My pool is a swamp

[MiamiCuse]

After nine months of construction during such time I completely ignored the pool, I need to now get it back in shape.

During demolition, saw dust, gutter leaves, nails and other small debris, fell into the pool, algae build up is so bad now that it's probably a thick slimmy layer all around the pool bottom and wall...It's literally the green swamp.

I did have the pool pump run 4 hours a day for the last 9 months but that did not do anything. I was adding chemicals and chlorine but I gave up after a few weeks.

I know if I add shock or liquid chlorine to the pool, it will turn the water back to clear...but the sediments and the algae needs to be dealt with.

I started off by using a brsh with a long handle to scrub the algae off the pool wall, the nylon brush was no good, did not clean well, I had to switch to one with metal wires. That worked for a bit, then the water is so murky from the brushing I cannot see where I am brushing. I also tried to vaccuum hose attached to the skimmer and same problem, vaccuum for a bit and then too murky to see.

Do professional pool companies have big suction trucks to vaccuum the junk off and brush the pool surface real quick or this is a manual and tedious task no matter how you do it?

Thanks,

MC

[John Grabowski]

*I was working on a job last week that was adjacent to a pool in a townhouse development. When I started the pool water was a dark brownish green and had a bunch of leaves and other stuff in it. The pool and surrounding deck had work done to it over the winter so the pool cover was not put in place. There was only about five feet of water in the pool. A crew of four guys came in on one day. They had two 3" muck pumps, a power washer and miscellaneous brushes. They sucked all of the water out. Scooped out all of the leaves and crud and power washed everything. The only thing left was some light staining from the leaves. I presume that that will be taken care of on another day.

[RBM]

[trader4]

Since you have no experience doing this, just call a pool service company. One they get it straightened out, you can just maintain it..

[nmbexcuse]

Well...I am just a bit too embarassed to call a pool company and show them this swampy pool, I was trying to improve it a little myself before it's semi-presentable.

I don't think I want to suck all 25000 gallons out here in Florida the water table is high it may crack the pool, even in the winter months and now it is getting into the rainy season.

[Red Green]

"John Grabowski" wrote in news:49db31c3$0$5902$ [e-mail]:

Thoughts of Bill Murray in Caddyshack with that Baby Ruth bar come to mind :-)

[RBM]

Well...I am just a bit too embarassed to call a pool company and show them this swampy pool, I was trying to improve it a little myself before it's semi-presentable.

I don't think I want to suck all 25000 gallons out here in Florida the water table is high it may crack the pool, even in the winter months and now it is getting into the rainy season.

You don't need to drain it all out. When I bought my current house, from an estate, the pool had sat a full year. The water was like pea soup. Knowing nothing about pools, I had a professional come show me how to deal with this. He dumped a bunch of chemicals in, fired up the filter system, brushed the side walls and left. The next morning, all the algae was white, dead, and sitting on the bottom of the pool and the water was pretty clear. He came back with a pump and vacuumed all the crap out of the pool, which only lowered the water level about 4". I refilled the pool, and in a couple of days the water was crystal clear.

[Oren]

Start with a chemical to kill mosquito larvae. We don't want a citation from the Health Dept. West Nile is already in the Mohave Desert.

Here, they will site you, and charge for the cleaning of a 'GREEN' pool.

Drain 8500 gallons onto the lawn, trees, and street curb (if allowed)!

My area, I have to pump the water in the sewage/city drain lines. I cannot just send the water down the street.

Fill, shock, clean and CLEAN the filter frequently -- during the clean up (with advice).

[Bubba]

Think about it.............or do the calculations and the costs.

25,000 gals is really not that much water in costs. Ive drained mine 17,000 gals twice since Ive had it. Less than $100 in water. As soon as its drained and cleaned, start refilling. You wont hurt the pool or pop it out of the ground unless you leave it empty. Chemicals will cost you a whole lot more to clean up a really nasty pool depending on how bad it is. Start fresh. Bubba

[Pittman Pirate]

As you have just discovered, not doing anything is the worst thing you can do. What you need now is a professional to come in, pump or backwash it out, pressure wash and acid wash the plaster provided it's not too late and the algae is in there to a depth where you need a repla$ter job, clean the filter whatever kind you have, and really do a major cleanup. No amount of chemicals will do anything for the swamp you now have. Only draining, cleaning, and refilling. If you are a real DIY person, this is something you can do. Rent a two inch pump, get a power washer, buy some good boots that acid won't eat the bottom off, get good gloves, get proper acid resistant clothing, protective eye cover. But to me it sounds like if you were too stupid to let it get in this condition, you wouldn't be a person to be trusted with high strength muriatic acid.

Pay the money and learn the lesson. I'm guessing $2k. And that doesn't include pump and filter parts that may need replacing. Enjoy your pool.

Frank

[gfretwell]

The problem is if you are in south Florida that pool is very likely to just pop out of the ground if you drain it. There should be a pump out pipe under the pool they used to keep the water out while they were shooting it but if they buried it under the deck you can't use it. A polite builder extends that pipe out past the deck and caps it. You would still have to know where to dig. (I put a block of wood on the form so there is a recess in the edge of the deck) There are also plugs in the bottom of the pool, in the drain housing but you would have to dive down and remove them.

I would not drain my pool until I was sure the ground water was equalized or pumped away. .

[olddog]

I would think the place to start is with the net and scoop out as much as possible. Drain as much as can be done safely. Clean all the filters and run the pump for a couple of days. Clean and purge.

Keep doing the above until it gets reasonably clean and start with the free chlorine. I wouldn't even attempt to scrub the algae until it's all dead. Live algae is impossible to get rid of. I've never had to use algaecide but...

Then use floc as necessary or whatever clarifier you can use with your filter system. Then balance the PH.

4 hours a day isn't much. I'd run the filters for at least 10 hours a day. Continuously until it's clear.

If it's as bad as described it's going to take some work and a few days to let the filters and chlorine do their job.

od

[Bob F]

You sound like those people that have to clean their house before the house cleaners show up. Seems a little silly. That's is what the hired people do for a living.

[gpsman]

You're probably vacuuming too fast. The tricks to vacuuming are going slow and overlapping.

Or, your filter media may be shot, I guess. You said you ran the pump

4 hours a day, that seems as if it might have been enough with nobody using it.

Pretty much. Pool service companies may have big suction trucks, I don't know but I doubt it.

The easiest way (and best, IMO), if you're going to are for your pool yourself, is to establish a relationship with your local pool supply company.

You take them a water sample, describe your problem/s, and they'll tell you what you need in the way of chemicals to make your water clear.

Algae control may be the most troublesome issue pool owners encounter. This stuff, though a little spendy, is rumored to be "the shit".

-----

- gpsman

[Peabody]

Not just rumor. It turns out that algae not only need nitrogen compounds to thrive, but also just a little bit of phosphates. Super chlorination will burn off the nitrogen stuff, but not the phosphates. Phos-Free lowers phosphate levels to the vanishing point, and algae won't grow.

Where I live, the increase in large poultry operations and increased use of chicken shit as fertilizer has materially increased the phosphate levels in tap water, which comes from area lakes, and until Phos-Free came along, algae blooms were an increasing problem. Phos-Free has changed my life.

Of course, you also have to keep the lawn fertilizer out of the pool.

By the way, last summer I started a thread on how to completely change out the water in a fiberglass pool without lowering the water level and risking having it pop up out of the ground. If the OP, or anyone, has any interest, I think I can repost that.

[SteveBell]

It's a manual and tedious process.

I got a new customer last year because his pool was green and stinky. I scooped out the big stuff, then took a water sample to the pool store where I buy supplies. They gave me a step-by-step procedure and sold me the chemicals. I followed the instructions, and in two weeks he had clear water.

My client could have done this himself, but he wanted someone to do the work for him. That's OK with me. I get $40 a month to clean the pool once a week, and he gets a clean pool with no effort. Of course, I charged extra for the initial clean-up, but I had to make two or three trips over there every week until it was corrected.

Take a water sample to the pool store. Follow their instructions. Keep the muck stirred up so the filter can get it. Backwash the filter every day or two until the problem goes away.

I recommend a Polaris Pool Sweep device. They do most of the work for you. There are better devices, like the Dolphin, but they require daily effort to put the thing in, take it out, and clean it.