Cleaning Mud After A Flood: We have a Hayward Sand Filter and Nautilus Dolphin our pool is 23,000 gallons

[MeggieC]

Hello,
I've read other posts regarding cleaning an inground pool after flooding. Our pool got mud dumped into it after a flood approximately 3weeks ago. We're new pool owners but have tried vacuuming to waste, floc, clarifier, all the tricks mentioned and are getting really frustrated. Does anyone have experience with this and if so realistically how long can we expect the cleanup to take? Just so we have an idea and don't give up and drain it. Thank you all in advance

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! Pools effected by floods take a good amount of work and patience. But two things are extremely critical in the process:
1. Having a TF-100 Test Kit (or Taylor K-2006C) to keep the water from turning into a swamp. See Test Kits Compared
2. Manually removing as much dirt as possible. Chlorine can only do so much. Depending upon yoru pool set-up, there are various ways to do that. It would help tremendously if your signature was updated with your pool and equipment info.

With the TF-100, be prepared to follow the SLAM Process at some point as well. But we'll be happy to coach you through all of this with some more pool info and a full set of TF-100 test results. Let us know. Thanks for using the forum.

 

[MeggieC]

Welcome to TFP! Pools effected by floods take a good amount of work and patience. But two things are extremely critical in the process:
1. Having a TF-100 Test Kit (or Taylor K-2006C) to keep the water from turning into a swamp. See Test Kits Compared
2. Manually removing as much dirt as possible. Chlorine can only do so much. Depending upon yoru pool set-up, there are various ways to do that. It would help tremendously if your signature was updated with your pool and equipment info.

With the TF-100, be prepared to follow the SLAM Process at some point as well. But we'll be happy to coach you through all of this with some more pool info and a full set of TF-100 test results. Let us know. Thanks for using the forum.

Thank you so very much! Do you think we did more harm than good? I wish I would've found this group as soon as it happened. Unfortunately we relied on advice from our local pool store.

 

[Texas Splash]

Many pool store products don't help at all, that's for sure. Depending on what was added and if it made it to the sand, the sand may need to be changed later. But we can come back to that. For now, it's all about proper water testing and getting as much dirt out as possible. I see you have a sand filter, so that implies you have amultiport valve and can vacuum to waste. Have you done that at all yet? Vacuuming as much junk out to waste is a great place to start.