Newbie needs help. Need a Plan Of Attack To Get This Pool Open

[bbb]

NullQwerty, did you see my response to your question in the pool equipment thread? by the way, please just continue in one thread - it's hard to keep track when you have multiple threads going. You really should get more DE and start attacking with lots of bleach. You also really really need a good test kit right away - either the PS234 kit or a drops based kit at Wal-Mart or a pool store. See this thread for some inspiration, and read away at this site and www.poolsolutions.com.

The good people on this forum can give you a plan of attack, but you need to provide good info from the front lines (in other words, results from doing your own pool water testing from a drops-based kit) in order for us armchair generals to guide you to get swimming quickly!

ps - I think the hand pump is kind of a waste of time. An electric pool cover type pump, with the hose still in the pool, would be ok, but why bother? Best to just buy some more DE right away, and wait longer between backwashings. Most of all, get that chlorine in the pool!

[NullQwerty]

Ok...It's got chemicals in it. I added 5 gallons of Chlorine shock to the pool and at the suggestion of the pool store guy, I have three 3" chlorine tablets in floaters. I did this a few hours ago.

I went out and bought the drop based kit from Walmart (but will order the one from this site soon). I will take new readings in the morning and post them here. I'd take them tonight, but I imagine having added the chemicals so recently I wouldn't get an accurate reponse? If I'm wrong, tell me and I'll post readings tonight.

bbb...Hey, Got your response in the other thread and responded to it. Sorry...I will consolidate to just this thread going forward.

[NullQwerty]

Ok...Things are going good. This morning I woke up and the pool 10X better. Still green, but a much lighter green and there was actually some blue. The filter actually ran 2-3 hours without needing a backwash.

I threw in another gallon of the Chlorine shock. I then opened up the filter and found a bunch of DE (around 1" thick) dispersed at the top of the filter fingers. So I cleaned that out and reattached. The pressure after restarting was around 10 which I haven't seen in quite a while.

I tried vacuuming, but that caused it to need a backwash within minutes.

So, I took a water sample to the pool store (about 2-3 hours after adding that last gallon of chlorine shock). My results were:
Saturation Index: -0.1
TDS: 600
Tot Chlorine: 1.5
Free Chlorine: 1.5
pH: 8.4
Demand Drops: 3
Total Alkalinity: 42
Adj. Total Alk.: 42
Total Hardness: 79

So, at the suggestion of the pool guy, I added 45 lbs of Alkalinity increaser and 2 bags of the granular Super Sockit chlorine shock. Then in 2 hours I will add 6 lbs of PH Minus. Then, in the evening I do 2 more bags of the granular Super Sockit chlorine shock. All while I still have the three 3" chlorine tablets floating around.

After adding what I've added so far, I brushed the floors as best I could. That must have stirred up some of the remaining algae because the pressure builds up within 1 hour again, but I'm assuming tomorrow it will last longer. If not, and the algae looks better, then I'll probably acid wash the filter.

If anyone thinks I should adjust any of that, let me know. Things are looking up though.

[NullQwerty]

With the water being mostly blue now, I'm still trying to figure out why my filter is still building up pressure so quick. Before I thought it was the Live Algae, and that definitly had an impact, but I'm still building up to 23 PSI within 1-2 hours. And now when I backwash, the water isn't dirty. It's just a milky gray from the DE (before it was often green).

I'm gonna do the Acid Wash tomorrow morning, but I've got a question about it for when I do it. The pool store guy said that there should be a row of about 10 missing fingers in the pump, and that I should check to make sure that these holes are lined up properly. When I cleaned the filter today, not only were there no missing fingers, but there were no holes that I could see.

Does the Hayward EC-65 not have these holes? Or is it possible the previous owner mistakenly filled the holes with new fingers?

[bbb]

I run my EC-65 at between 20-30 PSI for WEEKS at a time - it's not really a big deal if you are still getting good water flow into the pool. It's not hurting anything IMHO. The acid wash should help - but believe it or not, I have never done an acid wash -- just a thorough (10 minute) rinsing out using that Hayward DE Filter cleaning wand. does the trick for me. I think that's the least of your worries at the moment, but it can't hurt **as long as you are REALLY careful with the acid!*** Now that you don't have live algae (which was turning your DE green, by the way), you should be able to go much longer between backwashings. And during backwashings, I remove the pressure gauge, and stick the wand in there to clean the fingers without even taking off the 15-screw filter cover.

You're making good progress.

I would remove the 3" tabs -- in your other thread it says your CYA is 70. That's on the very high side already and you don't want to add to it at all (3" tabs will increase your CYA). After you use up all your powdered shock you may consider moving to liquid shock (as the pool store calls it) or plain bleach (as everyone else calls it) - that won't increase your CYA. Have you purchased a drop-based kit yet? Is your water clear of debris now? What do you use to clean your pool?

About the 'missing fingers' -- I don't believe I have them either. Good luck!

pps -- "Alk increaser" is really baking soda, just so you know. As you read more, you may find yourself buying more grocery store type chemicals to get the pool up and running in the future at much less cost...

[NullQwerty]

I'm trying to get into the grocery store kick. The only two I've found out about though is just Borax, Bleach, and now baking soda.

My CYA had dropped to almost 0 so I had to put in some stabalizer.

My algae is much more under control, but it's not gone yet. Without a waste line, vacuuming is very difficult. I've resorted to a shop vac attached to the pool vacuum. Every 30 seconds it fills up and I have to take the vac out of the pool and dump the shop vac. I'm looking into a skimmer sock to see if it filters out algae. Then I could just vacuum as normal.

I did the Acid wash, but the crazy thing is that my pressure still built up within an hour to the point where there is very little flow into my pool. It's getting really frustrating because I can't keep the filter going. If I shut off the filter for a couple of hours, the pressure will drop on it's own. One hour later though it'll be right back up there though. At least I don't have to drain it constantly though. Thanks for the tip on removing the pressure gauge though. That will be huge.

I'm getting a water test done after work today. I'll post my readings tonight.

[bbb]

I think you should keep the filter running with NO backwashing until there is very little flow of water back into the pool. That will help focus your time with getting your pool cleaned out. Skimmer socks work well and they are cheap. They do keep gunk out of your filter. What you really need is more chlorine - if I understand right, your CYA is 70, and your FC is only 1.5. To kill the algae, you really need to get your FC (free chlorine) level from 10 to 20 ppm and keep it there (see link. (By the way, the beauty of Ben's kit on poolsolutions.com, is that it lets you measure free chlorine levels over 5 very easily). Onxe the algae is gone, you should run the pool at around 5 ppm of Free Chlorine.

Also, what other (if any) pool cleaning equipment do you have? I don't have a waste line but don't really miss having one. I use a leaf eater hooked up to a garden hose with a fine mesh bag to get gunk out, personally. Once the gunk is out, your regualr vacuum should work just fine.