I've got a couple of problems, but first I need to get water balanced........?

[leena]

1st: We had a slow leak last summer that I never found. So I didnt cover the pool this winter, watching it leak down, hoping it would give me an ideal where the leak was. I think it did because the water level stopped dropping about 2.5 ft from the bottom. (will need advice on finding the exact spot after I get water balanced). Eventually I couldnt keep the pool clean by just scooping the leaves out. And obviously the pump had been disconnected.
Anyways we then had heavy rains this winter and the pool filled completely back up to the top so we hooked everything back up about 3 wks ago and started cleaning/etc. Because the temps were still chilliy, the water was clear and I was just concentrating on getting the leaves and debris off the bottom, did add one pack of shock.
Went on vacation and when we returned the pool was green with a yellow film floating on top.

2nd:: I added 2 lbs of shock(calcium hypochlorite 47.6%, 5 gallons of bleach and put my floater in with 4 pucks.) have vacuumed and added a sock to the filter. The sock was clogging up every 30 min. I would clean it out and turn it on again. From past experience I learned that my sand filter appears to filter nothing. I think because my pump is to high of a hp. After struggling with this last yr, we installed a valve between the pump and sand filter. The water blows out so hard it hurts your hand to hold it there if the valve is not kept atleast 1/2 closed. But the most helpful thing is the skimmer socks. The filter can now run a couple hrs without the socks needing to be cleaned and even then its not clogged completely. So I know Im making progress. Since we were gone all day sunday, I turned everything off, to see what would settle by this morning. It was crystal clear but after I vacuumed to waste its slightly cloudy.

3rd: there still appears to be particles of that yellow residue floating on top. I thought it was pollen because the oak trees always leave a yellow film over everything this time of yr. But wouldnt it be completely gone after several days of on/off filtering? The oak trees have leafed out so i assumed no more pollen? Should I be considering yellow algae?
This morning:
FC: 9
PH: lower than 7.2( so I added borax)
CYA: less than 30 (im going to start using pucks again until this rises, then return to just bleach)

[BigDave]

Sounds like pollen to me too. Mustard algae hides in the dark corners and on the bottom.

Do you have a K-2006? It will help you clean up the mess.

[leena]

yes I do have the Taylor K-2006.

I have now vacuumed pretty much all that I can. The rest is such small particles it will be left up to the skimmer sock to catch. Sock has to be cleaned roughly every 2-3 hrs so its definitely still catching stuff. The pool is blue and I can easily see the bottom. Even the cloudiness has went away but its not a crystal clear look yet. I will check the FC and ph in the morning and see if its holding............If it is then we can assume thats pollen?


I checked my tablets and they say 98.6% trichloro-s-triazinetrione. So is it adding CYA or not? My CYA levels are too low I think(less than 30) so I was gonna use the 3" tablets until it reached 40 or 50 then switch back to bleach......Is my thinking realistic?

[BigDave]

Yep, great. Pucks are just fine when you want more CYA. Keep an eye on pH as Trichlor (pucks) tend to drive it down.

How much trichlor do you have on hand? What's your target CYA? Is your sand filter still a filtering inadequately now that you have a throttle?

[leena]

I just bought the 25lb bucket of pucks, maybe used 5lbs so far. Im just going by someone's post on here that they liked to keep their CYA level around 50. Is that what I should aim for?

Even with the valve, As far as I can tell my sand filter appears to do nothing. i changed the sand when we first started noticing a problem (last yr). A few days ago I backwashed, rinsed and it doesnt even rinse out dirty water so it doesnt appear to have captured anything. Also if I run the pump without a skimmer sock the water doesnt get any cleaner at all. Last yr it was sucking bugs into the skimmer and shooting them back out in pieces. So if the sand filter cant even capture a bug it definitely isnt going to filter out much of anything! I think the skimmer socks are doing all the filtering. IF I close the valve almost all the way, the intake of water going into the skimmer becomes way more gentle and the socks seem to catch even more........

[BigDave]

10 lbs of trichlor should add about 55ppm CYA to your 12,000 gallon pool. 50 or so is fine. You may want to run it higher if FC won't stay between Min and Max on the BestGuess chart with daily addition of bleach.

As for the filter, bugs should not go through a sand filter. Something's wrong(I'm pretty sure you know this;)). It seems to me you would have noticed if 200lbs of sand had been backwashed out. Perhaps the multivalve isn't seating properly or the spider gasket has gone bad. Can you convieniently check the filter?

[Watermom]

Or ..... perhaps your pump is too powerful and is just blowing debris through the sand field. 1.5hp is awful big for a pool your size and on a 200 lb. sand filter.

[leena]

I am also assuming (from reading on here) that the pump is too powerful. We bought this entire pool, pump and filter used from an elderly couple about 3 or 4 yrs ago. I think they said they had used it for 6 yrs. We got a new liner when we installed pool and then the tank on the sand filter cracked the 1st or 2nd yr. It was also spitting sand into the pool and when we took it apart it had broken laterals inside so we started looking 4 a replacement sand filter.

A lady in the neighbor hood got sick of "fighting" with her pool and took a knife to it. After she ruined the liner & drained the pool, she posted everything pertaining to the pool on craigslist. We bought the sand filter, some pucks and her nice pool steps. She threw in some other kind of extra filter than can be hooked to the pump but I dont know what it is. It says "pool purifier" and appears to take cartridges. We just set that aside and replaced our cracked sand filter with hers(they were same size). Her laterals appeared to be fine, but Im interested in checkin those 2 things you mentioned: Gasket and spider thingy?
Husband is a plumber so tell me what/where to check and maybe we can figure it out!.

since the pump is prob around 10yrs old now, I figured it would bite the dust before too long. it already has to be beaten on the housing with a rock to get it going sometimes. (it will just hum when you turn it on until the breaker trips if you dont bang on top of the motor) Other times it turns on with no prob. When it finally "dies", im for sure going with a smaller pump! I really think it would help things.

Finally: Yesterday, I had to rush out and didnt get home until 10pm so I just now tested.
FC dropped from 9 to 6.5 in 2 days( no bleach or shock added during that time but there is a floater with pucks)
CC is 0
PH still less than 7.2 (so i added another cup or 2 of borax)
It hasnt rained for a week, temps are 75 to 80, 60 at night. Now that its quit raining, water level is no longer holding steady, its dropped 3in this week. So as soon as the water gets warm enough I wanna get in there and try to find that leak...............

[leena]

rereading: no, its "multivalve and spider gasket" to check...............Where exactly are those 2 things?

[BigDave]

The multivalve would have a handle and positions like Filter, Backwash, Recirculate, Rinse, Waste, etc. The spider gasket is inside a multivalve (multi-port valve) and seals the separate chambers of the valve as it's rotated through its positions.