So I will start by saying I am not very educated about everything I have to do to maintain my pool but I am trying to learn. I was always under the impression with the right filter my water would be clear, how wrong I was.
I have had my above ground oval 15 by 30 pool for around 5 years. I have always had a little trouble here and there if the green got away from me it took me a while to bring it back but this year when trying to open my pool I was never able to clear it up. I have three filters, wanted to try one of each to see if I had a strong preference. First is the sand filter, it is a clearwater filter I got with the pool from namco. For the most part it worked well but I started having trouble with it 2 years ago and had a really hard time keeping my water clear, took the filter apart and one of my arms had come unscrewd from the center rod. After that I was always paranoid that one of my arms had come loose when I had any trouble so I got a DE filter last year, used on craigslist. It is a hayward and appears to be in good condition. Was able to keep my pool quite clear but I became frustrated with it as it seemed anytime I tried to run the filter the pressure became quite high, 22 or so and I would bump it and an hour later it was high again. Change the powder, take it apart, spary it off, new powder, run for 8 hours high pressure again. Pretty clear water though.
This year I purchased a Hayward cartridge filter new off e-bay thinking it would ease my mind and make life easier. My pool was very green so I went to home depot and purchased some algae product, liquid blue in color, looked neon when I added it to the pool and also purchased a box of the six in one powder shock. This has always worked quite well for me in the past.
Hooked up my new filter dumped two bags in of the algae product and ran the filter for 24 hours when the pressure had risen to a point where I had to change filters. I started with a hayward filter that came with my new filter system and I canged into a unicel filter I had purchased also off ebay. Upon inspection the hayward filter appears to be much better but I am no pro so maybe the unicel is not so bad.
The water would not clear, brought some water to local pool store and we added ph up, alk. up, oxidizer and calcium increaser over the course of 2 or so weeks. The levels on my aquachek 7 strips were perfect except there was no reading for free chlorine which my pool guy said was not important. Throughout the last three weeks or so I have become suspect of my new filter and have swapped back and forth between the three filters I have running them in cycles, no help.
4-5 days ago bought some floc, added that to the pool and let it rest for 4 days, nothing, around 4 inches of visibilty throughout this whole process, can barely see the bottom of my skimmer. Gave up on the floc and started running the cartridge filter again. Lost chlorine levels letting the floc sit so added five gallons of liquid last night and have run pump since. Still no visibilty, my strips says my chlorine levels are both high but the remainder items are still spot on.
This is where I am. hate to drain it and start over but am unsure if I can actually clear it up. Ordered a taylor k-2006 test kit from amazon but it is not here yet. also ordered a k-1106 phosphate test kit as I read in one of the threads between these two it is pretty much everything you need to test for. any help would be extremely helpful....
I have had my above ground oval 15 by 30 pool for around 5 years. I have always had a little trouble here and there if the green got away from me it took me a while to bring it back but this year when trying to open my pool I was never able to clear it up. I have three filters, wanted to try one of each to see if I had a strong preference. First is the sand filter, it is a clearwater filter I got with the pool from namco. For the most part it worked well but I started having trouble with it 2 years ago and had a really hard time keeping my water clear, took the filter apart and one of my arms had come unscrewd from the center rod. After that I was always paranoid that one of my arms had come loose when I had any trouble so I got a DE filter last year, used on craigslist. It is a hayward and appears to be in good condition. Was able to keep my pool quite clear but I became frustrated with it as it seemed anytime I tried to run the filter the pressure became quite high, 22 or so and I would bump it and an hour later it was high again. Change the powder, take it apart, spary it off, new powder, run for 8 hours high pressure again. Pretty clear water though.
This year I purchased a Hayward cartridge filter new off e-bay thinking it would ease my mind and make life easier. My pool was very green so I went to home depot and purchased some algae product, liquid blue in color, looked neon when I added it to the pool and also purchased a box of the six in one powder shock. This has always worked quite well for me in the past.
Hooked up my new filter dumped two bags in of the algae product and ran the filter for 24 hours when the pressure had risen to a point where I had to change filters. I started with a hayward filter that came with my new filter system and I canged into a unicel filter I had purchased also off ebay. Upon inspection the hayward filter appears to be much better but I am no pro so maybe the unicel is not so bad.
The water would not clear, brought some water to local pool store and we added ph up, alk. up, oxidizer and calcium increaser over the course of 2 or so weeks. The levels on my aquachek 7 strips were perfect except there was no reading for free chlorine which my pool guy said was not important. Throughout the last three weeks or so I have become suspect of my new filter and have swapped back and forth between the three filters I have running them in cycles, no help.
4-5 days ago bought some floc, added that to the pool and let it rest for 4 days, nothing, around 4 inches of visibilty throughout this whole process, can barely see the bottom of my skimmer. Gave up on the floc and started running the cartridge filter again. Lost chlorine levels letting the floc sit so added five gallons of liquid last night and have run pump since. Still no visibilty, my strips says my chlorine levels are both high but the remainder items are still spot on.
This is where I am. hate to drain it and start over but am unsure if I can actually clear it up. Ordered a taylor k-2006 test kit from amazon but it is not here yet. also ordered a k-1106 phosphate test kit as I read in one of the threads between these two it is pretty much everything you need to test for. any help would be extremely helpful....
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