Sand inthe bottom of pool from hydrant fill - how to get it out

[backhoed]

Long time pool owner here - been using the bbb method for 2 years now and have spread the word and have others hooked as well! Anyway here is the problem I need help with: my daughter and son in law just put up a 21 ft 52 " pool. He did a fill with the help of his fire company ( of which he is a member of) and now the pool has a good deal of sand on the bottom. I got the pool all balanced out (currently adding stabilizer to bring up the cya which registered "0") so the chemistry is great, however we are having an issue getting the sand out. It gets stirred up pretty easliy and clouds the water up. Anyone have any remedies or home made solutions to getting "the beach" out of the pool? Thanks all!

 

[kimkats]

HI! SO nice to hear you have been able to get and keep your pool looking like a jewel with TFP! That is awesome!

Now on to their pool:

What kind of filter do they have? That will help us know what they can do. I have some ideas.

:kim;

 

[bobodaclown]

Slowly vacuum the pool. Go slowly, deliberately. Work one area at a time.

 

[backhoed]

HI! SO nice to hear you have been able to get and keep your pool looking like a jewel with TFP! That is awesome!

Now on to their pool:

What kind of filter do they have? That will help us know what they can do. I have some ideas.

:kim;

I believe it is a Hayward
cartridge filter.

 

[kimkats]

Okay here is my idea:

-skimmer sock to prefilter the water. Easier to clean than the cartridge.

-slow vacuum like clown says. Slow and easy. It might take a couple/few times.

Tell them good luck and have them think about joining up so we can talk to them as well as you.

 

[Tsudduth]

(currently adding stabilizer to bring up the cya which registered "0")

Don't add too much stabilizer. The dichlor and trichlor already have CYA in it. I made the mistake of adding in the stabilizer when I initially filled my pool for the first time, on the recommendation of a Leslie's pool employee. Now I have too much in there and am faced with replacing some water to lower it. I now use liquid bleach in combination with the pucks to reduce the amount of CYA that goes into the pool.

 

[kimkats]

the pucks to reduce the amount of CYA that goes into the pool.

The pucks have added stuff also so let us know which ones you are using and we can tell you what they are adding to your pool-CYA or CH

One day they will find a way to make the pucks add just what we want and need. Until then it is liquid chlorine all the way.

 

[backhoed]

(currently adding stabilizer to bring up the cya which registered "0")

Don't add too much stabilizer. The dichlor and trichlor already have CYA in it. I made the mistake of adding in the stabilizer when I initially filled my pool for the first time, on the recommendation of a Leslie's pool employee. Now I have too much in there and am faced with replacing some water to lower it. I now use liquid bleach in combination with the pucks to reduce the amount of CYA that goes into the pool.

No too much stabilizer = bad! Since I did not start them out with dichlor or trichlor and went directly to bleach there was no issue with the CYA raising from that. So we will be good to go.
However, I spent over an hour trying to vacuum that sand and I am thinking we may have to vacuum to waste and then refill as necessary. Sand is an evil thing! Just doesn't to leave. It is like the beach in the bottom of the pool and when it gets stirred up looks like a lagoon.
What is a skimmer sock?

 

[kimkats]

Amazon.com : Pool Filter Savers - Skimmer Socks (5-Pack) : Swimming Pool Cartridge Filters : Patio, Lawn Garden

Lowes has them sometimes as well. They can be washed and reused.

 

[rlw9]

My pool is near the beach and gets sand blown in it every day, so I feel his pain! I put some quilt batting in on top of my filter basket. I also use an old sock filled with quilt batting that I attach to the return jet. This helps trap quite a bit, just keep the batting washed out.

 

[backhoed]

Thanks I am going to try the sock on the return suggestion. Why would you put a skimmer sock on the skimmer when you remove the skimmer anyway to connect the vacuum hose? That has me puzzled?

 

[kimkats]

You put the sock on the basket in the skimmer. The vacuum plate sits on the basket. That gives you two baskets between the vacuum and pump.

 

[backhoed]

Aha! I always just put the vac hose straight into the opening of the skimmer after removing the basket, never used the vac plate.

 

[kimkats]

That is what I thought you might be doing. I do NOT like the plate as it is harder for me to put the hose on without losing prime in my hose. There have been times when there is not big stuff in my pool that I do it like you do.....straight in the hole! LOL

 

[backhoed]

Update:

The only real way to get rid of a beach (sand) in your pool is to vacuum to waste. We ended up hooking up the vacuum hose to the pole with no vacuum head on it so we did not disturb the sand with the brushes on the vacuum head. Once we did that we set up the vacuum and took off the discharge and " watered the lawn". This had to be done over the course of a couple of days. When the water level dropped to the lowest level that the filter could work with we stopped and re-hooked up the discharge to the filter, filled the pool to a high level again and repeated the procedure.

Lessons learned: Do not use a hydrant to fill your pool. You will only have headaches and have to fill it up again anyway. Although, the lawn is looking greener....

 

[kimkats]

Thank you for the follow up on this problem. I bet someone will be able to use this info if it happens to them!