Going. Insane. Need help, please

[USAMariner]

Ended up with about 3 gallons of bleach so went ahead and poured half directly into the skimmer line and the other half I poured into the pool where the jet is in the deep end. I let it circulate for 30-45 minutes and then spent another 45 minutes to an hour brushing and vacuuming.

I am starting to notice a little bit of difference and have some hope that this will be all worth it.

However, the basket that I used broke, so when I was vacuuming I noticed there wasn't much pressure. I checked the skimmer line and sure enough the basket had fallen through and was blocking the actual skimmer line/return.

I do have another question (and sorry for the lack of proper terms)

The way I vacuum is I set it to waste, place one end of the hose over a jet to "blow out" the hose and then I connect that end of the hose to the disc I have and then place that in the skimmer line over the basket.

Would I better off just connecting the hose directly through the skimmer line into the hole in the bottom? I'm thinking not since the basket would catch any debris such as leaves and prevent the skimmer line getting clogged.

Heading out now for more bleach and distilled water so I can spend the afternoon fighting this beast. Hoping that I can pick up a better kit while I am out, but may have to wait until the weekend.

Will post results later.

Oh, and just to set my wife's mind at rest, all of this bleach I am adding will not do any damage to the vinyl liner or the pipes right?

[PoolDoc]

Bleach won't hurt the pipes.

It won't hurt the liner itself either, but we can't guarantee it won't bleach the liner color or print. Some liners are NOT chlorine resistant. It's a long story, but there is no way any of us have found for you to discover in advance whether you have a problem liner or not. I have some indication that most of Plastimayd's liners are properly resistant, but I don't know that for sure.

However, adding bleach -- which mixes instantly -- you are much less likely to have problems than with solid forms of chlorine.

Ben

[Watermom]

And, just so you know, bleach is 6% sodium hypochlorite. Many pool stores sell liquid chlorine which is 12.5% sodium hypochlorite. People don't worry about liquid pool store chlorine damaging their liner, but when they hear the word "bleach" they get concerned.

[USAMariner]

UPDATE:

So, after doing what I've been doing all day and seeing some change, although maybe not as much as I had hoped, I went ahead and picked up some Vitamin C tablets since it appeared that the white plastic around the skimmer line in the pool had discolored, not to mention around the water level in the pool.

The tablets removed the stain just like that and I am really beginning to wonder whether the problem in the pool is more stain based than algae based.

Is there a cheap method to removing the stain from the liner? Maybe I can just pour a whole bottle of tablets into the skimmer line? (kidding)

[aylad]

Yep, here it is....I don't think it's cheap, but here's the process in a nutshell:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...acid-treatment

Janet

[USAMariner]

OK,

It is most definitely stain related.

I poured a whole bottle of Vitamin c pills into the bottom of a sock and crushed them up. Got into the shallow end and proceeded to scrub along the wall, the steps and then dropped the sock to the floor, stood on it and dragged it along the bottom and watched as the stain disappeared and the blue liner showed through.

Aside from the method outlined in the previous post, is there a solution that I can buy to add to the water and let it works its magic?

[aylad]

I'll let somebody else answer that question, but wanted to caution you that adding acid to the pool will drop your pH, so make sure it doesn't get too low.....

Janet