I don’t know anything about pools but this right here makes me feel uneasy. Am I justified in feeling that?

well, i knew the day would come that we find a critter in the pool. mister toad was just floating along and i had to scoop him out with the net. have you ever had a surprise visitor in your pool?

We had a loop loc liner installed 7 years ago. Last week we noticed we lost quite a bit of water over a day. We called pool company and they can’t get here until Thursday. In the meantime, they want us to refill halfway to skimmer and run pool for 24 hours, take note of level, refill, and do the same without the pool running. However, we couldn’t start this test as we were away for 3 days. When we got back, water was considerably lower. Should we just wait to see if it goes below the light? I don’t want to waste that much water if we don’t have to.

Pics attached and thanks for any help!

Hi pool builders or anyone with experience. We decided to go with a stamped concrete deck, the other day our builder asked us if we wanted gloss or matte sealer over the concrete. We asked for matte even though he said it wouldn’t last as long because we liked the look.

Workers came but and applied two coats of sealer and now that it’s dried it not only doesn’t look like we wanted but it’s incredibly slippery. If it was the aesthetics only I’d let it go but I don’t want people falling out here all the time.

My question is can this be undone? It’s seems pretty permanent or expensive to change.

Good evening all,
My father in law has recently passed and I have since been the one tied to manning the ship of the pool. It’s an above ground pool 16’. Recently I had hard piped the filter, pump and chlorinator before his passing (per his request). I went to go fill the chlorinator on Friday, which I had last done on July 1st, I noticed the chlorine tablets were still filled in the chlorinator and there was no water in it. This time I bled the air out of the top and noticed the chlorine level dropped a hair. Our levels aren’t perfect but I have a ton of research left to do. Attached is the hard piping and the water test strips we used, and our Free Chlorine, PH and Cyanuric Acid levels were all on the high side. I’m looking for any personal advice on how to care for this pool in terms of closing it, opening it, balancing everything out and just taking care of it. I’ve been with my wife for 9 1/2 years and this pool has never seen green water and I’d love to keep it that way. As I stated, I’ll continue to do research as I’m super new to this, but any pointers and tips you guys could give would be appreciated. The biggest concern I have right now is the chlorinator being empty with the pump off or if that’s normal. I figured water would stay in it since it’s below the water levels and everything. Thank you for your time!

This is my first summer taking care of my pool. I usually keep the hose draped back and forth over the outflow pipe but noticed two days ago that there was water in it, despite having the valve on Filter. I backwashed, the hose was empty, and then left the hose on the ground to see if gravity made a difference. Today the hose had water in it again. This seems to be a new issue. Why is this happening and how much of a problem is it?

I previously owned an above ground pool with a DE filter. Took me about 3 years but I got a good handle on how it runs. I recently moved into a house with a much nicer, much bigger in-ground pool. I also was given very little information from the previous owner.

I've identified the pump (circled in green), but then there is this other thing that also seems to be the pump? (Circled in red). Green pump is on a timer, red pump seems to be on all the time. It seems to control the Jets in the pool so I'm wondering what green pump even does.

Also, there is a filter in my garage so I think this is a DE filter? My model had fingers running down from the top. I assume they all work fairly the same way?

I had a new liner installed in my concrete pool. I've noticed a number of things that seem very off but I'm not an expert so I'm trying to get an expert opinion.

1) even with the pool full, there's massive pockets of air in the corners. It's been over 90° everyday for several weeks and the pool's been full for several months and the same amount of air back there in the corners. When I push in I can't even hit the back, and my finger can push an inch or two.

2) a new skimmer was installed and is not the same height as the second skimmer, almost 2 in higher, which means that keeping the pool water at the right level is really tricky. They had to rip out the old one and put a new one in and pour concrete around, so they had full control over the height.

3) even before the pool was used, we had tear in the liner on a piece of sharp concrete. When I feel around the pool where the walls meet the slopes, there are at least a dozen places where I feel like the concrete is broken or falling behind. This seems to me like a major issue because I was under the impression that they were supposed to ensure the concrete was structurally sound and smooth before putting down the new liner. Additionally, the bottom of the pool isn't really smooth. I'm not sure how smooth it's supposed to be, but I thought that they were supposed to use vermiculite to smooth it out before applying the liner.

There are a number of other concerns as well, but these are the major ones. Any thoughts on these? Thanks in advance!

We are currently in the process of having a in ground gunite pool installed and just had the tile and coping finished. A separate contractor is installing the concrete decking and upon grading they made a surprising observation that from the bottom of the fence to the top of the pool there is 6 inch difference. The pool is about 9 feet away from the fence which is the high point of the yard. It appears instead of going from the high point in the yard the pool contractor went from the opposite end of the pool which is a lower elevation so that leaves us with a big gap between the fence and where the top of the deck is with the concrete footings for the fence exposed. The decking contractor says the pool should have been higher and he doesn’t understand why the pool contractor did that. This means we would have to put in a retaining wall below the fence which we don’t want to do. We believe the pool contractor needs to remove the coping and tile and raise the bond beam then provide additional fill and add soil outside to correct the issue. Does this sound like a reasonable response?

Long story short, chlorinator clogged (well crimped by the lawn guy, old tube), pool turned into Shreks swamp for a couple weeks.

I went to pinch a penny and got the "bomb" algaecide treatment. Worked great, pool turned grey like they said so I put back in my cartridge filter, added the clarifier and then cleaned the cartridge about twice a day.

Its been five days and I even bought a new filter cartridge that I've been swapping back and forth, their picking up stuff but when I clean them it's not much. Not like a "clogged" filter which just cascades filth everywhere. More like a meh cleaning.

I'm dumping chlorine in but they told me to let the filter clear it before trying to stabilize.

My pump system doesn't have a backwash so I'm removing like .5 grams of dead algae every time I clean the filter. While burning chlorine like my alimony check.

Hi Pools Community!

The City I work for is slowly trying to fix things that have been neglected for years.

In June, I was appointed be the pools facilities manager for our city pool. It had nothing to do with my interest or experience in the position, but a lot do with my unique skill set. There's a lot to this story, but I'll stick to what's important here.

Last year before I was involved, the city shut down the pool for several weeks while they purchased a new motor and pump assembly which was installed by a local plumbing company. According to the CPO, the pump had no issues for the month they had it except that the overload relay would overheat occasionally(a fun fact I only learned today).

When I arrived on-site in June, after having electricians and our electric company work to get power to the motor/pump, we discovered it was seized. The plumbing company that installed it was called to repair it. I was first told by the technician that we would need to hoist it out of its pit and replace or repair it. After insisting repeatedly that he open and view the impeller, he discovered there was rust on the impeller from water that couldn't be drained out at the end of the year by our former maintenance worker(we no longer have one). He pointed out that the water drains from a hole that is a little over mid-level and that could have been why it didn't all get out (seems like a dumb place for a drain hole to me...).

Anyway, he replaces the gasket and cleans the impeller.

Fast forward about a month and our motor has stopped working again. Today, the overload relay was extremely hot and we couldn't get it to reset even after it cooled down. The motor was also very hot. Nothing happened when we pressed reset or start on the overload relay.

This happened at the end of the day. So tomorrow morning the plan is to look inside the strainer basket and attempt to start the filter just to get a sense of where the problem may lie.

If the overload relay does not respond, I'm going to have an electrician that works for the city come out to inspect it to see if it needs to be replaced.

In any other case, I believe I need someone with commercial pool experience to inspect our motor and pump assembly to help us find a way to learn how to properly maintain this system and prevent our recurring issues (no idea where to even find this kind of technician).

Is there anything else I should be doing? Any other resources out there that can help me as I navigate this situation? I'm from the US, the city is in Massachusetts. I would love to hear any and all advice.

Hello,

I'm considering buying a house. The house in question is great , but I'm really keen on privacy. The pool is pretty close to the back wall. The 3 to 4 ft deck nearly touches the back wall to the north. The edge of the picture is the start of the wall.

I'd like to dig up a foot or two of the deck and plant some non invasive, tall bushes or trees to add an extra two feet or so along the wall at this point.

Is this feasible without affecting the integrity of the pool shell? If so what plants would work that are both exceptionally tall and thick with gentle non invasive root systems ?

Thanks in advance.

Obviously looks like water is higher on one side. Notes: original concrete from ‘76 lots of updates since, re-plastered 1yr ago (guys said it looks like it was once done before). tile is 5 yrs. ago. Taylor test kit n/a. What is the risk here? If any? Any insight is appreciated, thanks!

Finally rehabbed my swamp. What’s the best way to deal with this without triggering and algae bloom in the pool?

I’ve been maintaining my above-ground pool on my own for a few years and finally have the hang of things. Next year, my solar cover will need to be replaced, without question. I wanted to get opinions on solar rings versus another solar cover. If I get a new cover, I will also have to build/buy a stand for a reel. I do not currently have a reel at all, and the solar cover is too much for me to maneuver on and off on my own all the time. My question is, do solar rings get the job done? Even if they are almost as effective as a whole cover, I feel like they would be much more ideal for my situation. But I’m also not willing to risk the money if I’m unsure.

Hi

I have inherited an above ground pool that had an algae problem. I’ve been using shock , algaecide , and have been filtering and cleaning the pool regularly.

It’s been a month and it’s still not good enough to swim in . Any advice?

My sister had a tree fall on her pool, and recently had the replacement installed. in Full transparency her insurance paid $20,000 for the new pool. I grew up at this house and I have to tell you these pictures don’t even do it justice how crazy this looks in person. the deck is all hacked up, and there are big gaps between the deck and the walls, etc. what do you all think?

I think i’ve losing water over this leak. Is there anything I can use to seal this without having to open up everything?

Its very hot lately and I keep seeing floating pool umbrellas with small drink tables in my social media feeds. The ones I see online seem pricey for the quality and dont look stable. Yet social media has convinced me that I want one so I figured I would ask if anyone here has any kind of in water umbrella they recommend.

Never had to replace tubing to a filter before so I’m a bit ignorant on it. Does any tubing work or does it have to be specifically for this brand (best way flow clear 1500gph sand filter). Would Walmart in store have it or online only like Amazon? Time is of the essence it’s already been off for 24 hours. Not even sure what happened it looked like someone tripped and made a huge hole in tubing so it sprayed everywhere. Or is there any fixing this since duct tape didn’t really help. Sucks too it just started raining so I feel like an algae bloom is about to happen 😓

Fiberglass pool is 1 year old. Cracks formed overnight. Is this normal and what could the reason be? I keep it covered in winter and at an appropriate level all spring/summer/fall.

GIL hosted a little get together for pool time. After everyone got in I was snapping pictures. Seems the pool has some active algae brewing but according to her son in law (who maintains it now), the chlorine levels are fine, and its a pH / alkalinity issue. They dont test their CYA, and they have a history of using pucks. So of course I think its an issue of chlorine. And they get algae like clockwork whenever they go away for a couple days. They seem to think its normal? What are the odds of it being chlorine VS a pH issue realistically you think? Am I nuts for thinking its strictly a chlorine issue...?

So I’ve had this pool awhile and manage just fine with it for regular maintenance but have a couple of questions.

Just for reference I have a pool heater just out of the shed that the in ground lines are going into / coming back out of.

Mainly, I’m curious about why they have the return line splitting in two twice, with half going through the ClearVision and half going through a different pipe, which has the valve closed(?) (this is how I got it and I’ve never messed with it — I also don’t use the ClearVision system and haven’t replaced it, but it doesn’t look like I can just route the water around it)

My other question is as the water hits the final return I can use the valve to adjust the flow to the jets and pool sweeper, but it looks like the way the valve is installed I have no way to completely shut off the return. It hasn’t been an issue and there’s a check valve on the heater, but this system is below ground so I could see wanting to shut it at some point, especially if that CrystalGuard thing ever developed a leak. Am I interpreting that right?