Is Clarifier only for cloudy water?

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zea3 said:
OCLT shows what you lose overnight when the sun is off the pool. If there is nothing consuming chlorine it should drop less than 1ppm from dusk to dawn. If you are losing more than 1ppm during that time period you have organics consuming the FC and need to slam. Rising pressure may also be an indicator of organics in the water. A nascent algae bloom will give water a dull, grainy appearance before it goes cloudy or full out green.

Next time you clean the filter, inspect the cartridge well. Make sure there are no small holes or tears in the pleats where debris can escape. The bands around the cartridge should be intact and in good condition as well. As Butterfly mentioned skimmer socks can also help catch fine debris in the water.
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I may be expressing it incorrectly. The pressure has risen from 10 to 12, a 2psi increase, in a month at 2500 rpm.

Filter cartridge is less than a year old, no holes, only washed with a water jet, no pressure washer. Bands are fine.

I am losing about 1.5 ppm CL in 24 hours. My water is clear, no cloudiness at all, have never had anything close to algae pre or post TFP method.

Just these **** particles!

Thanks for trying to help
 
Did you put any Phosfree in by any chance this year? That will really mess with your cartridge filter and cause what you are seeing. The pool store will usually tell you to dump it into your skimmer. That stuff doesn't go well with a cartridge and will clog it within a week. I also have once seen a lot of particles if you used a liquid CYA (Stabilizer) may have been old?
 
kiss4afrog said:
You might also try a filter enhancer to see if it would trap the **** particles. :lookhere: http://www.hydropool.com/cgi-bin/hy.../BioGuard-EcoKlean-Filter-Enhancer/23759.html

Does it seem the clarifier has done any good yet ??
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Clarifier does not seems to have had any effect yet, neither good or bad.

As far as the enhancer, it is not so much the filter doesn't catch the particles, they just don't seem to go thru the filter. They seem to float in place even though heavier items get filtered

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wjr75 said:
Did you put any Phosfree in by any chance this year? That will really mess with your cartridge filter and cause what you are seeing. The pool store will usually tell you to dump it into your skimmer. That stuff doesn't go well with a cartridge and will clog it within a week. I also have once seen a lot of particles if you used a liquid CYA (Stabilizer) may have been old?
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I did admit earlier that I used PhosFree. But pre TFP I used it for 2-3 years with no bad results.

Not ever used CYA, have been bringing down CYA from 160+ to 70 over the last year due to previous abuse of pucks
 
If you have good circulation (and I'm sure you do) and good pump run time, there's no way that the particles could stay suspended in the pool and never get circulated to the filter. So either the filter isn't catching them or they're reproducing as fast as they're being filtered out.

The reason that I suggested running an OCLT is to completely rule out anything growing in there. You really can't extrapolate an OCLT pass because you think you only lose a couple of ppm FC each day. It's much more conclusive to run the test.
 
I have had the same issue you are having. Early in the season, and to a lessor extent after my lawn is cut. I get tiny particles that don't get filtered out. Just float. Water will be clear, numbers will be good, but the particles will not go away. I started using a clarifier. I use the one made by Acqua Chem, and have had great success. I believe Wally world sells it. Im a BBB guy. But I still keep me a bottle of this stuff.

IMO, the key is not to use too much. I use much less than the recommended dosage. 1 bottle should last you an entire season, maybe a season and a half. I have a 16x32 IG with 20,000 gallons and my bottle from last year didn't run out until early this season. I only use 2 or 3 small squirts per application. Usually one very small squirt on the shallow end, 1 small squirt in the middle, and another small one in the deep end.

When my bottle ran out, I purchased the Seaklear instead of the Acqua chem, thinking clarifier is clarifier. Saw absolutely no results. Went back to the aqua chem and got the results I was looking for. I also started using a skimmer sock along with the clarifier. I have no complaints and am a very satisfied customer. It has had no noticeable effect on my water's chemistry.

Although clarifier is a non-BBB product, I use it. It gives me the results I'm looking for rather quickly, with very little effort on my part.

Good Luck
 
Trey9007 said:
I have had the same issue you are having. Early in the season, and to a lessor extent after my lawn is cut. I get tiny particles that don't get filtered out. Just float. Water will be clear, numbers will be good, but the particles will not go away. I started using a clarifier. I use the one made by Acqua Chem, and have had great success. I believe Wally world sells it. Im a BBB guy. But I still keep me a bottle of this stuff.

IMO, the key is not to use too much. I use much less than the recommended dosage. 1 bottle should last you an entire season, maybe a season and a half. I have a 16x32 IG with 20,000 gallons and my bottle from last year didn't run out until early this season. I only use 2 or 3 small squirts per application. Usually one very small squirt on the shallow end, 1 small squirt in the middle, and another small one in the deep end.

When my bottle ran out, I purchased the Seaklear instead of the Acqua chem, thinking clarifier is clarifier. Saw absolutely no results. Went back to the aqua chem and got the results I was looking for. I also started using a skimmer sock along with the clarifier. I have no complaints and am a very satisfied customer. It has had no noticeable effect on my water's chemistry.

Although clarifier is a non-BBB product, I use it. It gives me the results I'm looking for rather quickly, with very little effort on my part.

Good Luck
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Interesting about the Seaklear not working. The HTH Natural Clarifier I bought has the same ingredient as the SeaKlear, chitosan. If after a week this does not work I may try the acquachem.
 
Bama Rambler said:
If you have good circulation (and I'm sure you do) and good pump run time, there's no way that the particles could stay suspended in the pool and never get circulated to the filter. So either the filter isn't catching them or they're reproducing as fast as they're being filtered out.

The reason that I suggested running an OCLT is to completely rule out anything growing in there. You really can't extrapolate an OCLT pass because you think you only lose a couple of ppm FC each day. It's much more conclusive to run the test.
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OK I will try an OCLT this weekend just to rule out anything. But I have no CC and only 1-1.5 PPM loss per day now. My water, as my subject indicates is not cloudy and the particles I have do not resemble anything like algae I have seen before (in a fountain, never have seen algae in my pool). I am curious why you suspect algae?
 
Trey9007 said:
I use the one made by Acqua Chem, and have had great success. I believe Wally world sells it. Im a BBB guy. But I still keep me a bottle of this stuff.
:
IMO, the key is not to use too much.
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AquaChem Super Clarifier has been discussed before as in this thread from 2008. You are right that if you use one, you don't want to overdose with it. In general they are not needed unless the particles in the water are smaller than what the filter can capture. That generally means one never uses it with a DE filter (it will totally muck-up such a filter), one usually doesn't need it with a cartridge filter, and it's more commonly used with a sand filter -- again, if the particles are too small to filter. Of course, one can Add DE to a Sand Filter and likely accomplish something similar.

Since this seems to be working for you, I'll add that to the list of known clarifiers that work well, are all concentrated (recommended dose of 1 fluid ounce per 5000 gallons, but as you note you can use far less), and are all reasonably priced. At poolgeek.com we have Aqua Chem Super Water Clarifier for $7.38, BioGuard® Polysheen Blue for $11.99, and GLB Clear Blue for $14.23. I used GLB Clear Blue once, others have reported good results with BioGuard Polysheen Blue, but it looks like Aqua Chem works for you and is the most economical. Again, not needed for most pools, but at least we can know which clarifiers are reasonable.
 
I feel like I am beating this to death, but my problem is not small particles, it is particles that are almost transparent and may the size of a small, but flat, 2 dimensional, grain of rice. Chitosan clarifier has done nothing so far. Maybe it is blow in of small insect wings or leaves that quickly disintegrate?

Before I go crazy I wonder if there are any TPF forum members near Oro Valley/Tucson who have similar issue or maybe willing to make a field trip to help diagnose the issue.
 

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wjr75 said:
Maybe those popup cleaners are stirring up debris? If you don't vaccum that may be it.
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Pop ups and my brushing both stir up this stuff, but prior to this it all filtered out. Maybe, based on Jibizzle's comments, I am just being overly anal and this is a normal amount this time of year. Just never noticed it before
 
Wildcat said:
I did admit earlier that I used PhosFree. But pre TFP I used it for 2-3 years with no bad results.
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The only thing I've seen PhosFree do is make my money disappear. I've not seen good or bad results from the use of it in my pool. I have a friend that swears by it. He believes you've got to get rid of the phosphates. He's really been preaching after the water supply contamination in Ohio.
 
SCon36 said:
The only thing I've seen PhosFree do is make my money disappear. I've not seen good or bad results from the use of it in my pool. I have a friend that swears by it. He believes you've got to get rid of the phosphates. He's really been preaching after the water supply contamination in Ohio.
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I bought it before TFP days. When I was using pucks it seemed like a good idea, extra insurance against algae. It kept my phosphates extremely low. Was that why I had no algae despite CYA approaching 200? We'll never know. But it never seemed to cause a problem.
 
Wildcat said:
Interesting about the Seaklear not working. The HTH Natural Clarifier I bought has the same ingredient as the SeaKlear, chitosan. If after a week this does not work I may try the acquachem.
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In all fairness to the Seaklear product, it probably did not work for me, because I apply less than the recommended dosage. Maybe if I had used the recommended dosage I would have seen better results.

With the Acqua Chem, I see results almost instantly. I usually apply, let pump run over night for 8 hours or so, and wake up to find the particles are gone. I have a sand filter. For me, the culprits are usually very small and fine grass blades that don't seem to get filtered out. I usually use the product after lawn is cut and when Im having company.

Good Luck
 
I should just keep quiet and hide my stupidity but I am going to post so hopefully someone else doesn't make the same mistake. I am pretty sure it is/was the filter. Took it apart today to see what it was picking up. Pulled the four cartridges, out and while inspecting the bottom of the tank there was an unusual amount of sand. Then as I was rinsing the cartridges both my son and I noticed they were hardly dirty.

Then as I am putting it back together and for the first time thinking about how the water flows thru the cartridges I realized I had put the manifold that goes over the top of the four cartridges in the wrong position. I had it rotated 45 degrees so that the outlet of the manifold discharged water back into the tank instead of thru the return pipe. This probably explains the sand precipitating out and landing on the bottom of the tank but the lighter particles just merrily floating back out into the pool. Water was haphazardly going around the tank it seems but not really going thru the filter properly.

I will run filter 24/7 for a day or two and all should be well. I hope.

BTW, passed two OCLT tests with .5 FC loss. Which also led me to inspect that filter one more time. Feel really dumb about now
 
Dumb maybe but we've all been there before. I'd just be really happy you finally found the likely culprit and hopefully won't be bothered with that small floating stuff bypassing the filter any longer !!
 
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