I cannot get my water clear and clean- please help!
I have an inground pool that holds about 35,000 gallons of water. It's painted concrete, safety ledge, then about 2 feet of fiberglass at top. OLD but solid. This year, no matter what I do it will not clear up, and only getting worse. At the beginning of the season, I emptied my Hayward sand filter, checked the inner equipment (laterals and center pipe) and replaced the sand, per filter requirements. Cleared leaves from pool and shocked very brown pool. Started out season fine but water was never completely clear. Cloudy white. Chemicals all fine. Phosphates a little high, lots of trees. Treated that quickly. Water improved for a few days, but not completely. Brownish green after a week but not algae. Scrubbed sides added shock again, and backwashed again, other chemical levels still appropriate, but pool store guys stated it could be metal in water from algicides. Treated that, but no improvement. Tested TDS, a little high so after a few more days of no clearing I performed a floc treatment with aluminum sulfate. Worked great, suctioned all debris on bottom to waste with main drain running so to not lose suction. Topped off water, adjusted chemicals and had clear water for the first time this season for about 3 days. Again, all tests still within normal limits but cloudy, green water returned after a few days. Started thinking it must be my sand filter and did a thorough inspection but found nothing.
Then did a sand filter test that I read about online. 2 cups of DE poured into skimmer to test filtration efficacy of sand filter. The test stated that the DE should get trapped in the sand filter rather than return to pool via return jets, if sand filter is working properly. DE DID RETURN TO POOL VIA RETURN JETS IN ABOUT 1 MINUTE. I discussed this with a friend who has experience with pool care, and he did not think this was an accurate test to check sand filter function. He suggested I check my TDS again and he stated that the only fix for high TDS was to dump and refill. TDS was high again. So, I dumped about 1/5 of pool water and refilled. 24 hours later with filter running, and with all levels appropriate but FC sltill reading high, still no change. Very yellow, green pool! I truly feel at this point that it is my Hayward sand filter not removing dead algae, bacteria, debris etc., but nothing appears to be wrong with it. Also, when I backwash my filter, the water is barely dirty/cloudy. In the past seasons pressure would go up and I'd get a good backwash/rinse of dirty/green water that would then turn clear, via sight glass. Now it barely looks dirty when backwashing, despite the filter running for hours and a very green pool! Below are all my numbers. PLEASE HELP.
Inground pool- 35,000 gallons
Hayword sand filter 300 lbs of sand
Pool temp 80
PH- 7.2
Alkalinity- 10
Calcium Hardness- 120 (changed light pink to clear, not pink to blue)
Cyanuric Acid- 80
FC- 11 (high from continuously trying to shock out the green).
-when looking at pool steps I can see green sediment in shallow areas. (skimmers and filter not removing)
-sand filter pressure around 10-12psi when filtering. Rarely goes up.
-also ran sand filter cleaner through skimmer recently with no improvement
I'VE DONE EVERYTHING.
I have an inground pool that holds about 35,000 gallons of water. It's painted concrete, safety ledge, then about 2 feet of fiberglass at top. OLD but solid. This year, no matter what I do it will not clear up, and only getting worse. At the beginning of the season, I emptied my Hayward sand filter, checked the inner equipment (laterals and center pipe) and replaced the sand, per filter requirements. Cleared leaves from pool and shocked very brown pool. Started out season fine but water was never completely clear. Cloudy white. Chemicals all fine. Phosphates a little high, lots of trees. Treated that quickly. Water improved for a few days, but not completely. Brownish green after a week but not algae. Scrubbed sides added shock again, and backwashed again, other chemical levels still appropriate, but pool store guys stated it could be metal in water from algicides. Treated that, but no improvement. Tested TDS, a little high so after a few more days of no clearing I performed a floc treatment with aluminum sulfate. Worked great, suctioned all debris on bottom to waste with main drain running so to not lose suction. Topped off water, adjusted chemicals and had clear water for the first time this season for about 3 days. Again, all tests still within normal limits but cloudy, green water returned after a few days. Started thinking it must be my sand filter and did a thorough inspection but found nothing.
Then did a sand filter test that I read about online. 2 cups of DE poured into skimmer to test filtration efficacy of sand filter. The test stated that the DE should get trapped in the sand filter rather than return to pool via return jets, if sand filter is working properly. DE DID RETURN TO POOL VIA RETURN JETS IN ABOUT 1 MINUTE. I discussed this with a friend who has experience with pool care, and he did not think this was an accurate test to check sand filter function. He suggested I check my TDS again and he stated that the only fix for high TDS was to dump and refill. TDS was high again. So, I dumped about 1/5 of pool water and refilled. 24 hours later with filter running, and with all levels appropriate but FC sltill reading high, still no change. Very yellow, green pool! I truly feel at this point that it is my Hayward sand filter not removing dead algae, bacteria, debris etc., but nothing appears to be wrong with it. Also, when I backwash my filter, the water is barely dirty/cloudy. In the past seasons pressure would go up and I'd get a good backwash/rinse of dirty/green water that would then turn clear, via sight glass. Now it barely looks dirty when backwashing, despite the filter running for hours and a very green pool! Below are all my numbers. PLEASE HELP.
Inground pool- 35,000 gallons
Hayword sand filter 300 lbs of sand
Pool temp 80
PH- 7.2
Alkalinity- 10
Calcium Hardness- 120 (changed light pink to clear, not pink to blue)
Cyanuric Acid- 80
FC- 11 (high from continuously trying to shock out the green).
-when looking at pool steps I can see green sediment in shallow areas. (skimmers and filter not removing)
-sand filter pressure around 10-12psi when filtering. Rarely goes up.
-also ran sand filter cleaner through skimmer recently with no improvement
I'VE DONE EVERYTHING.
