We had a torrential downpour the other day and woke up to a dirty pool. And I mean dirty. Dirt and debris took over the pool. We've balanced it and vacuumed several times. There is a touch of algae, but when I brush the pool, it's brown gunky stuff that I see being brushed around. A friend suggested we "floc" the pool. I've never heard of that before. Is this something you might recommend, and would it help with the leftover debris that is in the pool?
flocculation
- Thread starter DanaSC
- Start date
Nope, no Floc.
If you see algae, you need chlorine. Time to SLAM the pool.
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
If you see algae, you need chlorine. Time to SLAM the pool.
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
I see you've got the Cadillac of test kits....what are your test results?
FC, CC, TA, CH, CYA, pH ?
FC, CC, TA, CH, CYA, pH ?
Floc sort of glues all the stray particles together so they're easier to vacuum up. It could also glue the sand particles in your filter together into rocks. Then the water will flow through the crevasses between the rocks and instead of filtering and that stuff will pass through. How well do you think the filter will work if you fill it with golf balls?
That's we we stay away from flocs and clarifiers here. They don't always work, and often they cause more problems.
If you do use it, let the stuff mix and settle overnight with the pump off and then vacuum to waste so it stays out of your filter.
That's we we stay away from flocs and clarifiers here. They don't always work, and often they cause more problems.
If you do use it, let the stuff mix and settle overnight with the pump off and then vacuum to waste so it stays out of your filter.
Thanks everyone. Apparently my notifications are somehow turned off and I didn't think anyone replied to my post. Go fig! We didn't end up flocing the pool - I really didn't want to - I'd read the negatives and all that, so I'm glad I stayed away from it. Time and brushing has done the trick. Now to just get rid of the worm stains that are all over the bottom of my pool. I submitted a separate post about that, but if you have any suggestions, let me know.
Glad your problem has been solved. I have used flock in the past when rains made a river that went into my along with a ton of dirt. It worked. You need to put your valve on recirulate to avoid the filter and run for an hour or so. Then you let it sit for 24 or 48 hours....then vacuum to wastem
The reason we don't recommend clarifiers or flocculants is that there are many situations where they do not work well, especially if not dosed properly or the wrong type of product is used for a given particular situation. Technically, one should dose proportional to the amount of specific chemicals a clarifier or flocculant is designed to handle, but there are no residential pool tests for that so it's really shooting in the dark. If one uses too much product, one can make the situation worse either by not working and having even more material to remove or by working "too well" and having too much clarifier product clogging up the filter being difficult to remove (depending on filter type). There are also several chemical product combinations that produce a precipitated gooey mess such as the use of a polymeric cationic clarifier when an anionic polymeric metal sequestrant is already in use.
It's not that we say never to use it, but rather we cautiously do not recommend it. It's a last-resort method if standard methods of clearing do not work. Look at this pool opening (or this link if that one does not work) that used bleach alone. Just the initial bleach addition (likely keeping the pump off at first) resulted in self-flocculation which then allowed for a vacuum-to-waste (this was done twice). There was also some brushing and the pump was turned on and circulated through a DE filter. If one has a sand filter, then one can Add DE to a Sand Filter.
It's not that we say never to use it, but rather we cautiously do not recommend it. It's a last-resort method if standard methods of clearing do not work. Look at this pool opening (or this link if that one does not work) that used bleach alone. Just the initial bleach addition (likely keeping the pump off at first) resulted in self-flocculation which then allowed for a vacuum-to-waste (this was done twice). There was also some brushing and the pump was turned on and circulated through a DE filter. If one has a sand filter, then one can Add DE to a Sand Filter.