Filtering issue

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bentley311

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Jul 8, 2015
13
Tucson, AZ
So I recently had to replace my pool pump because the old one died. New one is up and running and appears to be running fine. After running it for about 3 days straight (after having it offline for 3 days), the pool started to look quite clear again. I then went ahead and set it to run on a normal on/off cycle and had it shutdown in the evening and to turn back on again the following morning. The following morning, the pool was quite cloudy and I have not been able to recover it back again. I have CYA around 60, been keeping my chlorine at 7.5 as the target, and the daily changes look fine, and no CC found. It does not appear to be a chemical issue.

I went ahead and did the deep cleaning on my sand filter, and it was so dirty, and I suspect that the prior owner had never done anything like this to it. We have lots of mesquite trees and this thing not only had a ton of mesquite leaves in it, but what appears to almost be soil as it has been breaking down inside of it. A lot of it would not run out the top during the cleaning so I reached in and scooped out a ton with my hands. I believe the overall sand level is slightly low now, and I am not convinced that there still isn't a ton of debris buried in the filter. In the short term, I put it all back together, and have been letting it run to see if it has made an improvement to the filtering. This has not been the case thus far. The pool has gotten cloudier by quite a bit, and the pump is still running 24/7. This deep clean was done on Friday afternoon.

I know the general school of thought here is that pool sand never needs to be replaced, but I am wondering if it might be worth the effort to do so here since I have no real history on this pool and what has been done to maintain this pool filter set up in the past, and so far, I cannot get the pool clear. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I am also wondering if I can use pea pebbles from home depot for the bottom layer (it calls for 50 lbs pea gravel) so long as I pre rinse them?

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated, as I am really at my wits end trying to figure out how to get my pool corrected and I hate the idea of paying a "pool" person to come out because I suspect they will want to throw chemicals and other unnecessary things at it.

Thanks,
Chris
 
Hi Chris. You're right, we generally say folks don't need to change sand unless it was compromised in the past by the use of a unique pool store product or process that could've changed the composition of the sand. As you noted, there is no real history on what the previous owners may have done, so it may not be a bad idea if you've ruled everything else out. Would you mind confirming which test kit you are using? You might also want to add it to your signature. :wink:
 
Hi Texas,

I am using the Taylor K-2006 Test kit. I also went ahead and added this to my signature as suggested. I figure at this point it might be worth the small investment in pea gravel and sand to see if it makes a difference, but I wasn't sure if there was anything else obvious that I should consider.

Thanks!
 
Hi there,

I'd be more inclined to think the start of algae than a filter issue, especially since pump wasn't running for three days. Why not try doing an overnight chlorine lost test before jumping the gun on filter issues?
 
I did the OCLT and it was at 7.5 last night and tested at 6.5 this morning with no CC. Still think it's an algae issue? I'm willing to try SLAMMING it just for the heck of it, but just don't want to throw chemicals at it if it doesn't make sense.
 
Nope. I'm sticking with my gut in post #2. :) Since you don't know the history of the sand, previous ownership maintenance, and/or what they may have done (added) to it, I think it's a viable option to replace the sand. This way you know for sure. You've already passed the OCLT, seem to maintained proper FC levels, and already ID'd some questionable junk in the sand when you deep cleaned it for the first time. If it were me, I would replace the sand, then give the pool a couple days to adjust and run another full set of tests and see where you stand. Keep us posted.
 
Texas Splash said:
Nope. I'm sticking with my gut in post #2. :) Since you don't know the history of the sand, previous ownership maintenance, and/or what they may have done (added) to it, I think it's a viable option to replace the sand. This way you know for sure. You've already passed the OCLT, seem to maintained proper FC levels, and already ID'd some questionable junk in the sand when you deep cleaned it for the first time. If it were me, I would replace the sand, then give the pool a couple days to adjust and run another full set of tests and see where you stand. Keep us posted.
Click to expand...

I did go ahead and replace the sand yesterday, and finished around 7:00 PM last night. Filter has been running since then but no clearing up to this point.
 
Filter has been running since then but no clearing up to this point.
Click to expand...
Alright, don't make a liar out of me. :) We'll keep our fingers crossed that the old sand had something bad in it that couldn't be resolved with the deep clean and hope this does the trick in the next day or two. If not, we're back to square one - SLAM. Ugh.
 

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