Storm Cleanup

[huffy70]

So we had a massive storm come through Sunday. 2" or rain in 10 minutes. All the neighbor runoff went into the pool, swale just wasn't designed for a 40 year storm.

pH was 6.4, trying to get back to 7.6. Added some floc yesterday and progress is in photos. But issue I am now having is that i am losing flow on my pump. Running at 3000 rpm, which should be about 70 gpm. Pump says its at speed, but flow is 5 gpm. Confirmed min flow out of returns. Thinking the floc settled somewhere in the pipes and stuck and restricting flow? Anyone seen this before? I am cleaning my cartridge filter about every 3 hours to prevent caking.

 

[PoolStored]

OOOOF. I'm sorry this happened!!!

Floc destroys cartridges. You are in a real pickle. Once Floc is in a cartridge, cartridges need to be replaced.

Do you know how high your water table is in this location? It may be best just to replace the water at this point, but if your water table is high you risk floating the pool.

Do you have the capability to vacuum to waste? We may be able to let it sit for 12-24 hours, have the floc settle, then vacuum to waste. This may be difficult because you can't see to vacuum.

 

[huffy70]

No vac to waste option. The optionni have for that is to throw a sump pump into the pool, drain, backfill, and vac at the same time. Remove the dirty water at the deep end, add clean at the shallow, and vac in near deep so i can dispace the heaveir solid laden water with clean.

 

[Newdude]

Are you handy at all ? You could cut and glue a 3 way diverter valve between the pump and filter. Check a YouTube PVC repair video. It's about the easiest thing you could learn in 5 mins.

A vac to waste option would greatly help you in this pickle and comes in handy down the road too, like spring openings with heavier debris on the bottom.

 

[huffy70]

I dont really have space to fit in a valve. Will give my pool builder a call and see if they can add on in for me.

I am going through the SLAM process now after reading more on here. We cleaned the pump and filters this morning and gave each filter a weak acid bath to help remove excess organics from them. Drained the filter housing and cleaned it out and rinsed out the pump by pushing water from the filter back into the pump and out the pump strainer basket.

Its 10am here, so sun is on the pool. Put in 128 fl oz of 12.5% shock using the method recommended by the returns and slowly. PoolMath said to put in 215 floz for our 10.4K pool. I am going to test the water here in 2 hours and add more if needed. The water is very cloudy and the bottom, but more debris fell out over night. Trying to find new cartridge filters as well as I am assuming the ones I have will be shot after this. The floc sounds like it may have effected them, but I at least have flow today and the pool is circulating.

 

[Darin]

Better plan on doing something different for the future. In St. Louis area i would think that would happen (2" rain real quick) every couple of years. It does here and i am up river from you a couple hundred miles.

As far a clean up, your water is cheap in STL so pump out as much as you can with out screwing up liner. I assume it is vinyl since you are in the midwest.

 

[huffy70]

I have fiberglass, so trying to not dump water as much as possible. I would like to dump and refill, but I have too many people around me saying to not do that. I am continuing my SLAM. I lost 3.5 FC last night, CC is around 0.5, probably more like 0.75. CYA is at 65. So using PoolMath and getting my levels. I am struggling with vac'ing though. I am calling a pool cleaning contractor today and have a generic battery powered vac that I am going to try.

Is there any point in testing for phosphates? My neighbor uses a lot of fertilizer on his yard. Normally not an issue, but wondering if the water that ran into the pool is high in phos and that is part of the haze.

 

[PoolStored]

Is there any point in testing for phosphates?

No. Focus on SLAM and cleanup. You have a mess, and I feel for you. I'm sorry. You are following the right course of action. We are here for you...

 

[Darin]

Why do your neighbors care what you do with your water? Pump it to your sprinklers. If you can drain it without hurting your pool then do that. it is the quickest and cheapest way.

 

[huffy70]

Why do your neighbors care what you do with your water? Pump it to your sprinklers. If you can drain it without hurting your pool then do that. it is the quickest and cheapest way.

Sorry, I was referring to them fertilizing a lot and the phosphates from the fertilizer is likely in my pool after the runoff put it in there.

@PoolStored thanks, I figured as much. Its taking a huge hit today and dropped from 17 this morning to 13 as of 30 minutes ago (4 hour span). So just trying to keep level at this point. Hopefully the vac this afternoon will help with getting the sediment out.

I assume that during a SLAM, that you get to a point where the sediment that falls out has to be removed to allow the chlorine you are adding to maintain to do a better job. I am guessing that as since we tried vac'ing this morning and removed some sediment in the shallow end, the chlorine dropped heavily and the water got foggy again. So the chlorine is not able to get more of the organics in the water that it couldn't before as it was settling in with the sediment at the bottom.

Really loving the support and responses here. This is a huge learning curve in the first year of owning, but I am seeing improvements i can make to my system and how I can make it less stressful next time.

 

[huffy70]

One more question. I am thinking of getting a separate pump just for vacing to waste. My pool guy is tied up for a bit and i think insurance would cover it as its related to my homeowners claim. Looking at my current pump, its probably running at 280p rpm, which appears to be about 50-60 gpm when vaccing. Does this spund right? A simple 3/4 hp pool pump would cover it. Could go to 1hp, but might be overkill. More worried that NPSHr isnt listed anywhere on these that I can find.

 

[PoolStored]

One more question. I am thinking of getting a separate pump just for vacing to waste. My pool guy is tied up for a bit and i think insurance would cover it as its related to my homeowners claim. Looking at my current pump, its probably running at 280p rpm, which appears to be about 50-60 gpm when vaccing. Does this spund right? A simple 3/4 hp pool pump would cover it. Could go to 1hp, but might be overkill. More worried that NPSHr isnt listed anywhere on these that I can find.

How are you intending to plumb it?

 

[huffy70]

How are you intending to plumb it?

Just put a union, nipple, 90, nipple and hose barb on the discharge..the suction would have a union, nipple, and hose barb. Then i could hook up my vac to the suction and run a lay flat hose to the street and discharge to the storm drain. It would literally be a portable pump, something i could loan out yo neighbors in the same situation. A pool cleaner came by and had the same setup, charged $300. A pump costs that. I just need the parts. I didnt see what size pump he had though.

 

[PoolStored]

A 1hp in-ground pump should work fine.

 

[huffy70]

FYI, a 1hp above ground pool pump doesn't work for this. Tried a Hayward SP1580 and it never primed. Tried flooding the casing, setting below our retaining wall, just didn't work. Getting a vac to waste 3 way valve installed for the same price.

On a good note, my FC dropped only 1 point last night and my CC is around 0.2.
Tried adjusting TA today to drop from 150 down to under 100.

Leslies did a water test as well. Said my copper was 1.5. not sure i trust that. They told my wife that the high FC was eating my heater. It may leach it a little, but not to the point it's detroyed.

Still a little cloudy, but should be good in a day or two. Water is clearish. I can see to the bottom but there is a slight haze which is why i say cloudy. I do have clarifier. Not doing much today other than brushing. Will vac with a siphon later if time allows. Fingers crossed!

 

[PoolStored]

Tried adjusting TA today to drop from 150 down to under 100.

How did you do this? Did you do this while you are slamming? You should not test or change any other chemicals during a SLAM.

To reduce TA is a process...don't do it in one fell swoop like that...no bueno.

Lower Total Alkalinity

A lower Total Alkalinity level can help a pool owner stabalize their pH increase. We'll explain how to lower TA with a little help from muriatic acid.

www.troublefreepool.com

Leslies did a water test as well. Said my copper was 1.5. not sure i trust that. They told my wife that the high FC was eating my heater. It may leach it a little, but not to the point it's detroyed.

Copper test/Iron test are the only test we recommend using the pool store. Elevated FC to SLAM level will not hurt people or equipment.

Still a little cloudy, but should be good in a day or two. Water is clearish. I can see to the bottom but there is a slight haze which is why i say cloudy. I do have clarifier. Not doing much today other than brushing. Will vac with a siphon later if time allows. Fingers crossed!

Don't use the clarifier....

 

[huffy70]

I used dry acid to try and lower TA. I know this will lower pH as well. It didn't do much. OCLT was 0 today. Water is crystal clear. FC was 10. Wife ran a sample to the pool store again today and FC was reported at 8.67. TC was 8.67, so CC at 0. Copper dropped down to 0.1. No idea why the sudden massive change. I am guessing they didn't do the test right. The leslies near us cranks out tests as fast as they can and pushes tons of chemicals. I am just not trusting them. There is another pool store in town that does tests. I may start using them when needed.

My TA is still 140. pH is 7.4. CH is low at 160. I am going to give the whole system another day of just running and let it settle out and let the FC drop naturally down to 4-6. Then see what I can do about TA and CH.

Thanks for all the help with this. We are still getting a waste to vac port installed. I think if I had this to start, it would have been a heck of a lot easier.

 

[PoolStored]

I used dry acid to try and lower TA.

Stop using dry acid. It contains sulfates which will destroy your heater. No more, ok?

Wife ran a sample to the pool store again today and FC was reported at 8.67. TC was 8.67, so CC at 0. Copper dropped down to 0.1. No idea why the sudden massive change.

Ha! Now you know why we say get a good test kit and trust it. Trust your test kit...it is the gold standard.

 

[huffy70]

Stop using dry acid. It contains sulfates which will destroy your heater. No more, ok?

So muriatic acid would be better to use as its hydrochloric acid. Dry acid as sodium bisulfate, that breaks down to sulfuric acid when exposed to water (really had to dig for this). Further reactions with the bicarbs in the water will just make sulfates. I think i have thay right based on what Ive read.

What else i have found is that i should stop worrying about TA in the 140 range as that appears to be common with SWGs due to the turbulence they create.

Really, what i need to do is figure out what my tap water constituents are, and when i have a massive spike in something, see if just vacing to waste and replace will do the trick first? The more I am learning here, the more I am seeing that adding chemicals should be last resort. Replacing water when chorline or pH is high can probably be fixed by just cleaning and replacing. I lose salt when doing that, but thats better than dumping random acids and other stuff in there. Doea thay sound right?