Damaged DE Filter

[achristie]

Hello! I've had my pool for four years now. The first couple of years was easy to maintain because of the SWC but I'm now realizing that the guy who installed it did a lousy job teaching me how to take care of it. Because it's becoming much more difficult to maintain, I've been doing a lot of research to figure out what I should be doing that I haven't been, which is a lot!

I love the site! Excellent information! Well, at least I hope since I haven't actually put it into practice yet. But it seems like people who've posted are happy with their results.

I am planning to buy a test kit so that I can put the BBB pool maintenance method into practice. However, my pool is murky now, I have a problem that I need to fix before I can implement BBB, and I need some clarification that I hope you fine folks can help me with.

My problem is that I seem to have a hole in at least on of the grids of my DE filter. When I add DE, I see quite a bit of it coming out of the water jets. If I have a hole or tear, then I assume I'm getting little, if any, filter action. Unfortunately, it will be about a week before I'll have the time to take the filter apart to inspect it and then, if there is tear, probably another few days before I get the replacement parts. So my question is, what do I do about the murky water in the meantime? Is there any benefit to running my pump and SWC? I have the SWC on Super Chlorinate, but I'm not sure if there's any benefit to that if there's nothing to filter out the dead algae and sludge. On the other side of the coin, I hate to not run the pump and SWC because it's starting to get hot and I fear the algae will get worse. I want to minimize the amount of sludge I'll be pulling thru my new grids, if I have to get them.

I look forward to your response. Thanks and keep up the great work!

22,000 gallons; 16x32 rectangle; 3.5Ft-8Ft Depth; Pentair Whisper Flow 2 speed Pump 1.5/.5HP; Pentair FNSP60 DE Filter; Aqua Rite SWC. Polaris 180 cleaner.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

It is important to maintain your FC level, regardless of problems with the filter. One good option is to set your main valve to the recirculate position. That bypasses the filter, and still keeps the water circulating. That will also allow you to run the SWG so you don't need to add chlorine manually.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I would only add that using the Superchlorinate feature can shorten the life of the cell, you are better off if you need to shock, to use liquid chlorine. Since you have "murky" water, consider this while shocking your pool.

Welcome to TFP!

 

[achristie]

Excellent! That's good to know. So once I get my filter fixed, what's the best way to clear the murkiness without clogging up the filter too much? Last year our local pool store recommended we go through a process similar to this:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_yo...onstantly_having_to_bump_and_drain_the_filter

Would you recommend the same thing?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Would you recommend the same thing?

No, except the "vacume to waste" part - if your filter allows that.

You can read our recommendations on clearing your pool in Pool School, specifically these three articles:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/defeating_algae
http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool
http://www.troublefreepool.com/turning-your-green-swamp-back-into-a-sparking-oasis-t4147.html

Keep your posts regarding clearing your pool and testing your water on this same thread.

Good luck!

 

[JasonLion]

If you really want to minimize the use of the filter, it is possible to do a floc treatment after any algae is completely dead. We don't normally recommend that, because it is simpler and cheaper to let the filter do it's job. Either way, you want to make sure that there isn't any living algae in the pool by shocking with chlorine first until the FC level remains the same, or really close, overnight.

 

[achristie]

So should I bother shocking the pool at this point or do I need to just keep running the SWG on recirculate until I get the filter repaired?

 

[JasonLion]

If your FC level has fallen to zero you should shock. If you have been able to maintain a non-zero FC level then there shouldn't be any need to shock.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Since you described your water as murky above....does that mean dark/green/cloudy?

I'm guessing you will need to shock. With the filter set to recirculate, you will kill the algae with the chlorine, but you won't be able to "clear" your pool without your filter working properly... The dead algae will likely just turn the water grey/cloudy/milky, some may settle to the bottom (which actually would help if you can in fact vacume to waste)....either way I would turn off the superchlorinate feature if you haven't already.

 

[achristie]

Since you described your water as murky above....does that mean dark/green/cloudy?

It's cloudy. I can see the bottom of the shallow end but not the deep end. I would describe the shade of green as medium. Of course, it's darker in the deep end than the shallow end. There is algae that seems to be gradually dying. I was reading the directions for shocking and it talks about spending continuous time adding chlorine, waiting, then retesting until I'm able to get the FC level to remain relatively constant overnight. And it also says to make sure the pump and filter are functioning properly. So I just wasn't sure if it was worth spending the time to get the FC level constant if I didn't have a filter to remove the dead algae. Does dead algae promote the growth of new algae in anyway?

Perhaps it's good to at least get the process started and I can also vacuum whatever I can to waste in the meantime. Then once the filter is fixed, I can use it to do the fine tuning.

In any event, I WILL be disabling the superchlorinate mode on the SWG. Those cells are expensive and it's a brand new cell!