Please help! Pool newbie ready to give up!

OK, so we bought a new house in January that happens to have a pool. "Cool," I thought. "I can have a pool!" Well it's past the middle of June in North Carolina and I still haven't been able to get in it!

The pool is above-ground (but feels like an in-ground because the deck was built around it), 15 x 30 (pool store said that means about 12,000 gallons) and uses Baquacil (I know, I might have to switch!!). It has the Baquapure system which has a 2-speed 2.5 horsepower pump, 200 pound sand filter, and a Baquapure water polisher (we want to cut this last step out by re-plumbing, but we haven't done it yet).

The old owners had taken everything apart and thrown it in the garage, so we had someone come and hook it up. He said to let the filter work and clear the water, then vacuum, then go and do the chemicals.

It never cleared up after several days, so I went and had the water tested and got the appropriate chemicals. The algacide turned the green to blue, but the water never cleared up (very cloudy, can't see the bottom), even after several days.

Last weekend, we replaced the sand - it was pretty gunky, so we figured it wasn't filtering property. That hasn't helped, either.

We went to the pool store yesterday to try and get some flocculant or something else to clear the pool up more. We told the guy that our filter thing seems to be leaking - when we have the pump on, water comes out the backwash port, very fast if the pump is on high. The guy said that there was a gasket in the multi-port valve that was blown and that's why it wasn't filtering out the small particles. They sold us this gasket that looks like a pie chart (round with several spokes). We replaced it with 100% silicone like they said and let it sit for 24 hours.

Tonight, we turned the pump back on, and water is still coming out of the backwash port! The guy said that there was another gasket (he was out of it), but he said that if the problem is water coming out of the backwash port, the pie-chart-looking gasket is the one we needed to replace.

Sorry this is long, but I am a total loss - we have spent like $200 at this point and still have no pool to swim in. Please help!!

Please do not post the same thing in multiple forums. It's not good form. It's not like placing an ad in multiple places, it just clogs the place up.

Hi, as for the spider gasket, that should have fixed the problem. I would take the top off and recheck the fit and regrease. That is the seal that should fix your backflush issues. I get the impression that you have posted this elsewhere. I hope Carl has answered your chemical questions there as he is much more knowledgeable.

Later, Dennis

Sorry, Carl. I just figured people read the different forums for different things.

Nope.

We frown on it here, but we cut newbies some slack on it.

Everyone--please use the other thread for tech. responses.