Good morning ,
We just purchased a home that has an 18x33 oval above ground pool with a vinyl liner. When we looked at the home in late March it was clear. When we moved in early April the water was green. Here's the history since then and I really need some advice as I don't know which direction to move in.
Day 1: A guy showed up and said he was the pool guy here to clean our pool and that the prior owner was paying for it. He did a few things and left.
Day 5: Same guy comes back and says he is finishing the job for prior owner and that he will charge me 170/mo for him to come weekly and supply chemicals. As I don't know anyone I agree. He says a few things to my significant other and leaves. We asked questions about what we needed to do - but were not given any advice.
Pool looks ok - but is really dirty/cloudy - but we are busy as we just moved in so we don't pay much attention to it.
Day 10: Large rainstorms in San Antonio. I wake up the next morning to a green pool. My s/o is out of town traveling. I text pool guy and tell him. He says he will be here. He shows up- does a few things and leaves. I give him a check for 2 weeks of payment as this starts our first week.
Day 14: Pool is still green and I'm a bit angry now as I feel like I'm being duped by said pool guy. I call him and he comes back out. S/O is still out of town and I am furious. Why am i paying you if this pool is green?....etc etc. He says 1) Water chemistry is perfect (shows me a test strip which I don't understand). I ask him to explain it and he doesn't. There were too many leaves stuck in the filter. 2) He says prior owner said pool was always difficult to maintain and probably due to either filter being too small or too many trees in our yard. 3) He offers to let me borrow a robot vacuum for a few days and shows me how to use it, how to backwash the pool and clean the leaves out of the pool. He said I should do this daily. I haven't heard from him since and that was a week ago.
It is now Day 21 and here is what has happened since:
After feeling like being duped, I go to Family Leisure Pools with a water sample and pictures of what I have (pump, filter, pool) (I actually used to work at a sister location in Nashville years ago!).
I am told there the pool was purchased at that location (and he even pulls up my address when I give him the old owners name), so I feel a little confident then.
He tells me it is a Perma Salt system and I need to do exactly the following:
1) Backwash the pool - he gave me specific instructions on how to do this
2) Throw 1 gal muriatic acid in the pool
3) Change the chamber on perma salt system
4) Throw 1 bucket of perma salt chemicals in the pool to "open" the pool
5) After 24-48 hours sand getting a "copper" reading - lower perma salt level and use some more chemicals and then do that every 2 weeks.
$400 bucks or so.
I did steps 1 and 2 with no success while s/o was still out of town.
I also realized during this time that the Perma Salt system did not have a power cord and apparently was not being used.
S/O comes back to town. We go back to store with another water sample.
I explain my concerns about wasting the bucket of chemicals and the new chamber on a "green" pool - and this service guy agrees. I need to use more muriatic acid to get the pool clear before doing anything else- and he also checked the history and found pool is from 2013 and said this problem also could be caused by sand needing replaced.
He sells me sand and a power cord for the Perma Salt and we go on our way. $150 bucks.
So we change the sand in the filter.
We add another gal of muriatic acid (the kind from Lowes).
PH goes down a bit, alkalinity still too high.
We add next day after 24 hours 2 more gals (this time the kind from Home Depot because of reading this forum).
That was last night - and now we have had big rain storms and wake up to an even greener pool.
I know I need to get a test kit (and I"ll be doing that today but it is a few days delivery), but the color coded strips they gave me now show PH is somewhere in the 6.8 range and alkalinity around 80. Yesterday they were both higher so I think we are doing something right - but my question is - what do I do in the meantime while I'm waiting for the test kit?
Based on the reviews here, I think I need to return the Perma Salt stuff -since clearly the owner before me wasn't using it either. If I wasted $50 on a power cord, so be it!
Any suggestions??? We know absolutely nothing about maintaining a pool and just assumed we would hire someone - but now I feel like we need to learn this ourselves. I'm frustrated and almost ready to just drain it and tell someone to come get it!
We just purchased a home that has an 18x33 oval above ground pool with a vinyl liner. When we looked at the home in late March it was clear. When we moved in early April the water was green. Here's the history since then and I really need some advice as I don't know which direction to move in.
Day 1: A guy showed up and said he was the pool guy here to clean our pool and that the prior owner was paying for it. He did a few things and left.
Day 5: Same guy comes back and says he is finishing the job for prior owner and that he will charge me 170/mo for him to come weekly and supply chemicals. As I don't know anyone I agree. He says a few things to my significant other and leaves. We asked questions about what we needed to do - but were not given any advice.
Pool looks ok - but is really dirty/cloudy - but we are busy as we just moved in so we don't pay much attention to it.
Day 10: Large rainstorms in San Antonio. I wake up the next morning to a green pool. My s/o is out of town traveling. I text pool guy and tell him. He says he will be here. He shows up- does a few things and leaves. I give him a check for 2 weeks of payment as this starts our first week.
Day 14: Pool is still green and I'm a bit angry now as I feel like I'm being duped by said pool guy. I call him and he comes back out. S/O is still out of town and I am furious. Why am i paying you if this pool is green?....etc etc. He says 1) Water chemistry is perfect (shows me a test strip which I don't understand). I ask him to explain it and he doesn't. There were too many leaves stuck in the filter. 2) He says prior owner said pool was always difficult to maintain and probably due to either filter being too small or too many trees in our yard. 3) He offers to let me borrow a robot vacuum for a few days and shows me how to use it, how to backwash the pool and clean the leaves out of the pool. He said I should do this daily. I haven't heard from him since and that was a week ago.
It is now Day 21 and here is what has happened since:
After feeling like being duped, I go to Family Leisure Pools with a water sample and pictures of what I have (pump, filter, pool) (I actually used to work at a sister location in Nashville years ago!).
I am told there the pool was purchased at that location (and he even pulls up my address when I give him the old owners name), so I feel a little confident then.
He tells me it is a Perma Salt system and I need to do exactly the following:
1) Backwash the pool - he gave me specific instructions on how to do this
2) Throw 1 gal muriatic acid in the pool
3) Change the chamber on perma salt system
4) Throw 1 bucket of perma salt chemicals in the pool to "open" the pool
5) After 24-48 hours sand getting a "copper" reading - lower perma salt level and use some more chemicals and then do that every 2 weeks.
$400 bucks or so.
I did steps 1 and 2 with no success while s/o was still out of town.
I also realized during this time that the Perma Salt system did not have a power cord and apparently was not being used.
S/O comes back to town. We go back to store with another water sample.
I explain my concerns about wasting the bucket of chemicals and the new chamber on a "green" pool - and this service guy agrees. I need to use more muriatic acid to get the pool clear before doing anything else- and he also checked the history and found pool is from 2013 and said this problem also could be caused by sand needing replaced.
He sells me sand and a power cord for the Perma Salt and we go on our way. $150 bucks.
So we change the sand in the filter.
We add another gal of muriatic acid (the kind from Lowes).
PH goes down a bit, alkalinity still too high.
We add next day after 24 hours 2 more gals (this time the kind from Home Depot because of reading this forum).
That was last night - and now we have had big rain storms and wake up to an even greener pool.
I know I need to get a test kit (and I"ll be doing that today but it is a few days delivery), but the color coded strips they gave me now show PH is somewhere in the 6.8 range and alkalinity around 80. Yesterday they were both higher so I think we are doing something right - but my question is - what do I do in the meantime while I'm waiting for the test kit?
Based on the reviews here, I think I need to return the Perma Salt stuff -since clearly the owner before me wasn't using it either. If I wasted $50 on a power cord, so be it!
Any suggestions??? We know absolutely nothing about maintaining a pool and just assumed we would hire someone - but now I feel like we need to learn this ourselves. I'm frustrated and almost ready to just drain it and tell someone to come get it!
