[Reefland]

Hi all!

Well over the next couple of days I will not be online since we will be installing our new 24' above ground swimming pool. We have been getting everything together over the past 2 weeks and today, the pool was delivered and the ground was dug and leveled. After work tonight, drlowz and I will begin putting this thing together and hopefully by tomorrow evening will be filling it with water.

Wish us luck!

[Reefland]

Here are some pictures of the ground preparation:

[scubadude]

We will wait for the bbq and swim party Scott :P

[Ninong]

So how's the pool coming? Is it finished yet?

[Reefland]

Well after a lot of hard work this weekend, the pool is completed. We started putting it together around 11:30am EST on Friday morning and at 11:30pm EST Friday night we were putting water in it.

During the construction there were some setbacks. First was when I put together the bottom rail, the circle was not big enough to hold the entire pool wall. Basically it had to have another rail added. When I put the bottom rail together, I went until the circle was formed and never thought about checking the size of it. I figured once the rails joined, the 24' circle was formed. WRONG! So setback #1 was enlarging the bottom frame another track while most of the pool wall was standing up.

Setback #2 was with the liner. The walls are contructed, foam padding in place so we look for a box that says "vinyl liner". Found it, jumped it into the middle of the pool and started to unfold it. After it was unfolded length-wise something appeared very wrong as it didn't go half the length of our 24' pool. Took a closer look at the box and it said Vinyl Liner for 18' x 52" pool. Furious is not the word to describe my reaction.

It was exactly 6:30pm EST then. I called the pool place which is about 1.5 hours away and was going to get my right liner one way or the other. Called them and got an answering machine telling me the stare closes at 6pm on Friday's; now I am even more furious. Michelle called another pool shop and they were open until 8 and had a 24' liner so she runs out to purchase it and my brother and I ran to meet her (she was at work on Friday). We returned home at 7:50pm EST and was ready to put the liner in. Dennis (drlowz) sees another box laying in the pile and asks me what was in it. I had no idea so he opened it and guess what, a 24' x 52" liner. Now why in the world would they send me 2 different size liners right? After opening a box with the wrong size liner, we never considered looking around at the other boxes just in case the pool place sent me 2 liners; 1 wrong size and 1 right size. So now I have 3 liners, 2 that came with the package and 1 we just purchased.

Ok, so we put the liner in, completed putting the verticle uprights and the top rail on the pool and started filling with water at exactly 11:30pm EST on Friday. After about 1 hour of filling with water, it was shut down for about an hour while I worked some of the wrinkles out of the liner. At about 1:30am EST Saturday, the water was cranked back on; we ran 2 water hoses (1 from the front and back) non-stop from that point forward.

Saturday night at 11:30pm EST the pool was full and I went out to start up the pumps and everything. Plug in the pump and nothing happens. There is no switch on the pump so I thought great, now I've got a dead pump. Took the back cover off and 1 of the wires was not connected. Hooked it up, plugged it up and off we go! I backwashed the filter for about 1 minute (until the water was clear) and then turned it on "Filter". Added 2 bottles of start-up chemicals and here we are this morning with this:



Now I've got to build a deck around it!

Some mor epictures of the construction can be found here:
http://www.reefland.com/images/pool

[Ninong]

Originally posted by Reefland:

Now I've got to build a deck around it!

That could cost more than the pool itself, depending on what you use, and will definitely take longer to set up.

One good thing about having a pool is that you will soon forget about the little increase in your electric bill that you experienced when you set up your reef tank.

Good luck with the deck project.

[Ninong]

Scott,

Are you sure it's level?

[Elmo18]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Scott,

Are you sure it's level?

That's what i was gonna ask

- Elmo

[Reefland]

There is a slight difference in height as you see in the picture; less than 2". Per the manufacturer, a 2" difference in height side-to-side is acceptable. The picture looks worse than it actually is though.

The deck is going to be a huge project and will definately cost more than the pool. We're hoping to get started on it by the end of Aug. or very beginning of Sept.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Reefland

Per the manufacturer, a 2" difference in height side-to-side is acceptable.

Yeah, right.

And would this be the same manufacturer who shipped the wrong size liner?