First TF100 test Results - Need help please

[Bama Rambler]

I changed my back mount gauge out for a bottom mount combination -30"hg - 0 - 30psi filled gauge with a stainless steel case and used a stainless street ell. Bottom mount gauges tend not to fill up with water so freezing isn't a problem for them. However, regular filter gauges are cheap enough that you can just replace it every year.

 

[JamesW]

What would you reduce the impeller to? would you happen to have a specific part #?

Can you see if your pump has this number, or a similar number, on it anywhere? SP3015EEAZ

It should be on the main body, possibly on a silver foil type label.

 

[Rockstead]

What would you reduce the impeller to? would you happen to have a specific part #?

Can you see if your pump has this number, or a similar number, on it anywhere? SP3015EEAZ

It should be on the main body, possibly on a silver foil type label.

The # is SP3110X15A.

 

[JamesW]

The # is SP3110X15A.

I can't find that number. Is the number SP3010X15A?

 

[Rockstead]

Hi,

I'm still in the same situation, I pass the overnight test my CC=.5 but my cloudiness just won't go away particularly in the deep end.

I've Vacuumed, manually and with the robot, there is little to no debris. I've brushed the walls and floors every time I shocked with my Wall Whale and I've added enough salt to the pool so that I could turn on my SWG which has been super chlorinating the past 3 days.

I gave up and bought clarifier today, I thought I would give it one more night before using it, I feel like I'm cheating but it's not working.

On a positive note I changed my pressure gauge for the first time it was easy enough.

It read about 18.5 when I first put it in but after Vacuuming it went all the way up to 21 and remains there, is that normal? Should it go up that much after a Vacuum? and is 18.5 a good pressure to begin with?

 

[Rockstead]

I should also add that it is really easy at night with the pool light on to see what the problem is.

I can see the particles that make make up the cloudiness, it's like a fine dust and I can see it coming out of the jets.

I haven't used the clarifier yet, would a skimmer sock have been thick enough to capture all these particles?

 

[Rockstead]

The # is SP3110X15A.

I can't find that number. Is the number SP3010X15A?

Just double checked, it's the one I posted SP3110X15A.

 

[Rockstead]

Day after day of shocking to to clear the water, all that was need was one small bottle of clarifier and the pool looks great.

I've been passing the overnight FC and CC test for a week now, but I kept shocking because it was cloudy and grey, the dirt in the pool was way too fine and it wasn't being filtered but my sand filter.

I searched a lot on the forum and it seems a ton of peple run in to the same problem, why not add clarifier to the pool school?

 

[JasonLion]

Clarifier doesn't work way more often than it does work. That makes it a kind of troublesome product, where you are throwing money at something just in case this is the time that it is going to work.

What we do say in the Pool School article on shocking, which often gets lost in the confusion, is that you should see an improvement each day and mostly by implication, that if you don't see an improvement each day then you need to think again and try something different.

The challenge is that it is tricky for those of us reading the flood of articles on the forum to notice that it has been days without any improvement and to then start suggesting the things you try at that point.

 

[chem geek]

In your case with a sand filter, probably the next step after the first day or two without visible progress would have been to Add DE to a Sand Filter (which is in the Pool School) since that can filter finer particles in your existing sand filter. A clarifier would normally be more like a last step. Now that said, I have used it during experimentation when I had a vendor give me a phosphate remover that terribly clouded my pool and I needed to clear it up quickly so used a clarifier. I have a cartridge filter and could have just waited a few days, but didn't want to.

Since clarifiers work inconsistently, we should probably at least figure out which ones work the best when they do work so at least we can have brand recommendations for that last resort. So to that end, what clarifier did you use?

 

[Rockstead]

In your case with a sand filter, probably the next step after the first day or two without visible progress would have been to Add DE to a Sand Filter (which is in the Pool School) since that can filter finer particles in your existing sand filter. A clarifier would normally be more like a last step. Now that said, I have used it during experimentation when I had a vendor give me a phosphate remover that terribly clouded my pool and I needed to clear it up quickly so used a clarifier. I have a cartridge filter and could have just waited a few days, but didn't want to.

Since clarifiers work inconsistently, we should probably at least figure out which ones work the best when they do work so at least we can have brand recommendations for that last resort. So to that end, what clarifier did you use?

I just want to be clear that I really appreciated everyone's help, I'm in no way complaining, but I did feel like I had no other choice but to continue shocking given that checklist that gets repeated a lot, it's always Pass the overnight test for FC, CC being .5 or less, and lastly the water being clear.

So I felt like I would be caving in to the Pool store mentality if I went out and used a clarifier, I looked through threads throughout the forum and you see people saying you should not need that if your water is properly balanced, so I felt like I couldn't bring it up or having people tell you to just be patient and let your filter do its work, I saw one thread where some poor guy waited 5 weeks for his pool to get clear.

I should mention that someone did recommend early on to use the DE, possibly even the clarifier.

The problem with the brand is that it is a store branded package, so who knows what they re-branded, I don't mind posting it but it won't help 99.9% of the users here.

 

[Rockstead]

In your case with a sand filter, probably the next step after the first day or two without visible progress would have been to Add DE to a Sand Filter (which is in the Pool School) since that can filter finer particles in your existing sand filter. A clarifier would normally be more like a last step. Now that said, I have used it during experimentation when I had a vendor give me a phosphate remover that terribly clouded my pool and I needed to clear it up quickly so used a clarifier. I have a cartridge filter and could have just waited a few days, but didn't want to.

Since clarifiers work inconsistently, we should probably at least figure out which ones work the best when they do work so at least we can have brand recommendations for that last resort. So to that end, what clarifier did you use?

How fast does DE normally work? I had to re-visit this because I have to tell you that in the span of 12 hours, the water went from a cloudy grey abyss in the deep end to a crystal clear dream with just 1 litre of Clarifier, even though he pool store told me to buy 2, I started with one.

I would only be able to compare at next year's opening as it is not something I ever experience outside of opening.

 

[JasonLion]

When clarifier does work, it works very quickly, almost like magic, just as you describe.

 

[chem geek]

When clarifier does work, it works very quickly, almost like magic, just as you describe.

Yes, that is my experience as well. Part of the reason that clarifiers are inconsistent is that there are different types that specialize in removing specific kinds of particles. The most common clarifiers are what are called cationic polymers which means they are large molecules with a lot of positive charges. This means that they will attract and bind to negatively charged particles including the surfaces of most cells (i.e. algae). So if the particulate matter clouding the water is either negatively charged or is neutral but polar (meaning there is a separation of charge in the particle or molecule with one side being positive and the other side being negative), then such clarifiers will be reasonably effective. However, these sorts of clarifiers don't work well at all for neutral non-polar or for positively charged substances. PolyQuat is technically such a clarifier though not as powerful as more specialized clarifiers. The one I used was GLB® Clear Blue®.

Another kind of system is flocculation (such as "alum floc") which tends to work better for neutral particles and when there is a lot of substance to just settle to the bottom of the pool so that it can be vacuumed rather than get caught in the filter to backwash/clean. A non-alum type of floc some have used that had some good reports is OMNI Liquid Floc Plus which is technically cationic, but forms similar floc "gel" that physically drops particles to the floor.

A sort of intermediate system uses chitosan and is in products such as SeaKlear® Natural Clarifier™. It's a complex molecule that has a little bit for everyone with polar sites to at least mildly attract both positive and negative particles as well as a matrix for physically capturing neutral particles.

There are many, many brands of these kinds of products so trying to find the one that would work best in a given situation is not easy. Nevertheless, if all else fails and chlorine shocking with good filtration does not work over an extended period of time, then there are other options available. Note, however, that having some of these products get caught in a filter does create a bit of a mess to be cleaned up. For a sand filter that gets backwashed, that may not be a big deal, but for cartridge filters it ends up increasing pressures enough to require a cleaning and such cleaning isn't as easy as the clarifier likes to stay attached to the cartridge fibers so requires the use of detergents (surfactants) to fully remove them. There really isn't a perfect magic bullet with clarifiers/floculants which is why they aren't the first option in our water clearing recommendations.