PoolStored said:

Post pictures of the pool.
How quickly does your filter pressure rise?

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When first vacuuming out algae that was green and visible, the filter would need to be cleaned/changed after every vacuum due to pressure. This current filter cartridge was placed after the pool turned cloudy white and began on 15psi. We are now 3-4 days with constant running and it is at 16-17psi.

also was this installed backwards?

ajw22 said:

What is your filter PSI as the heater is turning off and you are increasing the pump speeds?

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Filter psi was at 10 when at 2200 rpms and stays around 10 up to 2600 rpms. The other day it got to 20 because it was dirty from the gook. That's when I did a full clean to try and eliminate the filter as a bottleneck.

Right now at 2600 rpms it's maybe 11psi. When running lower speeds like 1800 rpms psi is only like 5

elaine murphy said:

Looking for suggestions. I recently changed sand, found cracked laterals, and replaced both as well as the key handle on my Hayward Sand filter. I did a 2 minute backwash, and found a lot of sand that didn’t dissipate with a rinse. Backwashed a couple more times, no change. For next 2-3 days I found decreasing amounts of sand in my pool, which cleared up til I backwashed a week later…again, site glass clear during backwash and full of sand during rinse. Found some sand in pool when vacuuming with bot, seems to be decreasing amounts daily. Any suggestions? I added water before placing laterals, standpipe lined up fine when I put multiport valve on. Puzzled and frustrated. TIA!

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Sand coming out of the jets is getting through the laterals or got in during replacement.

Sand coming out of the waste port during backwash is more “normal” if it was overfilled.

It could be your grids are full of grime. Have you replaced the grids?
Older filters had fiberglass on inside of the housing which can deteriorate over time.
I did a replacement with another DE filter. Although the pipes lined up from the MPV, there was a slight height difference. I had to put the new DE filter on stepping tiles about 1 inch high. So make your measurements and be sure it all fits.

Moving to a cartridge filter will require you to move the plumbing.

Turbolag said:

Any objections to using this for calcium?

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What’s it say are the ingredients/purity?

Edit: didn’t see the “100% pure” note there. Should be ok as long as that’s not just a marketing term. What’s your calcium level now? Most people don’t really need to raise the calcium level.

CapeCoral said:

The pool got a little cloudy and I thought my salt cell was not producing well. My other numbers are ok (pH 7.5, TA 110, CH 300, CYA 60.) I tried SLAMming the pool the past couple of days and I hosed down the cartridge filter. Phosphate test strip showed nothing. The pool looks great - crystal clear. CC is 0.5. But overnight again chlorine went from 28 to 21 (I did have a few people in the pool before I tested before bed.) What am I missing??View attachment 644982

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FC of 28 is pretty far over the SLAM level of 24. Don’t have people swimming in that. The OCLT also tends not to work as well when the FC is over SLAM level. Try again when it’s back in normal range and no one is swimming.

Welcome to TFP.

It sounds like you have not followed the SLAM Process step by step with no shortcuts until you meet the three exit criteria.

Follow it.

Do you have an MPV with RECIRCULATE on it?

You can replace your filter with another FNS DE if you are happy with it.

Dirk said:

Takeaways:

- I try to convince people to have a spare sump pump on hand for pool pad shutdown emergencies. Well... here's a great example of why. There are limitless reasons you might lose your pad functions for some number of days (or weeks), even for something as unforeseeable as this!

- Every plumber or DIYer knows NOT to work above a drain without making sure you can't drop anything you're working on into it. Duh!! (How many times do I have learn this?!)

- Since all it takes to shut down your pool pad for a few days is losing or mangling your filter plug, maybe having a back up in stock is prudent. I'll have one now.

That all said, I did get my filters cleaned. It was surprisingly easy. They had a lot of particulate gunk, but nothing staining the media, it all rinsed off, with just water, as fast as I've ever done it. And my new filter washing stand extender worked better than expected. A few of you might remember this post, from last year. I fabricated the extender after I cleaned the filters last year, so I didn't get to test it out until today! It worked really well, and made this back-breaking chore much less back-breaking.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not going to let my CH-rise year after year, and only fix it after it becomes unmanageable, by draining half my pool. Instead, I'll drain just a few inches once a year, every year, to keep my CH more stable and to keep from having to empty my pool more than I need to. Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment of "Oh Geez, What Did Dirk Do This Time!?"

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Great lessons learned for all of us.
I wish Pentair would make an extender with a valve shut off for the drain hole. It is very difficult to reach as you pointed out. I do not have a drain nearby as it just flows into the rock covered area.

What is your filter PSI as the heater is turning off and you are increasing the pump speeds?

892 Watts at 2600 rpms would love help with cost analysis compared to single speed pump I described above at this wattage

OMG another update....20 minutes later and the heater turns off again at 2400 rpms. Just increased to 2600 and it's back on.....here we go again... about to leave for church and I'll check and it'll probably be off again.

What am I doing wrong? Is the heater just that hungry? Boy do I regret now not adding a flow meter to my plumbing

Karl103 said:

1.) is this a sign the SWG is failing and needs to be replaced ?

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It is a sign the cell is getting depleted.

You can run it till it dies or replace it at your convenience.

Karl103 said:

2.) when replacing, I want to use a Hayward product and get the next size up (equivalent of a T-15). I can get one fairly quickly on amazon. Is there a big difference between the W3T models and the 940S models ? It looks like the W3T models are the majority of what I can find online. The 940S is described as the "extended life" cell but not sure that this completely matters. Any thoughts on this ?

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Extended life is supposed to have stronger plates and last longer. YMMV.

alright guys here's an update.... tested the pool...slam is done. salt was 700 did the math and added 16 bags of salt to start. have more to add later as needed but hoping to turn on SWG tomorrow.

This post though is more an issue with my AquaCal sq200 heat pump i could use some help. i'm trying to heat the pool...it's 70 during the day and 50 at night right now. i'm turning heater off at night as the heat pump isn't very effective at or below 50...but solar cover is on the pool.

My issue is the RPMs to run my circupool smartflo 3hp pump at. i'm trying and testing many rpm speeds. mind you there is no more particulate in the pool and pool is spotless. except for surface stuff that i need to skim manually or goes into the skimmer basket. i did a full clean of my DE pro grid filter....recharged it with DE so the filter should be spotless inside.

Aquacal minimum flow rate is i think 30gpm. max is 70 gpm. low rpms on the pump isn't enough flow to trigger the heat pump....

last night i left the house for dinner with heat pump running while at 1800 rpms....20min later got to dinner and checked the poolsync app and it showed it was off for no flow. greatttt!!! go home and put it up to 2000 rpms and it started running again...i manually shut it off though before bed through the app.

this morning it's heating up so i want to turn the heat pump on to run all day today before we go on a mothers day trip to westport. turned it on while running at 2000 rpms....it registered no flow. DAMNITTTTTT. so just increased to 2200 rpms and it's working again. but i'm worried when i leave in an hour it'll be off again and i have to keep raising the rpms. which is now starting to defeat the purpose of the cost savings of the VS pump.

i forgot to check the wattage of the pump while running at 2200 but i think its over 1000 watts right now....what was my hayward tristar producing from a wattage perspective when running full tilt? it was a 2hp single speed variety.

what do others run their vs pumps at while trying to run an Aquacal sq200? Searches in TFP weren't very successful on this subject....

thanks all!

Pas_pool said:

Thoughts on this morning’s test? I lowered the SWG to 6% and I added more muriatic acid to bring down the pH to bring down the TA.

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Why do you care about bringing down the TA?

jlosurdo said:

Thanks. I don't think it is the lid. Before I replaced the old lid there was a bunch of bubbles coming out of the returns consistently and the water pressure was super low. These symptoms are very different. I can almost hear the pressure immediately get lost when the pump gets turned off.

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You probably already know this, but the salt water chlorinator makes bubbles come out of the returns. Just thought I’d bring that up to make sure it’s not confused with another problem.

paul1971 said:

Thanks! I set the t cel at 5 but i could do 3, output at 30 is about 1 a day.i’ll monitor and see. I think i screwed up FC test yesterday. But i am now clearer on swcg lol

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I used your pool data of 11k gal and T-9 cell. If pump run time is 12 hrs and SWCG set at 30% output, the FC generated is 1.6ppm over that 12 hr time frame. That may be fine for this time of year in your area. If you only want to make 1ppm of FC with SWCG set at 30% then the pump run time is 7.5 hrs. You should test every 2nd day as a minimum.
Post a full set of test data.

Can you share a pic or two?

I know how to open the pool. I've been doing it since 1992.

My question was if I could rely on the IC-40 to generate enough chlorine at this water temp and low UV levels. I did some charting last summer and I could predict the setting needed on the cell by the UV level. Based on that I should be able raise FC enough to get to a good level in 2 days.

Anyway, to be safe I did pick up some liquid chlorine.

ekadd said:

Thanks to everyone that replied!!! I do like to learn as much as I can as things come up for me. Easiest thing at this point is when the gas tech comes out to look at my heater and assess the issue I'll just ask him. Again, i'd only consider it if it's a marginal difference in cost versus a straight swap for the 260k BTU.

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It is $500-$1000 difference between the 260 and 400. Worth the extra, IMO.

Likely a combination - dead algae and dirt. Brushing alone gets it kicked back up into suspension in the water. Then taken out by your filter. But depending on a host of factors, the filter only gets some percentage. The rest resettles. Along with any new dead things and dirt. A manual vacuum or a robot gets a lot more of the "stuff" directly to the filter, and far less to resettle out. The OCLT and CC reading, with having very little settle out, will tell the tale. Especially at the start of a SLAM, it can be very surprising how much you see on the bottom each day - a lot more suspended and now killed than the clarity of the water might suggest.

Especially rain, but also wind, can bring in more dirt. Sometimes a lot. So don't assume you have algae again right away after the SLAM. The CC will give a flag, and then the OCLT can confirm. Once you get into the swing of what is normal for your pool, you'll get pretty good at judging how concerned to be. If you always keep your CL at the high end of the recommended range (or even join #teamrunhot by being a bit above!), the odds of growing algae go way, way down. I normally don't think about algae, as long as my CC is <= 1, pool is TFP clear, and if there is an environmental reason (wind/rain) for the "stuff". Then I just assume dirt and brush or vac to make it pretty again.

BTW - update your signature with details about your pool. It helps a lot for us to tailor the information specifically to you. Create Your Signature - Further Reading

If you pay the outrageous (grin!) $8/yr for the PoolMath app subscription, you can link your logs by using the same username as here. Then we can easily see your history of readings and chem adds, to further refine answers to problems. Click on my user name to see the logs for how I am lurching toward a balanced pool.

Thoughts on this morning’s test? I lowered the SWG to 6% and I added more muriatic acid to bring down the pH to bring down the TA.