Not just brownish water for me, I swear it's just about everything I vacuum.
Thought maybe it was just really small particles at first but placing a sock over the return jet collected lots of larger stuff. (most notably tons of little red worms..ew)
The pool is a 27 foot above ground, with a hayward c850 filter. Pool sat for at least 2 years before we bought the house and probably more.. neighbor says he never saw pool activity in 5 years.
Guess I'll just go over everything we've done, sorry if it gets a bit long winded.
After removing the cover earlier in the spring (cover just about disintegrated pulling it off) my wife went to town using a scoop skimmer removing leaves and such off the bottom, blindly of course.
She got tons of stuff out, leaving it in nice neat piles around the pool for me to pick up
Decided it would be a good idea to just drain it and start fresh. Using a small pump running several hours a day we drained it into our driveway drain, until a friend said "STOP!"
Explained that any water can be brought back, and we were throwing money down the drain. So we stopped, pool was about halfway empty.
It sat like that for a few weeks. we havnt been in the house a full year, and with plenty of other stuff to do I didnt know if we really wanted to take on the expense of bringing
this pool up to a swimmable condition. Eventually we fill it up and get the pump/filter going.
Working with the local pool supply company the Mrs. takes them samples and starts working with the chemicals (Don't chuckle, I hadn't been to pool school at that point)
She asked about vacuuming it and the guy said no, I dunno if he knew what she had taken off the bottom before, how long it sat, or anything like that. I take the skimmer/scoop and
run it across the bottom from the outside rim to the center and pull up. Reminded me of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak they had last year. Blackest of black gritty slimy mushroom cloud came up from the bottom. (as well as a scooper full of larger stuff)
I figure this stuff has to come out. The vacuum I couldn't seem to get pressure, and the sediment seemed more than I wanted to put through there anyhow. I end up IN the pool with the scooper meticulously scooping stuff off the bottom and dumping it outside the pool. (picking sticks up with my toes as I find them, not too many, but enough little ones I started to get good at it)
A short while after that I did get the vacuum up and running with awesome pressure, the pool had settled and cleared up a bit from shocking. I get in with the vacuum and start going over the bottom again. Blackest black shoots out the return jet. Skimmer basket filled with leaves really fast (I checked almost immediately after I started, and dumped it out every few minutes) I was happy to get the vacuum running, and getting all the leaves for sure was going to be awesome. Didn't know what to think about the black water from the jet, just though maybe it was too small for the filter to get. Few times during vacuuming I did get out, disconnect the vacuum, shut down the pump, drain the filter, removed and hosed out the cartridge. But although it was a little dirty I was pretty sure not dirty enough for what I was putting through there.
I've put bleach in periodically just to keep it from not looking totally disgusting, not really doing much else until the filter gets figured out. Tried different things with the filer and vacuum today. Tried pushing cartridge down as hard as I could, tried just setting it in there delicately, tried it upside down and right side up (if it even matters, which I don't think it does)
Cartridge does have a hairline crack, but water passing thru that would still just hit the pleats of the filter.
The lid to the filter screws down the same amount whether the cartridge is in or not. But it does come a bit short of what I THINK is meant stop it.. a little tab that sticks up from the side.
I checked the threads on the filter housing, but just thought to myself I didnt check the threads on the lid! Next time I'm outside.
So thats it, in a nutshell. Do I try a new cartridge for $65-$100? or go for another filter?
This late in the season I'm probably going to try the cartridge, and if problem is still there put the pool off till next year.
So maybe this typing was all in vain unless someone knows whats up with the filter??
Anyhow, AWESOME forums! I'll be around every summer.
=p
Thought maybe it was just really small particles at first but placing a sock over the return jet collected lots of larger stuff. (most notably tons of little red worms..ew)
The pool is a 27 foot above ground, with a hayward c850 filter. Pool sat for at least 2 years before we bought the house and probably more.. neighbor says he never saw pool activity in 5 years.
Guess I'll just go over everything we've done, sorry if it gets a bit long winded.
After removing the cover earlier in the spring (cover just about disintegrated pulling it off) my wife went to town using a scoop skimmer removing leaves and such off the bottom, blindly of course.
She got tons of stuff out, leaving it in nice neat piles around the pool for me to pick up
Decided it would be a good idea to just drain it and start fresh. Using a small pump running several hours a day we drained it into our driveway drain, until a friend said "STOP!"
Explained that any water can be brought back, and we were throwing money down the drain. So we stopped, pool was about halfway empty.
It sat like that for a few weeks. we havnt been in the house a full year, and with plenty of other stuff to do I didnt know if we really wanted to take on the expense of bringing
this pool up to a swimmable condition. Eventually we fill it up and get the pump/filter going.
Working with the local pool supply company the Mrs. takes them samples and starts working with the chemicals (Don't chuckle, I hadn't been to pool school at that point)
She asked about vacuuming it and the guy said no, I dunno if he knew what she had taken off the bottom before, how long it sat, or anything like that. I take the skimmer/scoop and
run it across the bottom from the outside rim to the center and pull up. Reminded me of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak they had last year. Blackest of black gritty slimy mushroom cloud came up from the bottom. (as well as a scooper full of larger stuff)
I figure this stuff has to come out. The vacuum I couldn't seem to get pressure, and the sediment seemed more than I wanted to put through there anyhow. I end up IN the pool with the scooper meticulously scooping stuff off the bottom and dumping it outside the pool. (picking sticks up with my toes as I find them, not too many, but enough little ones I started to get good at it)
A short while after that I did get the vacuum up and running with awesome pressure, the pool had settled and cleared up a bit from shocking. I get in with the vacuum and start going over the bottom again. Blackest black shoots out the return jet. Skimmer basket filled with leaves really fast (I checked almost immediately after I started, and dumped it out every few minutes) I was happy to get the vacuum running, and getting all the leaves for sure was going to be awesome. Didn't know what to think about the black water from the jet, just though maybe it was too small for the filter to get. Few times during vacuuming I did get out, disconnect the vacuum, shut down the pump, drain the filter, removed and hosed out the cartridge. But although it was a little dirty I was pretty sure not dirty enough for what I was putting through there.
I've put bleach in periodically just to keep it from not looking totally disgusting, not really doing much else until the filter gets figured out. Tried different things with the filer and vacuum today. Tried pushing cartridge down as hard as I could, tried just setting it in there delicately, tried it upside down and right side up (if it even matters, which I don't think it does)
Cartridge does have a hairline crack, but water passing thru that would still just hit the pleats of the filter.
The lid to the filter screws down the same amount whether the cartridge is in or not. But it does come a bit short of what I THINK is meant stop it.. a little tab that sticks up from the side.
I checked the threads on the filter housing, but just thought to myself I didnt check the threads on the lid! Next time I'm outside.
So thats it, in a nutshell. Do I try a new cartridge for $65-$100? or go for another filter?
This late in the season I'm probably going to try the cartridge, and if problem is still there put the pool off till next year.
So maybe this typing was all in vain
unless someone knows whats up with the filter??Anyhow, AWESOME forums! I'll be around every summer.
=p
: 
