Hi guys. I am so glad I found you before I started my first pool venture. Although here in Peru I am not able to get many of the pool chemicals you recommend here, learning the basics from you really got us started off on the right foot.
My question is about filters. I have 2 parallel 200 square foot Pentair filters. Our pool has been running for about 16 months now. We are still on the first cartridges, although we will need to replace them soon. In order to keep the pool crystal clear, we have to clean them every week, or they build up enough algae and crud that the circulation for the pool is cut down so much that the SWG has flow problems. We are in the sub-tropic rainforest region, and have high temps, so I know the situation is not the norm. Our water is 87-92 degrees year round. I have to pump water out of the pool most weeks due to heavy rainfall. I do run the variable speed pump 24hrs a day on speed 2 (just enough for the SWG's flow needs). I am wondering if adding a sand filter before the cartridge filters might save me some cleaning time on the cartridges. I know that it will cause a reduction in flow, but maybe a filter system with the possibility of backwashing might be better? We have a pretty high bather load of everyone from expats to indigenous tribal people, so even though we ask everyone to shower before entering the pool, our filters do have a lot of work to do. Any advice would be appreciated. I know we just jumped into this pool thing with no experience in either building a pool or running a pool, but here we are, and thanks to this site, we seem to have avoided many headaches. I still have a lot to learn from you. Thanks again guys.
My question is about filters. I have 2 parallel 200 square foot Pentair filters. Our pool has been running for about 16 months now. We are still on the first cartridges, although we will need to replace them soon. In order to keep the pool crystal clear, we have to clean them every week, or they build up enough algae and crud that the circulation for the pool is cut down so much that the SWG has flow problems. We are in the sub-tropic rainforest region, and have high temps, so I know the situation is not the norm. Our water is 87-92 degrees year round. I have to pump water out of the pool most weeks due to heavy rainfall. I do run the variable speed pump 24hrs a day on speed 2 (just enough for the SWG's flow needs). I am wondering if adding a sand filter before the cartridge filters might save me some cleaning time on the cartridges. I know that it will cause a reduction in flow, but maybe a filter system with the possibility of backwashing might be better? We have a pretty high bather load of everyone from expats to indigenous tribal people, so even though we ask everyone to shower before entering the pool, our filters do have a lot of work to do. Any advice would be appreciated. I know we just jumped into this pool thing with no experience in either building a pool or running a pool, but here we are, and thanks to this site, we seem to have avoided many headaches. I still have a lot to learn from you. Thanks again guys.