You should be fine you are not starting with a swamp, so as long as you are diligent with the slam and the levels after you should get thought the season just fine.
You certainly can. However, once the water gets below the skimmers, you need to be able to shut off suction to the skimmers. Placing the MPV in Waste or Backwash will drain the pool.
How do I do this? I put it to waste, and it still pulls water from skimmer. I have 2 holes in the skimmer, I am not sure how I could use the main drain to drain it without it going into the skimmer.
If you do not have a valve (or valves) at the equipment pad to turn off suction to the skimmer, you could try plugging the skimmer hole with an expandable plug and leaving the line that connects to the main drain open. I'm not sure if this will work as my skimmer is not attached to my MD.
Based on the location of the round diverter plate (the circle with the screw on it), I'm going to hazard a guess that the left side small hole goes to the pump, and the right side goes to your main drain (if you don't have one, that right side hole may be plugged). What you'll likely need, if there is a main drain plumbed through the skimmer box, is to get a plate that will fit over top of both of those holes that will be air tight and allow the water to come up from the main drain and down into the other hole to the pump without sucking air.
I have rubber stoppers (when I winterize the pool for each hole) do I plug in 1 hole or both? How will the water drain if I plug in both? Could that break something if I don't have a line from the main drain?
Well . . . I am an idiot. Called the place that built our pool back in 07, they said why dont you drop the vacuum on waste? Done. Draining it up until the jets is enough?
I would turn on the filter and see if you can cautiously feel which hole has suction. Maybe use a string... hold one to one end and see which hole it get sucked into. Or raise the skimmer flap with your hand and see if it drains the water from the skimmer chamber and you can see which hole is drawing the water. You may suck some air but you can bleed that off. My guess is the hole on the left (in the pic above) is the suction and the one on the right is the draw from main drain. The swivel cover in your pic is oriented to twist over and cover the hole on the right. IMO this has to be to control flow from the main drain as I cannot think of any conceivable reason why you would restrict suction from the pump at the skimmer. Another thought is you may be able to loop a selection of pool hose between the two holes, or insert a pool hose to the suction and drop it in the pool. (still requires you to ID the holes). Also I don't think the plug idea will work as you would either be plugging the suction, or the main drain. Either way you don't get what you need.
If your CYA is at 60 ppm, you'd like to get it to 30-40 ppm for a manageable SLAM and not need to add more CYA later. I would drain 1/3 of your volume then. What are your pool dimensions and what are your depths, deep and shallow?
The hole in the skimmer closest to the pool is always either plugged, plumbed to the bottom drain or plumbed to an equalizer hole under the skimmer mouth. The hole away from the pool is always plumbed to the pump.
I am almost done filling. Will re-test soon. It is night time here almost 12AM, should I start in morning or can I start SLAM process tonight and check in the morning? Guess why I am asking is I will be sleeping and won't recheck until after 7-8 hours.
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