New to Pools - Having trouble cleaning swamp

[ABS]

Hi Everyone! I'm brand new to this site and this is my first post. I'm writing in because I need help cleaning up my pool. I think I've been taking the right steps, but now

I purchased a home last fall and the 22000 gallon in-ground vinyl liner pool had not been used in about four years. On the day I started cleaning it, the pool looked like a pond (see photo). The tarp that was covering it had deteriorated and come loose and lots of leaves had fallen in over the years. Frogs, tadpoles, etc. were living in it too.

I've done a lot of reading on how to clean up the pool on this site. So far, I've purchased the TF-100 kit, I've added CYA (at about 25 now), I've adjusted the pH to about 7.2 and I've been maintaining the chlorine at about 14-16. I've been scooping leaves and debris from the water with a large leaf net and making good progress with it. Every time I use the net I stir up the water and then it becomes really murky again with small solids floating in the water. In some cases I'm pulling up material approximating mud from the bottom of the pool.

The reason for my post is that I'm struggling with my Hayward EC65A DE filter. There are so many solids in the water that the filter clogs up really fast. I'm having to change the DE itself at least daily and having to "bump" the filter hourly. After bumping 3-4x in a single day, the filter will reach high pressure again within about 15 minutes after which I flush and refill with new DE. I'm finding that I'm unable to run with the filter unattended for more than about 60-90 minutes even with fresh DE in it. During the day when I'm at work, I just bypass the filter and run the pump on recirculate mode. However, this means I'm only running the filter for a few hours a day, usually at night, and at this rate it's going to take forever to clear the pool.

So I need some advice as to which filter I should buy or switch to for the clean up. I assume that I need something with a lot more capacity than my current filter. I've been thinking that a cartridge style pleated filter would be less likely to clog as fast as my current filter, especially one with larger capacity. The EC65A filter is rated at only 27 square feet of filtration area. I could easily pick up a 120 sq. ft. cartridge filter such as the Hayward C1200 for about $300. I know I can hose down the filter to clean it and I'm guessing that because of the larger surface area (about 5x greater), I should be able to run it a lot longer without it clogging up (compared to the DE filter). After the clean up I could then switch to the DE filter exclusively and sell the cartridge filter, run them in parallel with shut-off valves (to allow maintenance on the DE filter) or just keep the cartridge filter in case I ever needed it again (next year?).

Thanks in advance!

Andrew

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

It gives me the warm fuzzies to read a first post where the poster has read Pool School and purchased the test kit already.

A second filter seems like more work and expense than it's worth. If it was me, I'd just leave the filter on recirculate and use a leaf canister inline in the pool hose to catch the sludge.

Or buy one of these leaf baggers that is powered by the garden hose.

Either one's got to be cheaper than a bunch of plumbing mods and a new filter. Then, when you're down to nothing left but the fine floating debris these won't catch, run the filter.

Remember, the more debris you remove, the less chlorine it will take to oxidize things and the faster it will go.

 

[Cm_ls1]

I'm sure the experts will chime in soon , but if you've scooped out as much as you can with the net and here is still a thick layer of mud / sediments on the floor of the pool, I would let it settle and give it a good vacuum to waste if your filter has that option , at least to get rid of most of the heavy sediment.

And then continue with the slam process , and filtering

 

[rlefig]

opening in CT, nice I am up in MA in a very similar situation. Short sale house, pool as black as coffee, torn and frayed cover with many a frog. The first thing I did was buy a used filter and pump assembly because the Hayward DE filter looked small (selling it by the way $25) and the motor was shot. Ran the filter made sure plumbing was good, had a leak in main drain tube in skimmer, plugged that, and now the pool is on its way to clean. Oh I got the TF-100 last fall in prep for this year. I have admittedly not spent as much time on getting the pool clean as I am laying down a new patio. But the water is just cloudy now which is better than black. keep scooping out leaves and **** and good luck

 

[ABS]

opening in CT, nice I am up in MA in a very similar situation. Short sale house, pool as black as coffee, torn and frayed cover with many a frog. The first thing I did was buy a used filter and pump assembly because the Hayward DE filter looked small (selling it by the way $25) and the motor was shot. Ran the filter made sure plumbing was good, had a leak in main drain tube in skimmer, plugged that, and now the pool is on its way to clean. Oh I got the TF-100 last fall in prep for this year. I have admittedly not spent as much time on getting the pool clean as I am laying down a new patio. But the water is just cloudy now which is better than black. keep scooping out leaves and **** and good luck

From your post and signature I see you are running a cartridge style filter of about 300 sq.ft. capacity and your pool size is similar to mine. I'd be very interested to know during your clean up how long could you run the cartridge filter before having to clean it?

Thanks!

Andrew

- - - Updated - - -

Welcome!

It gives me the warm fuzzies to read a first post where the poster has read Pool School and purchased the test kit already.

A second filter seems like more work and expense than it's worth. If it was me, I'd just leave the filter on recirculate and use a leaf canister inline in the pool hose to catch the sludge.

Or buy one of these leaf baggers that is powered by the garden hose.

Either one's got to be cheaper than a bunch of plumbing mods and a new filter. Then, when you're down to nothing left but the fine floating debris these won't catch, run the filter.

Remember, the more debris you remove, the less chlorine it will take to oxidize things and the faster it will go.

Thanks for the advice. I picked up a garden hose powered leaf bagger but I haven't tried it yet because I'm still fishing out some full sized leaves. I guess this will soon be my next step.

 

[rlefig]

Hi ABS, I had old cartridges that came with the filter but did buy new ones as the old were beat up. So far in running it about 2 weeks now and having the water go from black where I could see top stair only to now cloudy where I can see the whole shallow end I have not cleaned the cartridges once. Everybody says to watch pressure gauge to see if it goes up which would mean clogged cartridges and mine was at 7 PSI and never increased. Of course it was also the old pressure gauge and seemed sticky. So I got a new pressure gauge, recommended on here ($10 more after dropping thousand or so on patio seemed reasonable) and I am still at 7 PSI, maybe 8.

I was going to take a peak at the cartriidges this weekend, if it gets warmer.

 

[ABS]

Hi rlefig - your comments suggest that I may well be on the right track using a cartridge filter to help with the clean up. Even if I could get a few days use without having to clean the cartridge I'd be in a much better place than I am now.

 

[rlefig]

I think in this case size totally matters more than the media. Cartridge worked for me as our water costs are high

 

[Beens]

Do you have a vacuum to waste option? I saw cm suggest that earlier. I know some filters don't have it. It might really help to get rid of some of the gunk in the bottom. I have an above ground pool so I have used my vacuum hose as a siphon vacuum at times when I had a lot of garbage I didn't want to go through my filter. Same principal, less water loss for me than using the waste option.

I like richard's idea too. You have a lot of algae to kill you could let your filter recirculate for now until you've killed most of that algae and use the leaf gulper or inline leaf canister to get out the sludge.

 

[ABS]

Do you have a vacuum to waste option? I saw cm suggest that earlier. I know some filters don't have it. It might really help to get rid of some of the gunk in the bottom. I have an above ground pool so I have used my vacuum hose as a siphon vacuum at times when I had a lot of garbage I didn't want to go through my filter. Same principal, less water loss for me than using the waste option.

I like richard's idea too. You have a lot of algae to kill you could let your filter recirculate for now until you've killed most of that algae and use the leaf gulper or inline leaf canister to get out the sludge.

I redid the plumbing at the pump/filter and added valves so I can bypass the filter entirely and also pump water out to waste through another valve. I've already used this once to lower my water levels for the skimmer . . . I suppose I should try this idea . . .

Thanks,

Andrew