure side cleaner. By your pump in back of the intake T I saw a black pipe that is capped. I am thinking it may go to that "3rd return". It would have been for a cleaner like a Polaris and a second auxiliary pump attached to it. Anyway you will not know until you unplug it. Can you get a pic of the "3rd return" so we can see the plug that is in it? If it is a screw type plug I would drill 2 holes into it then insert the 2 ends of needle nose pliers into it and use it like a wrench to unscrew it. If the plastic already broke the plug is toast and you just want to get it out without damaging the receptacle (that could get expensive to repair). If you just drill 1 hole you can see if any water comes out with pump on. If not unscrew cap by pump and blow air down it see if bubbles come out the 3rd return if so it is not a 3rd return but a pressure side port.
 


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So been busy all day plus raining again. I checked the fc thus morning it was 3.5. Bumped it back up and I just checked now and it's at 13.5 (not sure if much higher than 12 is bad) pump has been going all day. The pool looks blueish and I can actually see the bottom on the deep end for once. I'm going to get CH up if rain stops or do that tomorrow. Most of the debris in the pool looks like either dirt on bottom or algae on the bottom nothing really too big except maybe a few bricks I've had issues with. Swampwoman as far as the pressure issue it was the height of water as soon as I added water everything was aces
 

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