Getting non-floating, non-sinking leaves out - ugh!

[jtb33]

So, we have a Palo Verde (Desert Museum) in the vicinity of our pool. It offers nice shade, and I can deal with the blossoms for 3 weeks of the year, but the little tiny "leaves" is drops are another story. They are very small - probably 1/8 of an inch in size and they don't float at the top of the pool (so I can't really skim them out) and they don't all sink or settle to the bottom - they hover around between the bottom and the top. Ugh! How do I get them out?

 

[linen]

How are your returns pointed now? If they are level or slightly up, I would try pointing them down, which should encourage those leaves to collect on the bottom.

 

[jtb33]

I've found that if I turn my returns on, then my pop-up's don't always reliably pop completely up... so my return valve is closed so as to direct all water flow through the pop-ups.

The returns in my pool seem to be "fixed".

 

[linen]

That could be the problem, you might not have much surface flow moving surface water your skimmers? My theory is these little leaves then saturate with water and become neutrally buoyant...i.e. hover under the surface of the water. I would let some water flow from your returns to allow natural skimming to occur more effectively.

 

[jtb33]

That could be the problem, you might not have much surface flow moving surface water your skimmers? My theory is these little leaves then saturate with water and become neutrally buoyant...i.e. hover under the surface of the water. I would let some water flow from your returns to allow natural skimming to occur more effectively.

It seems that the pop-ups do provide good surface flow. I can see quite a bit of turbulence on the surface merely due to the pop-ups. Now, given the "natural flow" of the pool, I think that the skimmer could have been installed in a better location than it is, but that's not something I can control at this point.

If I turn the return valve on, I can only get it to about 1/8 open (7/8 on the pop-ups) and still have enough water for the pop-ups to actually "pop-up".

I attached a few pics of the little leaves that float throughout the middle of the water. Also I just went out and took a video to show it better, along with the surface flow of the water with *only* the pop-ups turned on. It's still uploading to youtube, but should be done in about 30 minutes.

 

[jtb33]

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIlg9h-tu0&hd=1

 

[linen]

I see a lot of motion on the surface, but not a lot of circulation. I still think getting some sort of flow towards your skimmer will help with those tiny leaves....catching them before they have a chance to fully saturate like they do quickly in the tanning bench due to being splashed on.

 

[keene3b07]

Squirting some dish soap in the pool, breaks the surface tension and may cause the leaves to sink

 

[duraleigh]

DO NOT add dish soap to the pool. The leaves are already below the surface of the water.