Drain AG and refill?

[hrsdennis]

Carl, I love option 2. I must have missed that one. It sounds like a great option for everyone opening up the pool for the season and finding nasty green stuff.

To many liners are ruined by draining, cleaning and trying to refill. Liners shrink when emptied.

Any chance you or Poconos could tell us more about this method. Why the plastic? How does the fresh water stay seperated from the green stuff? How long should this take? Do you siphon or pump from the bottom?

Such a great concept, I need to know more.

[CarlD]

I must defer to Al on this. But my understanding is that it's designed to keep the old and new water from mixing, while maintaining the pool structure. I presume there's SOME slight mixing as the plastic is pulled down, but I've never tried it.

[NWMNMom]

I can never get enough of looking at those pictures! I can gratefully say that I have never had my pool turn green in the spring at open (knock on wood!) but it was really cloudy once with some green on the sides when I entrusted lazy teenagers to maintain the pool while DH and I went away for 4 days - I freaked out for 1 min, then regained my wits and started dumping bleach and brushing - a few hours later it was back to sparkling clear.

That set of pictures should be in some type of sticky or slide show as a "truth in advertising" ad for BBB.

[matt4x4]

I don't care HOW green a pool is in spring, even if the water has become the consistency of Gel, it is always revivable - that's the beauty of water.
My neighbour's will be a good experiment this year, it's greener than Shrek and in a 4' deep pool, you can't see the bottom - if we get to it this weekend, it'll be clean by mid week.

[Poconos]

I wouldn't waste water just to clean up a pool. That plastic sheet thing would be reserved for chemical dilution as would be the case with way high CYA where the only decent option is to drain and refill. I saw a neighbor fussing with a big plastic sheet a few years ago and assume that's what they were doing. Idea is to keep the new and old water separated so you get a 100% replacement. You can either find a huge plastic dropsheet or tape or bond several sheets together to cover the pool with a lot of slack around the edges. Fill on top and use a submersible pump to suck from the bottom. I suspect duct taping sheets together, using lots of duct tape, would hold for whatever time it would take to fill the pool. The technique was mentioned somewhere on the old forum that crashed by someone else and I never had to do it or try it. Should work though.
Al (ajs-1)

[hrsdennis]

Thanks Al for the comments. I have always said there is nothing that running the the filter 24/7 and using the proper chemicals won't cure.

Am I wrong in the case of high CYA? What is it and does it happen often in vinyl pools? Would draining to 6" and refilling be OK?

Matt, any updates on the neighbor's pool?

Strange, I am loaded with questions tonight. Actually, it's way past my bedtime and I am questioning everthing.

later, Dennis

[matt4x4]

Update on Neighbour's pool!!!! -- Greener than yesterday!!!
I have no idea when we're getting to it, maybe mid summer?!?!
No, just kidding, should be some time soon though - this thing wintered with a dillapidated solar blanket on it, so imagine all the nice shreds of solar blanket we will have to fish out.....
Maybe I'll take some pictures of this transformation......