Swamp to pool conversion

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Yeah, I was shocked at the amount because I thought I was getting to the end of it, which I seem to be now. Got a good half a cup in one pass, but not much, but sand since. Ran the pool vac again but again mostly sand.

Made another attempt at the hose vac and I think I got it figured out, very strong suction. Taped the hose to the pole I had fashioned for the pool vac, and ran it around the pool for a few hours, removed lots of sand and managed to suck up my glasses as well.

Been having issues with the water level in the pool. It had gotten so low I could not run the pump from the skimmer. Was able to get some water out there, but due to blockage in the plumbing (I think), I only can get about 20 gallons an hour into the pool. Was enough to raise the level a few inches overnight, which allowed me to run the skimmer vac hose and do a partial backflush of the filter today. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a much better water level to allow for a complete backflush (if needed) as well as another hose vac session. Bleach level was very high today which I attribute to the lack of sun and the fact that the pump did not run at all last night (breaker was tripped).
 
Thanks again for all the encouragement. No new pics, because well it all still looks the same from the surface. Yesterday was my last *vacation* day from work, spent about 4 hours running the pool vac, catfish and scrubbing the sides and shallow floor with a non-abrasive pad. Tested the water at 9.0 FC midday, so added about 90 ounces of bleach-6. Tested 2 hours later and tested at 17.0!! Worries me that circulation is poor, though both intakes are open.

Got water flowing back to pool, at much less flow than before, maybe 10 gallons per hour, but did not need to flush at all, so level is rising. Rain today, so pool level is rising even more. Did clean the strainers as I am still pulling sand and some bark/mulch pieces from the bottom. Have not seen "gunk" for quite a few days now, so I am thinking the end is near.

Tested my fill water since I had the kit out, pH is off the chart high (8.2) and FC is 1.0, which could explain my pH rise (even though pH is distorted by high FC it always seems to creep up when I test). Probably should have checked the TA of the fill while I was at it, perhaps in the near future.

Have about 6-7 days left of bleach, so I will be in the market for restocking the supplies this weekend. Saw a sale at a local thrift type store, $1 per gallon of some off-named stuff, but the shelves were clean while I was there :grrrr:

Broke two pool nets so far, 27 gallons of bleach-10 consummed, about another 35 gallons of bleach-6 used, 10-15 pounds of TRi-chlor, a gallon of MA gone, several pounds of soda and borax in the pool, but I feel I can safely swim in the foul-smelling swamp that was just over a month ago.
 
However little it is, if you are still seeing bark, mulch, and peices of anything, that stuff is devouring your Chlorine. Sorry you've run out of vacation days to work with man, but hang in there, and don't hurry to swim just yet.
 
Indeed, the bark mulch is a step up from what I have been seeing, but means I am not out of the woods, so to speak. Therein lies the dilemma too, I cannot see the bark,etc. to get it out, because the water is not clear, and the water will not clear until I get that garbage out :grrrr:

I will continue to pool vac as that is the only thing I do that will remove the bark.
 
Shortdog, I know this is becoming a pain, and I can TOTALLY understand your frustration. I promise if you keep up the vacuuming, brushing and shocking you are going to see the bottom of your pool soon. You will look back one day and realize that your effort was well worth it! Hang in there buddy.
 
Thanks for the continued encouragement. Got a bit careless last night and let the pool vac suction plate come loose into the pool, it was near the shallow end, but everything seems to move quickly to the deep end. Hopefully I can remove it with a bruch attached to a pole. Fc level seems to bne holding good, but again not much sun yesterday.

Been considering "deep cleaning" (if there is sych a term) the sand filter. Initiially, since I removed all the sand to repair the filter hub at the bottom, I double rinsed the sand as I put it back in. The result was a 8 PSI reading when I first used it. It got near 30 a few times overnight, backwashing back to 12. Now, several weeks later, it hovers around 20, falling only to maybe 16-18 after backwash. I read somewhere that I need new sand (if PSI stays high), but I cannot imagine that is true after only a few weeks use. The water is more a fairly dark gray than it is the deep green it was which makes me think the filter is lagging behind. Also fine dirt is settling overnight on the stairs and I can see some in the shallow end now as visibility is close to 3 feet. If anyone has some advice is doing/not doing a deep clean, or a procedure that does not require sucking all the sand out, risning, and then adding back (a bit at time) that would be welcomed.
 

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Well that was fun. Did not get water hookup up till dark, but got the filter top off and ran fresh fill water in and around the sand. Had some trouble getting the multiport set so that water would not leak down into the top pipe to somewhere (waste or pool, I could not tell). Ran hose for several minutes, a good amount of debris out of the filter, closed it up and backwashed several minutes and rinsed. Set it back to filter and PSI is at 19 ??? Not sure I understand that, but water flow back into the pool seemed a lot more violent than it had been for awhile, so I think the whole process helped.

Color still the same. Added bleach and some acid, swept the pool as good as I could from the outside (it is much easier from inside the pool)
 
Not meaning to add to your pain, but I suspect you still have a heavy load on your chlorine with debris/junk in the deep end. If so, your chlorine will be consumed rapidly. You probably know it all.to well, just thinking out loud here.
Still cheering you on and looking forward to seeing the progress...keep after it Pal. :goodjob:
 
Once your chlorine holds overnight, try adding a little DE to the sand filter to help catch more fine debris. You add DE through the skimmer about a cup at a time until you see a 1 pt rise in pressure. Whenever you backwash the DE will be flushed out, so you would need to add it again if you like the results.
 
Don't mind the pain if I can see results. Keep thinking I am close, but the pool disagrees so far. Saturday I have some time to give it a good scrub down.

What is a good source of DE?? I have maybe a cup, but I doubt it is enough to do any good. Was told I could find it online, so maybe that is the way to go.

I keep getting the "are you sure you don't want to drain and refill?" from those anxious to dive in, but answer remains "No" so far.
 
shortdogOH said:
Well that was fun. Did not get water hookup up till dark, but got the filter top off and ran fresh fill water in and around the sand. Had some trouble getting the multiport set so that water would not leak down into the top pipe to somewhere (waste or pool, I could not tell). Ran hose for several minutes, a good amount of debris out of the filter, closed it up and backwashed several minutes and rinsed. Set it back to filter and PSI is at 19 ??? Not sure I understand that, but water flow back into the pool seemed a lot more violent than it had been for awhile, so I think the whole process helped.

Color still the same. Added bleach and some acid, swept the pool as good as I could from the outside (it is much easier from inside the pool)
Click to expand...

I think the reason it has been taking so long to clear up is because without being able to completely remove the decayed matter from the bottom, all of your chlorine is being used up fighting a practically hopeless battle. Without a source of water to refill the pool up to the skimmer you didn't really have a option to vacuum to waste before.

Now that you have a source of water you should start aggressively vacuuming the deep end "to waste." Once you get all the bad stuff off the bottom you'll start to see things clear up much faster.
 
Thanks. I did read about the vacuum to waste helping some people previously, but it was not practical in my situation. I spent a good two weeks just hauling my used bleach jugs to my other house to fill with water and added that to the pool just to try and be able to backflush and keep the level high enough to run the pump. Still the pump can remove a good 50 times the water that can be added per hose, but that is multiple times better than the jug situation.

I spent the weekend trying to find the pool vac attachment plate that fell in the pool. No success, but it has to be down there somewhere. So no vacing until I find it or get a replacement.

I did vac with small my portable and still not getting much but sand. There are a few spots where it is very rough, like I am running into a pile of something but nothing shows up in the vac waste collector. I am worried there might be a tear in the liner or hopefully it is just rippled down there. I do not understand the vinyl liner concept fully. It seems like there is a hard shell for the pool and then a liner inside that shell, which to me would make it near impossible to have any direct contact with the earth. I guess what I was thinking is that if there is a tear clear though to the ground that could cause murky water in a variety of ways.

I have dove down a few feet and the bottom looks clean where I was at. Found a dead bird and frog in the skimmer over the last few days, with an assortment of dead bugs. That makes me worried as to what else may have died in the pool recently and sank so I am being careful where I try and dive to the bottom. I guess my hope is that they are dying because they are getting sucked into the skimmer and suffocating from the current which means if I am feeling brave one day, I may venture the 9 feet and see if I can see what I am up against (if anything). I do remember now getting a few round bugs from the bottom vacuuming along with the sand which make sme not want to venture down there with only a foot or so of visability. What I need is some kind of underwater video camera or the water to just clear up already.

Keping with the "vac to waste" theme, I am in the process of redoing the waste line from the mutiport. Currently it runs about 8 feet diagnol from the multiport toward the fence. There is then a threaded connector linking a flexible vinyl waste line that runs parallel to the fence and into the corner and then under the fence into the side yard. With the fence in the way, I cannot visually see what is coming out of the end unless I run around the house to get over there. My thought it to remove the vinyl hosing and extended the PVC all the way along the fence until it goes under the fence and then cut and reattach the vinyl hose in the yard. The vinyl hose needs cut as it has multiple tears the is causing water to leak when backflushing, and my plan would solve all the leaking, but not for seeing the waste water. So for vacing to waste I would like some way to capture the water to see if it is doing any good or if I am just draining the pool. Perhaps I could clamp an old sock or cloth/burlap sack to the end of the PVC and turn the pump on a few minutes to see what semi-solids make it through. ???
 
I recommend overfilling your pool a bit so the level is only about 1/2 inch from the top of the skimmer opening. This will give you a decent amount of water to use for vacuuming to waste. You'll want to remove anything too large to vacuum up before starting this. You can get most large objects and debris, including the vacuum plate, from the bottom fairly easily with a large leaf rake.

As far as seeing what comes out, if you have an old screen or a pool net to put over the ground where it comes out you should be able to see a pile of junk form.
 
JesseWV said:
I recommend overfilling your pool a bit so the level is only about 1/2 inch from the top of the skimmer opening. This will give you a decent amount of water to use for vacuuming to waste. You'll want to remove anything too large to vacuum up before starting this. You can get most large objects and debris, including the vacuum plate, from the bottom fairly easily with a large leaf rake.

As far as seeing what comes out, if you have an old screen or a pool net to put over the ground where it comes out you should be able to see a pile of junk form.
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Overfiling is done, with trickle hose and weekend raining the skimmer is near covered. +

I will try the leaf RAKE. Been using the leaf net and brush. Is this like a rake used in the garden (plastic of course)?

I did break 2 leaf nets already, but the meshing is intact and yes, like sounds like it would work good.

I will try and get that plate tonight and start on the vac to waste when I do. I do not seem to be getting much from down there anymore (I was getting piles at one time) but signs do point to something being in there somewhere.
 
shortdogOH said:
I will try the leaf RAKE. Been using the leaf net and brush. Is this like a rake used in the garden (plastic of course)? I did break 2 leaf nets already, but the meshing is intact and yes, like sounds like it would work good.
Click to expand...
No, I'm not talking about a regular garden rake. I would be too afraid of damaging the liner with one of those.

I suspect you are already using a leaf rake but just referring to it as a "leaf net." This is what I am referring to as a "leaf rake."

20445.jpg


Sorry for any confusion.
 

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