Hello all from SW Mississippi. I have been reading the forums and going through pool school and have learned ALOT. A little background. We got the pool with the house in Nov 2013 and have never had a pool before. We got pool stored last season with medium results, i.e. green water, clear water and then green back to clear. I started learning what chemicals did what being the nerd I am and tried to keep it the best I knew. Now to my question. We had a little trouble near the end of last season keeping the water clear. Shocking for several days didn't clean it up like it did at the beginning of the season. Talked to the pool store and got a bottle of filter magic. After using it the water started to clear on up and for a few weeks I could turn the pump off and on without backwashing. I noticed before that if I turned the pump off and then back on to clean the skimmer basket or pump basket that a greenish brownish cloud would come out of the return so I just backwashed and rinsed before turning it to filter. I have had clear water with some brown stuff (Algae?) in spots throughout the pool. It clouds when swept. After reading on here I have a two ideas. Deep clean the filter or just replace the sand. I'm not sure how long the sand has been run in the filter. I apologize for the long post. Thanks for y'alls help in advance.
Filter Help
- Thread starter wrenchpuller
- Start date
Welcome to TFP!!
Sorry to say it appears the pool store tried to keep you going by selling you a magic potion rather than addressing the problem, algae.
Generally cloudy water is a chemical problem, not a filter problem. Sand doesn't go bad. Yes, yo may need to deep clean but as soon as you told me about green water hiding in the depths of your pool it tells me algae.
We need a full set of test results, but they have to be valid ones - not pool store testing. If you have read around here much you have probably seen that not much credence is given to pool store testing. While you would think that a "professional" would be the best, unfortunately in most cases it is quite the opposite. Between employees who blindly trust the word of chemical sales representatives and high school kids working in the pool store for the summer you end up with poor results from their testing.
If you don't already have one, you will need to pick up one of the recommended test kits. To effectively practice the TFPC methods, the FAS/DPD chlorine test is essential. All the kits on the list contain that test while very few other kits do. The kits sold at the pool store generally won't won't cut it, but be careful pool store employees are known to say “it's the same thing”. Generally it's not!
Sorry to say it appears the pool store tried to keep you going by selling you a magic potion rather than addressing the problem, algae.
Generally cloudy water is a chemical problem, not a filter problem. Sand doesn't go bad. Yes, yo may need to deep clean but as soon as you told me about green water hiding in the depths of your pool it tells me algae.
We need a full set of test results, but they have to be valid ones - not pool store testing. If you have read around here much you have probably seen that not much credence is given to pool store testing. While you would think that a "professional" would be the best, unfortunately in most cases it is quite the opposite. Between employees who blindly trust the word of chemical sales representatives and high school kids working in the pool store for the summer you end up with poor results from their testing.
If you don't already have one, you will need to pick up one of the recommended test kits. To effectively practice the TFPC methods, the FAS/DPD chlorine test is essential. All the kits on the list contain that test while very few other kits do. The kits sold at the pool store generally won't won't cut it, but be careful pool store employees are known to say “it's the same thing”. Generally it's not!
Thanks for your reply Tim. So far this year the water has been clear just with the spots on the bottom but the same with the filter after turning the pump off then back on if I don't backwash. I'll try deep cleaning this weekend. I haven't been able to get my TA reading. Already have it sorted out but when I got my K-2006 kit last Friday I had 2 R-0008 and no R-0009. I'll take that reading when the reagent comes in. As of today, FC 4 (shocked yesterday with a lot of rain this past weekend), CC .5 or less (slightly pink disappeared with 1 drop), PH 7.5 or so, harness about 70, CYA around 30 may be lower with all of the rain and draining off to proper level.
-Shocking is a pool store thing, we do not "shock" our pools, we follow the SLAM Process when there is a problem. A SLAM is a continuous process of adding chlorine to a pool until the pool is completely clear/clean, not a one time addition of chlorine. Additionally, you need to use liquid chlorine
I'm definatly going to go the TFP way. Also, we have a inline feeder using triclhor tabs and about some Cal-Hypo left. I know what replaces the cal-hypo, what is the best thing to do with the feeder, leave it empty and only use bleach and CYA to keep levels where they should be?
Alright, Thanks guys. I'll start stocking up on bleach and deep clean the filter Saturday. One question. On Saturday my CC was 0. We had several rounds of storms that blew some stuff in the pool along with several inches of rain and someone didn't clean the steps good and get the dirt off before putting them in on Sunday, I'm thinking that's where some of the CC came from. I'll continue to monitor this week but would that be grounds for SLAMing with my FC staying close to the same level or would it be better to be safe and go ahead and do it?
Lack of CC does not mean lack of algae. You're reporting brown clouds that disappear when swept. That's usually algae.
If you take it up to shock level and keep maintaining it all day and check it after the sun goes down and again befoire the sun hits the water, you might have two of the three checks complete. The third is clear water - and that means after brushing the pool. It could be a very brief SLAM, but at least you'll know you started the season off crystal clear. Then it's pretty easy to keep it that way all summer long.
Great advice, I'll be sure to do that. Looking forward to a great season and learning a lot more from this site.
Welcome to TFP!
Here are some of my favorite Pool School articles in case you missed any of them.
TFPC for Beginners
ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry
Here are the Recommended Levels for your pool.
Here are the Recommended Pool Chemicals to maintain your pool and how to add them.
Use PoolMath to figure out how much to add.
Here are some of my favorite Pool School articles in case you missed any of them.
TFPC for Beginners
ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry
Here are the Recommended Levels for your pool.
Here are the Recommended Pool Chemicals to maintain your pool and how to add them.
Use PoolMath to figure out how much to add.
So, here's a quick update. I cut out the valve to remove it from the filter and am going to re-plumb with unions so I don't have to do that again. When I pulled the drain from the bottom of the filter about 1/3 of the sand came out on the ground and it sure was dirty. I was going to deep clean the filter but figured it's far enough down (I can see the laterals) to go ahead and pull the sand out, check everything out, and refill it with new sand. I saw the quikrete pool sand at the hardware store and was wondering if that is good to use. I searched the forum and it looked good and then saw some bad reviews on it. Any thoughts? Also, the manual for my filter shows 300 lbs of sand but it doesn't look quite the same as the picture. The valve bolts on instead of the v-band clamp. What is the best way to figure out how much sand it takes? Here's a link to the manual I found. Well...after looking again that's not it but the only aqua swim filter manual I could find, It may be 18-21", I'll have to measure it tomorrow. This one just sits on the ground with about 3 leg like structures supporting it.