Wanted a house with a pool.... now what

[ladiekali]

I recently bought a home with a huge pool. 20000 in ground. It was green and smelled of sewage.

I've come so far. The cya level was 100 or more. I have it down to 30... if I'm testing right. I have been using liquid chlorine. But am thinking of some pucks to try to keep the cya level closer to 40. I have to clean the sand filter 2x a week.

I scrub my pool at least once a week. Sometimes twice if it's warm enough.

I have a polaris, I now have it working even though for the life of me I can't get the tail to swing .

I also have a leak somewhere. Bubbles in one of my returns. I've replaced some orings. It helped. Now I'm wondering if it has to do with the filter. The pressure gauge doesn't work at all and I find that when I release pressure the bubbles go away.in till the dome loses water again .

Anyway, I have a lot going on. Learning a lot. And spending a lot of money.

 

[Jimrahbe]

L,

Welcome to TFP... A Great resource for all your pool questions...

Have your read this? ..... https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/125-slam-shock-level-and-maintain-shockingl

If so, what FC level are you trying to keep your pool water?

See this chart... https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/128-chlorine-cya-chart-slam-shock

Thanks for posting and good luck getting your green monster under control.

Jim R.

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

Congrats on the new pool and sounds like you are making good progress. Do you have a saltwater chlorine chlorine generator? If so, that could be putting the small bubbles in your return. It will only produce bubbles when it is on. If not, then this article will help track down a suction leak, Pool School - Suction Side Air Leaks

If your pool is concrete then it is most likely also plaster. The pool shell is concrete (either gunite or shotcrete) and then it is plastered inside to make it waterproof.

 

[GaryT58]

Welcome to TFP. It can be overwhelming at first, as there is a lot of info to digest.

You mention that the pressure gauge is not working. Look at it to see if there is a possible leak there. I just replaced mine as it was broken and was leaking. Replaced with a great unit from tftestkits here. Good info to follow from Jim and Dave. Welcome!

 

[OTPirate]

Welcome! I know firsthand how daunting it is being a new pool owner. I'd avoid the pucks for now as you don't know exactly how much CYA you are putting in the water. I'd SLAM with liquid chlorine only for now. Can you tell me more about the leak? Are you losing water? how much? Bubbles in your return doesn't necessarily mean there is a leak. Good luck!

 

[kimkats]

You HAVE come along way already!

I would love to see a picture of what the water looks like now. That will tell us just what you are working with.

Did you put lube on the o-rings? That might help with the air bubbles. If not we will go from there and figure it out.

Kim

 

[ladiekali]

Hey guys! thanks for all the feed back.
I've been busy with the pool so i havn't had the time to come back here and check things out again.

My alkalinity was crazy high, 180, so you know how it goes, 1 gallon of muriatic acid brought it down to 150, added another gallon the next day and as i was adding, Coastal Georgia decided it was a good time for a storm!

Since i turn the pumps off for the rain, i was in the rain brushing the sides and floor of my pool to try and make sure the muriatic acid got mixed in somewhat. And today i turn on the pump, and run the poloaris, go to check on the polaris an hour later and the dang wheel fell off. apparently the screws holes that you screw into are threadless! I don't even know how to begin to problem solve that one.

back to the pool, I'll have to get a sample and retest the alkalinity.. i'm sure there is zero chlorine in my pool right now as this process has gotten to be drug out over a few days. the place where i get my chlorine from recommended that i try to let my water sample reach room tempature before testing the alkalinity she said very cold or very hot can mess up the readings.

so to answer some questions... yes i have read the slam process. I'm trying to get my alkalinity and ph right first. other wise aren't i just wasting chlorine?
untill then i was just trying to maintain 6ppm for chlorine, I'm not sure how often i am suppose to check that, so every few days I'd recheck the chlorine and it be at 2 so i'd bring it back up to 6 or 7. my free chlorine is always low. maybe 0-.2

the bubbles, yes, i read the suction leak guide thingy.. I've been replacing orings like crazy.. so to speak. ok so far i only found two on the pump basket area... one on the side and one on the bottom. we have tried a few different orings for the pump basket lid, but none fit properly! could it be the pump basket lid itself needs to be replaced?

I'm not sure how to replace the gauge. I tried covering everything with shaving cream to find leaks, i had the whole dang system outside covered, i didn't find anything. I'm not sure what that dome that the gauge is hooked up to is suppose look like when the system is running.


I'm not sure if i'm losing water or not. I just know that one of the returns produces bubbles.... i'm not even sure if i'm keeping my water level at the right height or not. it seems to me the higher the water level the less air bubbles i get. so i got it about 1 inch down from the tile. is that too high? is too high a thing?

I'm gonna try to check this afternoon to see if its much lower than 1 inch and hopefully that will tell me right??

I have lubed the orings, i which was apparently too much, i had to get some one to come get my pump basket lid off and thought he was going to break it getting it off.

I'll try to get some pics to post.

 

[ladiekali]

ok, i tried a new oring, again on the pump, this one is blue and supoposedly you don't need to lube it.

it took care of the bubbles, no more bubbles
but when i turn the pump off, there is splash from the lid, now is that ok?

 

[ladiekali]

 

[ladiekali]

i wanted to let l yall know, that if i don't respond right away, i'll be back. I just bought this house. the original owner owned a pool install company. she died, and some one else owned the house for a year. and she just let everything fall to pieces. I just moved in thanksgiving week, my husband is military and right now is only home every other weekend. So there's so much to do, painting, holes in walls, screen replacement, sink faucets, land scaping... not to mention cleaning, etc.

I also have a 5 year old, 18 year old, 4 cats (teenager equivalants) and a dog (basically a toddler).

this weeks plan is to get the alkalinity to 100, and then hopefully get the ph to about 7.4
And I also now have to research how to fix this wheel that fell off the polaris, and try to figure out how to get the two screws and the metal plate out from the pool with out actually going swimming.

the pool is a priority cuz what good is Georgia Summers with no pool!?! So if I disapear, i'm just busy working on the pool and house. I will be back as soon as i can sit down for a minute or two.

 

[OTPirate]

Read this to help with leak detection Pool School - Leak Detection . I am always amazed how much water I lose due to evaporation. If that pool was "green and bubbly", then you are doing great!

 

[ladiekali]

- - - Updated - - -

the last picture was the best i could get it before i found this site, ofcoarse the cya level was waaaayyyy over 100, so this was as good as it would get with store bought shock. At this point it wasn't bubbly and no longer smelled of sewage.

 

[ladiekali]

well the bubbles are back.

 

[kimkats]

Hummmmmmm so green = Pool $tore and crazy amounts of MONEY and STILL green!

clear and pretty = TFP and more money for other things!!!!

Do what you can do when you can do it.

I would lube the 0-right even if it says it does not need to be. I hope that takes care of the bubbles.

LOL on all of your "kids"............I so know your "pain"!



Kim

 

[ladiekali]

That dome on top of my sand filter, the one with the gauge.... should it stay full of water?

 

[kimkats]

Mine does but I have an above ground pool. Hummmmmm I wonder what someone who had an in ground pool will say. This will be a good thing for both of us to know.

Kim

 

[ladiekali]

im wondering if that's whats causing the air bubbles, i release pressure, the dome fills with water, and the bubbles seem to dissapear, 30 minutes later, the dome isn't even half full of water, and the bubbles from the return are back!

 

[kimkats]

How do you know the dome is half full?

So you do have an air leak. We just need to figure out where it is.......We will work through it one thing at a time.

 

[ladiekali]

i tried to take a picture but for some reason it won't let me load it.

on top of my sand filter, where the pressure gauge is located, there is a see thru dome. you can see the water. that's the part i'm talking about in case i wasn't clear earlier. i can turn a little knob that lets out water and builds pressure in the tank, that dome will fill up with water, but only for a short while.

am i making any sense?

 

[kimkats]

YES! I know what you are talking about! I don't have one . It is called a "sight glass". You watch the water flow through as you back wash to see when the water runs clear.

I am going to call in a couple of others to see what they think.

Pictures-use photo bucket or such. Use the IMG code to get them inside your post.

Take a picture or 5 to show us your whole equipment set up.

We will go through it one step at a time.

Kim