How much water should I drain ?

[y_not]

WOW!
Talk about a killer price!
I don't thinlk I could beat that if I tried!

 

[AlphaMare101]

Just to be sure... do I add cellulose fiber after each time I back wash( filter pressure increased by 8)?

 

[y_not]

Yes, you do, as it washes out.
You only want a 1-2psi increase when you add that.

And as always, only backwash at 20-25% increase over clean pressure. Percent increase, NOT PSI.

Is it helping to speed things along... have pics?

 

[AlphaMare101]

I checked & my local Home Depot had the cellulose in stock. My husband picked up a bag on his way home from work today. I got twice as much product for 25% less in cost. Thanks so much for the info!

 

[AlphaMare101]

I hate that I didn't take pics before I started. I will try to get some tomorrow. I swear, the cellulose has already made a difference in just a little over 3 hours( 3 backwashings, too!) I'm hoping it will be clear by tomorrow night !! :-D

 

[techguy]

Glad I could be helpful and could save you money.

 

[y_not]

I checked & my local Home Depot had the cellulose in stock. My husband picked up a bag on his way home from work today. I got twice as much product for 25% less in cost. Thanks so much for the info!

:fro:
Soon you'll be able to enjoy your crystal-clear as glass pool!
Were you able to cancel your other order and how is it holding up? Meaning, how far is the bag going?

On a related note...
Did you ever clean out your sand bed as instructed in my sig? If not, do it as soon as you can. Has to be done seasonally, at the end or beginning, your choice.
I don't recall if I asked and if you replied. It's late, so I don't want to get sucked into looking, if you know what I mean.

 

[AlphaMare101]

I know what you mean about getting caught up searching...next thing you know an hour or more has gone by! The other stuff was delivered late yesterday afternoon & I actually used almost all of it in about 3 hours!
It is working great! Before I added it, you could make out the main drain in the deep end, but couldn't see the bottom. After the 3 applications & backwashes, I could see a HUGE difference. This morning I can make out the liner pattern in the bottom.
We have not cleaned the sand in the filter, but are planning that for this am!

 

[AlphaMare101]

We got the sand filter cleaned out this morning. My husband really didn't want to take the top off of the filter & "hose" it! He kept saying "backwashing cleans the sand". I was "persistent", shall we say, & he reluctantly helped me. I think he knew one way or the other, it was going to get done
After we got it all clean & put back together, he realized how easy it was & even commented @ how much better the pool seemed to be circulating.
I had to leave for a few hours, & when I got back, of course the first thing I did was check on the pool( It has become my obsession :lol: ) I walked out around the pool deck, looked into the deep end & almost cried!! I could clearly see the bottom!! It still isn't quite crystal clear, but close. WAY clearer than yesterday for sure.
I have worked so hard on this pool. I had ruptured disc in my neck & surgery in May & was not able to really do a whole lot with the pool myself, until this past week. No lifting> 15 lbs & I really couldn't properly vacuum or brush the pool.
Boy, did I get on that pool after the "Doc" gave me the "ok" this past Monday. I am just amazed at how quickly it has cleared using the advice here!!
My husband is the most awesome man I have ever met. He just has had a hard time letting go of just checking the water with test strips or taking a sample to the pool store & following their advice.
He is amazed by the improvement in the pool.. I think he's a believer now!!

 

[jblizzle]

Congrats on taking control and getting him to see the light. Sounds like you are very close to having a nice clear pool that is easy to maintain for the rest of the summer

 

[y_not]

I know what you mean about getting caught up searching...next thing you know an hour or more has gone by!

Yeah, tell me about it, despite best efforts, I got caught up looking at Walt Disney stuff and stayed up till 5am. Ugghhh!

We got the sand filter cleaned out this morning. My husband really didn't want to take the top off of the filter & "hose" it! He kept saying "backwashing cleans the sand". I was "persistent", shall we say, & he reluctantly helped me. I think he knew one way or the other, it was going to get done

Aaah, the persuasiveness of a woman. I mean that in the kindest way, you ladies keep us on track when we need it most. But don't let it go to your head though. *wink*

After we got it all clean & put back together, he realized how easy it was & even commented @ how much better the pool seemed to be circulating.

An actual noticeable difference huh? Did lots of funk come out when you stuck the hose in it? Could your husband see the need for it when you were down in it? Sometimes they're really bad and other times It's subtle. How old is it?

I had to leave for a few hours, & when I got back, of course the first thing I did was check on the pool( It has become my obsession :lol: )

Well of course! Hehe Hehe

I walked out around the pool deck, looked into the deep end & almost cried!! I could clearly see the bottom!! It still isn't quite crystal clear, but close. WAY clearer than yesterday for sure.

Wohoo!!

I have worked so hard on this pool. I had ruptured disc in my neck & surgery in May & was not able to really do a whole lot with the pool myself, until this past week. No lifting> 15 lbs & I really couldn't properly vacuum or brush the pool.

That does not sound fun at all! No ruptured disc here, but a pretty nasty car wreck back in '09, couldn't even bend over and pick up a piece of paper off the ground for months. Not fun! Still not the same since, part of the reason for the pool. That and it is also my obsession now as well.

Boy, did I get on that pool after the "Doc" gave me the "ok" this past Monday. I am just amazed at how quickly it has cleared using the advice here!!

I bet!! It probably felt wonderful too, huh?

My husband is the most awesome man I have ever met.

*BIG GIANT SMILE!! Of which there isn't an avatar big enough.*

He just has had a hard time letting go of just checking the water with test strips or taking a sample to the pool store & following their advice.
He is amazed by the improvement in the pool.. I think he's a believer now!!

Seeing is believing!

 

[supercanadian]

This thread just makes you smile. Glad things are working out for you.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[AlphaMare101]

The sand wasn't too bad. I got my husband to place a small ziplock bag over the pipe in the middle (not sure of the name of it ), secure it with a rubber band & hold the water hose in the filter . I stuck my arm down in the sand & gently moved it around with the water running. Then I SLOWLY poked the hose into the sand bed about a 12-18 in. in several different places, going all the way around the diameter of the filter. I was afraid to go deeper because I don't know far down the laterals are.
Next we let the water run in the filter until the water coming out over the top was clear & clean. I then smoothed the sand, removed the plastic bag & my husband reassembled the filter & T-15 cell.
The whole process only took about 45min, with about 1/2 of that time just letting the water run into the filter. No bad chunks of gunk, but a lot of cloudy water, a good bit of what appeared to be dead algae, a little grass, & few tiny bugs flowed out
The sand was changed 5 years ago, which won't be done again until we have to replace the laterals. I can't believe we paid to have the sand changed out at least every 5 years for the past 20 years, & only one of those times was due to broken laterals!
I love TFP!! :-D

 

[y_not]

The sand wasn't too bad. <snip>
Next we let the water run in the filter until the water coming out over the top was clear & clean. I then smoothed the sand, removed the plastic bag & my husband reassembled the filter & T-15 cell.
The whole process only took about 45min, with about 1/2 of that time just letting the water run into the filter. No bad chunks of gunk, but a lot of cloudy water, a good bit of what appeared to be dead algae, a little grass, & few tiny bugs flowed out.

Sounds like you got quite a bit of gunk out of the filter. See what backwashing misses? It's crazy!!
Was it clumped, or slimy at all, if so, did that go away?

The sand was changed 5 years ago, which won't be done again until we have to replace the laterals. I can't believe we paid to have the sand changed out at least every 5 years for the past 20 years, & only one of those times was due to broken laterals!
I love TFP!! :-D

Yeah, me too!!

HAHA, yeah! Sand never wears out, despite what the "professionals" think. It's more like a proffit scheme than anything else, honestly, many seem to truly believe that it does "wear out". It just sits in there, compacted, like a cake. How can that wear out??
The only time it moves around is on a backwash, that's not enough to "round it off" through tumbling.
With proper water balance & sanitation, your sand will either outlast the filter, or the pool, or both.

How did you end up with broken laterals? One way to avoid that is to use a layer of pea gravel on the bottom where the laterals are. It creates a barrier between the sand & laterals, reducing pressure on them and eliminating clogging of the sand in the the lateral grids, where the sand normally gets pushed into the grids and gets stuck over time.
Some argue it, but the sand sitting on top of the layer of gravel only travels down so far into the gravel bed before it backs up and clogs, stopping any further sand from traveling through the gravel & reaching the laterals.
This is what they do in waste treatment plants, among other "tweaks", as well as very large swimming pools.
It prolongs lateral life, aids in more thorough backwashing and increases flow rate during regular filtration mode.

The following aren't necessarily things you have to fix, just things I thought I should point out.

Your sand filter is considerably below the recommended size for your pool. Your filter is nearly 2.4x smaller than the recommended size for your pool.
From our pump & hydraulics expert's post: Hydraulics 101

Cartridge & DE sizes should be doubled, sand is correct.
You'll see that for your size pool of 40k gal, it is recommended to have a 7.4SQft sand filter, your current filter in your sig is 3.14SQft.

This doesn't mean it won't filter, it just takes longer to do so. IE. The filter can't trap as much junk for any given amount of water that flows through it at any one given time and it just simply has to be backwashed more often.
The flow rate is what dictates the former and is a bit complicated. It's mostly the later, having to backwash more often.

Also, if your pump motor is not a 2-speed motor, you can save boatloads of electricity by switching to one. Forget variable speed motors, unless your electricity rates are sky high, or your pool setup is highly complex. Read, lots of toys like; spa, fountains, suction side cleaners, etc... Then you won't benefit from one of those, as those things aside, they otherwise never pay for themselves.
By running a 2-speed motor on low speed, you move half the water for 1/3 the electrical consumption. See how that saves money?

Usually replacing a perfectly good pump, and/or motor with a more energy efficient 2-speed design isn't advised unless it's just really old and starting to show signs of failure, or your electric rates and particular pool warrant it.

Mark (mas985) has some pump efficiency charts at the end of his 2nd post on that page, as well as an energy cost calculation spreadsheet in his 3rd post on that page.
That is if you really want to get into the calculations on energy consumption and such. Warning... it'll likely make your head hurt!!

Just things to place in the pipe for when you're planning to do upgrades, or things start to fail, etc....

Also, take a look at this short article that'll help you save even more money.... FOR FREE!!
Who doesn't like free, right?
pool-school/pump_run_time
Since most people run their pumps waaayyy waaaaayyyy too long, this can really take a chunk out of ye' olde' electric bill each month.

 

[AlphaMare101]

Thanks for the information. We were thinking our filter was small & planned to upgrade when it dies. Same for the pump. Our plumbing is 1 1/2 in, so 1 1/2hp would be the largest pump we could use, right? I am clueless about variable speed motors. We will have to do some research. :?

 

[AlphaMare101]

The filter was about 15 yrs old when the laterals broke.

 

[AlphaMare101]

Just wanted to thank everyone for all of the GREAT advice. My pool is now CRYSTAL CLEAR!! I can see the bottom of the deep end from inside the house I actually had to turn my SWG off to let the FC drop. It was set @ 30% & kept the FC @ 10 for 3 days. It has been off for 3 days now. FC was still 7 last night! I planned to turn it back on when FC drops to 5-6 range.
Before TFP our SWG was usually set around 70% with the pump running 24/7 to keep the pool clear & it still wasn't as clear as it is now! There truly is something to be said about seeing your pool as clear as glass.
"virtual beer" to everyone!!

 

[Ecoke]

Y-not....u said .."your desired level of 30-50 (depending on climate) "...please clarify for us newbies...I live in Central Florida...I have a CYA of 160 been draining since 11 AM...I was going to shoot for CYA of 60...for now...hoping summer Florida rains which look like are about to start....

so about that climate comment???

thanks

 

[Richard320]

Y-not....u said .."your desired level of 30-50 (depending on climate) "...please clarify for us newbies...I live in Central Florida...I have a CYA of 160 been draining since 11 AM...I was going to shoot for CYA of 60...for now...hoping summer Florida rains which look like are about to start....

so about that climate comment???

thanks

60 CYA should be fine for Florida, unless you're dealing with a swamp that needs a SLAM.

 

[jblizzle]

With all the Florida rain, your CYA may continue to drop. So monitor it every few weeks.