Dust Storm - Vacuuming

[trashball]

Hello,

We recently had a dust storm and there was a fair amount of fine sand dust that had settled to the bottom of my pool. It has been a struggle trying to get it all out, I am having a similar problem to djunified from this post:
brown-water-returns-through-jets-t44988.html?hilit=dirt%20jets

However, I do not have a multiport valve installed on my filter, it is a push-pull type valve where the only options are filter and backwash. I have been trying to vacuum in filter mode, but have had little success as it seems to overload and start blowing stuff out rather quickly. I assume it is not a good idea to vacuum in backwash?

I put a filter bag on the return jet to make sure it wasn't sand coming out of the filter, and it definitely is not, and there is no sign of this happening when the filter is running normally. I even tore down the filter, checked the laterals and all connections, and replaced the sand hoping this might give the filter a little more capacity to pick this stuff up. Additionally I tried add a little DE, which seems to help a bit, but the filter pressure just increases that much faster.

Should I just go buy a multiport valve and install it and vacuum to waste? I certainly can do that, its just that these types of situations don't seem that uncommon and I hate wasting that much water - especially in the desert! Thanks. The chemistry is fine, TA is a little high at 120 but I am in the process of bringing that down. I can post all the results if needed, but forgot to bring my results notes with me to work.

 

[harleysilo]

I wonder if anyone out there in the desert vacuums to waste but capture's the waste water in a tank. Let's it settle overnight, and then siphons or pumps the clean water back into the pool? I bet you could figure out how big of tank you would need just be capture the waste water in a 5 gal bucket while timing it, then figuring how long to vacuum whole pool etc. Course might be ugly to look at.....

 

[Bama Rambler]

You could buy a slime bag and direct the waste right back into the pool. It filters finer than your pool filter.

 

[trashball]

You could buy a slime bag and direct the waste right back into the pool. It filters finer than your pool filter.

Do you mean get a multiport valve and attach the slime bag to the waste line, or run it on backwash and attach the slime bag to the waste line? I was looking on their website and it isn't really clear how those things are attached, it appears that some attach to the return jets and some attach to the backwash line.

 

[Bama Rambler]

When you backwash you can hook it to the waste hose and run it back into the pool. When you're in filter mode you can hook it to the return and let it catch whatever the filter misses.

 

[calm_like_a_bomb]

My hayward vac runs when I do a backwash (I also have a push pull type valve with a sand filter). I'd "assume" that would work. However, if your backwash is any thing like mine, you'd only have a minute or two to work with before the waterline got below the tiles.

I have a 10 y/o sand filter I've never done anything to and it seems to trap the dirt the Hayward vac picks up just fine. I do usually need to backwash 2 or 3 times after a big dust storm.

I've seen some folks on here describing adding DE to a sand filter to help trap smaller particles? Maybe that would work?

I've always just used the backwash water to water the grass.

CLB

 

[trashball]

My hayward vac runs when I do a backwash (I also have a push pull type valve with a sand filter). I'd "assume" that would work. However, if your backwash is any thing like mine, you'd only have a minute or two to work with before the waterline got below the tiles.

CLB

I have tried DE in the sand filter, it helps somewhat. Vacuuming does work when you have it in backwash position, my concern was that if you vac while in backwash you may get material stuck on the wrong side of the filter media (on what would normally be the clean side), so I don't think it is necessarily a good idea. The filter picks up almost everything, it is just this really find sand that blows over from my neighbors "lawn" that just seems to pass right through when I vacuum it up, although based on my experience the filter clearly picks up some of it, it just takes several cycles of vac/backwash/settle to get it all out completely - which is quite a pain. If you don't have a problem with fine particles, perhaps my filter isn't working right, but I have heard from others that they have difficulty with sand filters and really fine stuff.

 

[trashball]

Just to follow up for anyone with the same problem.

The slime bags sort of worked, but not really all that well - I found every time I had to pull them out to clean them a lot of Crud would get released back into the pool, so it seems sort of pointless. I'm not sure what solved the problem, I discovered I had a small section-side leak just before the pump connection, I didn't even notice the air bubbles until I was out one night with the pool light on. Once I fixed this, and added a little more DE than 1 psi's worth (about 1/4 cup extra), it seems to be doing much better. My guess would be that the air leak was the primary problem, don't know how I missed it before. Oh well, hope this helps someone else down the road.

Trashball