HELP!! High Pressure every hour on opening!

[vshayevich]

Good Evening All,

HELP!! I was hoping someone could give us some advice. We opened the pool on Sunday. Took off the cover and literally had tadpoles in there. It was dark green, smelled awful, had a lot of debris, etc. We shocked and shocked since Sunday. The water was circulating non-stop, but the people at Leslie's told us to have it bypass the filter since we want to kill all the algae, etc first. Now our water is a very light/milky green. Same sort of thing that happened last year. I understand that dead algae is white, correct? Well tonight we primed our brand new Hayward Pro Grid DE filter, and after 1 hour the pressure was sky high. Backwashed and did it again....another hour ridiculous pressure again. I know it's getting clogged that fast, but what are we supposed to do in the middle of the night? There has to be some alternative to getting up every hour. I know everyone doesn't have to do that. Any advice? Our pool is inground, 20K gallon, vinyl liner. HELP!!!!

Thanks!

 

[loughps]

You should get some expert help soon, but if you're looking for a fast answer, I'd suggest moving back to bypass during the hours you can't tend to the filter until it's building up at a more reasonable rate. DE filters are notorious for finely filtering the water, but when it's got a lot of stuff in it, that means a lot of backwashing.

-- Pete

 

[duraleigh]

Ditto what loughps said. DE filters are troublesome when it comes to removing a LOT of debris. You'll have to do it during the day when you can attend to it. Each cycle should get longer and longer.

Are you testing your water? If you don't have adequate chlorine, the algae will grow faster than you can filter it out.

 

[vshayevich]

Thanks for the advice. Pretty much what we figured, just weren't sure if there was some other way to do it. Surely people don't have to get up in the middle of the night multiple times to open their pools. Maybe next year we'll find a way to stop all that algae from growing during the winter. As far as testing the water, we are testing it and are keeping the chlorine at shock levels to make sure everything remains dead. What do pool companies do at times like this? Is there some chemical they use so they don't have to camp out at someone's house?

 

[duraleigh]

Maybe next year we'll find a way to stop all that algae from growing during the winter

That's the only real solution and it is very doable. You'll need better water management but it's nothing that can't be accomplished. YOu end up trading off a little bit of time each day instead of a WHOLE LOT of time in the Spring. :-D

 

[zea3]

If you can vacuum to waste that would be the best way to get rid of the dead algae that has settled on the bottom of the pool. I assume you can since you mention backwashing the filter. Also after several backwashes, you will need to open up the filter and hose off the grids. Backwashing only removes some of the old DE. The remaining DE can clog the filter over time when fresh DE is added after a backwash.

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

Leslie's is notorious for telling homeowners to brush after shocking. This sends everything into suspension. With the amount of gook in suspension and the long period, if the system was turned off, it would take for the suspended particles to fall, to speed things up, I would floc the pool. This causes everything to drop to the bottom overnight. The next day I can vacuum to waste.

This does have it's costs. Floc, DE, and chems are reduced as this is essentially diluting the pool but the time saved and reduced frustration is worth it for many.

Scott

 

[vshayevich]

What exactly is floc?

 

[JasonLion]

Floc is a chemical that causes debris suspended in the water to clump together and fall to the bottom of the pool where it can be vacuumed up. It is quite a bit of work, doesn't always work, and you need a pump/filter that is capable of vacuuming to waste if you want to do it. It does speed up the process of clearing the water, still the filter alone will do that without much work on your part if you give it time.

 

[vshayevich]

Thanks Jason. How many days of backwash every hour do you think we'd have to do? We both work full time. Not sure what to do until the weekend? Keep it circulating and keep shocking? Or stop the shocking? The water is basically like a milky light greenish/blue color. Have not seen the bottom of the pool yet this year....

 

[loughps]

Even if you have to put the system on bypass, keep your pool at shock level. That way all the nasties are dead and it's a matter of getting them out of the pool. If you try to shock and filter only on the weekend you may never get the pool clear.

My two cents is to keep it on bypass when you can't be there to monitor the pressure. Assuming you're home from work in the evening, every evening, put it back on filter and backwash as needed. Over the course of the week, it should take longer for the pressure to raise and eventually you'll be able to leave it on filter. As zea3 said, completely clean the filter as needed too, otherwise your filter will not be working optimally.

Good luck!!

-- Pete

 

[JasonLion]

How many cycles of cleaning the filter you need to go through is unpredictable. Usually a DE filter can clean the water up in a day if you are there to pay attention to it as needed all day.