Henry_R wrote:Yes, I understand which part is which. The concern is not that the filter will clog, but due to the amount of algae in the pool that the pump will before enough of the algae dies off.
My neighbor, the board president, thinks the pump will become filled with the algae and cause it to be damaged. She has read through this thread, but doesn't seem to want to agree turn on the pump.
She has instead defered to another board member who wants to turn on the pump as I have been saying and has gone on record that he is to be responsible if anything goes wrong whilst running the pump.
I did some further testing with a liquid reagent based test kit vs the strips. Results are similar in that the CYA is below 30, chlorine is practically zero, pH is high. I might still take the water to a pool store and have it tested. The CYA is really what needs to be tested for due to the length of time it's been without
anything except rain water. I'm not sure how accurate the test is.
The last few days I brought the water level up so the pump can take it in. It had settled about 2"
below the skimmer intake before that.
I still need to use stabilizer, pH reducer, and chlorine and or shock and then run the pump.
What is the best product to do all three or do I need to use seperate products? I hope to buy
from Costco since their prices are really good and our HOA money is extremely tight.
I'm not sure what kind of selection they have though. I stopped in a pool supply store and their prices were off the charts high due to their being located in a relatively wealthy area I think.
There are no other pool supply stores that I know of without driving a long way and Houston is a big city.
Let me take a crack at the concern about the pump. Right now you probably have algae everywhere there is water including the pump. Algae doesn't clog the pump. The pump has a basket in it that collects large debris (leaves etc) especially when you are vacuuming the pool. Anytime you vacuum you check and empty, if needed, the pump basket. The algae itself can't clog or damage the pump.
When you are clearing the algae from the pool, it is the filter that will clog. As I mentioned before that is the purpose of the filter. When it clogs, you backwash to clean it.
I would have it tested at the pool store. The reason I say that is the chlorinator you have on that pool uses 3inch chlorine tabs. The tabs contain CYA and continued use build up the CYA levels. So it's worth knowing exactly where your level is.
If you have a Home Depot or Lowe's near by you can normally get liquid chlorine and muriatic acid there. The acid is to lower the pH. For a pool that green that's been sitting unmaintained it will take time and a lot of chlorine to get it clear. If there are pool chemicals sitting around somewhere (service companies will sometimes leave some around to save on having to transport them weekly) make note of them and perhaps we can work them into this clean up.