That massive pool restoration project

[Poconos]

Been using stream water for probably 6-7 years and no problem. I do run the chlorine up some after topping off but not to shock levels. Heck, people swim in ponds all the time. I use a small sump pump if I'm not in a hurry to fill, and run it into the skimmer with the pool pump running. This takes care of any dirt or stuff that may get sucked up. If I need a rapid fill, such as when I was chasing a 50 GPH leak, I used an old 1 HP pool pump. Then I pumped into the waste line, set the regular pool sand filter to backwash, and the filtered stream water came out the skimmer thus passing it thru the pool filter in the right direction. Obviously this assumes the stream is relatively clean and there isn't a chicken farm or something like that upstream.
Go for it.
Al

[peppercorn]

Thanks Mark and Al!


My stream is mighty clean and is the source I fill from every year (after the acid wash down and 6 gallons of fresh acylic blue heaven on the bottom only) in Mid May with a 150 gpm trash pump. I can run the water directly into a 1" trichlor puck feeder, but I try to keep CA at 40 ish. The core of the question is really whether the tee idea will work. I want to keep flow rates up to 90gph and run the intelliflo to that level. Does anyone think I'll need a backflow preventer on the main pump side? Any hydraulically inclined minds care to weigh in?

P.S. Some of you thinking about new pumps might seriously want to consider this intelliflo. By throttling down to bare minimum turns per day and keeping ahead of the water, I added only about $50 per month to my power bill. Considering 85K gallons, I think this pump may pay for itself VERY rapidly. Just food for thought.

Regards,

Josh

[Poconos]

I assume you wouldn't be running both the pool and stream pumps simultaneously. Rather than installing check valves I would just use ball valves and manually throw them when needed. Check valves do present some added flow resistance. PVC ball valves are also cheaper and you don't have to worry about any spring mechanism being affected by the chlorine.
Al