Boy do I have a mess to deal with!

[apastuszak]

Well, all I have to say is I didn't cover my pool. Well, I did cover it finally on April 30th because I had my son's First Holy Communion party.

So, I'm going to uncover it today, in the 99 degree heat and fill it up and get the filter running.

MY question is, since it's been covered for a month, has the lack of light helped kill any of the algae that was profusely growing in the water.

 

[zea3]

Doubtful. Lots of folks hear have opened covered pools that were full of nasty algea, even when they were clean when closed. Stock up on bleach and DE, your going to need it!

 

[apastuszak]

Doubtful. Lots of folks hear have opened covered pools that were full of nasty algea, even when they were clean when closed. Stock up on bleach and DE, your going to need it!

It's an above ground. I'm tempted to drain and refill. Or perhaps drain half and refill. We'll see how it looks. I'm putting the filter back together now after an acid soak.

 

[257WbyMag]

Be careful about doing a drain/refill on an above ground pool. You can run into problems with the liner by doing this.

 

[Richard320]

Green can be fixed.

You ought to run a full set of tests, then make a rational decision whether to treat it, partial drain and treat it, or drain it all and still have to treat it to kill the residual algae stuckl to the walls and in the plumbing.

A lot depends on the CH and CYA levels.

 

[apastuszak]

Well, I took the cover off the pool and the lack of light killed all the algae. It's all sitting on the bottom waiting to be vacuumed out. Doesn't smell very nice, but I think it's salvageable.

 

[JasonLion]

Get some chlorine in right away. Not all of the algae is going to be dead. When the light returns it will start growing again.

 

[apastuszak]

Get some chlorine in right away. Not all of the algae is going to be dead. When the light returns it will start growing again.

Poured two huge bottles in last night. Will add more today when I get home.

 

[apastuszak]

The water is now almost crystal clear. Just need to vacuum the bottom tonight.

One question though. When I bump the DE with the bump handle a whole lot of stuff comes out of the return. It does not do this when I regenerate and add new DE.

I am taking water in to the local pool store for testing while I wait for the test kit to come in the mail. (They're getting annoyed I don't buy anything....) But here is what they told me, and I want to confirm with people that actually know what they're doing: They claim that because the water was really dirty, the DE has grabbed a LOT of debris. When I bump it, I knock all that down. A lot of the particles are small enough to fit through the fingers but not the DE. It will continue to shoot debris out until the DE coats the fingers and stops the stuff from coming out.

Is this a reasonable assumption in any way?

 

[Richard320]

That sounds logical to me. The DE does the filtering, not the screen.

If you backflush and replace the DE and the problem goes away, you'll know.