New Pool Owner - Big Messy Pool

[indyattic]

I just bought a house that had been empty for a year or more. It came with an above ground Doughboy pool that was uncovered all that time. We have been adding water, scooping leaves, adding chemicals, and filtering, filtering, filtering.

We can finally see the bottom when we let the water settle, but what we see is a bunch of sludge / silt....something icky.

Reading through here, the answer seems to be to use the "waste" setting on my filter. But I'm not sure how to do that. The "stuff" doesn't reach the skimmer unless we stir the water up, and it doesn't stay stirred very well.

Is there a way I can hook a hose to the filter and sort of vaccuum the bottom?

[GTGallop]

You can vac to waste and pump that stuff right past the filter.

Then read here:

http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12758

[indyattic]

You can vac to waste and pump that stuff right past the filter.

Then read here:

http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12758

Thanks for the answer, and for the link.

I am sorry if I am missing the obvious. If I vacuuming to waste - is that hooking up the vaccuum, turning on the pump and filter, and then having the water just come out the backwash hose?

What happens if I accidently suck up a leaf or something?

[Trigger]

You can vac to waste and pump that stuff right past the filter.

Then read here:

http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12758

Thanks for the answer, and for the link.

I am sorry if I am missing the obvious. If I vacuuming to waste - is that hooking up the vaccuum, turning on the pump and filter, and then having the water just come out the backwash hose?

What happens if I accidently suck up a leaf or something?

That's exactly what you are doing. Yup, you want to suck up the leaves and gunk. The leave will enevtually get trapped in the filter basket on the pump, which you can clean out after youre done vacumming. If you have a lot of leaves, the use the skimmer to try and scoop up as many as you can, but a leaf here and there wont do any harm. You can also buy a Leaf bag for your skimmer pole. this is a big netted bag that you use to scoop out the leaves.

Remember too if the water is that bad, it's not a sin to drain it out and start with fresh water. How much would 1200 gallons of water cost you? a few hundred bucks? That's not out of the question, and maybe save you a ton of headaches, trips to the pool store and $$ for chems.

Your local pool supply should be happy to test your water and help you get it cleared up, assist you in how to use the filter and tips on keeping up the pool. Just don't stiff the guy by picking his brian and then going to the internet to make your purchases. Toss him your business.