during the day the pool seems clear, but when I turn on the light at night I see particles in the beam. Is that normal?
particles visible at night when pool lights are on
- Thread starter archer636
- Start date
- Jul 16, 2012
- 7,204
- Pool Size
- 27000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Yep. The technical term for them is floaties. They are the reason some people will only have a DE filter. But if I keep my cartridge filtered pool running longer than necessary I can reduce the floaties to a bare minimum.
Completely normal. Judge your pool clarity during the day to keep you sane.
Completely normal. Judge your pool clarity during the day to keep you sane.
CJadamec
TFP Expert
If you had a sand filter I would say add some DE to it. I did that and it gave me clear water at night with the light on. I don't know what type of harmsco filter housing you are using but the water better series of filters go down to 0.5 micron. I would imagine if you went to a 10 micron filter, I'm assuming you are using a 20 or 30 micron filter, you would get rid of your floaties. BUT you would have to clean your filters way more often.
Mine got the clearest when I installed the Kreepy and let it run every day while the pump was running. Prior to that, even with brushing, I never could quite get all of the fine dirt that blows around here cleaned up off the bottom, so there was always a decent amount of it suspended in the water. Having the bottom get vacuumed through the filter for a few hours every day has really made a huge difference in what I see when I brush - I used to see a little puffy cloud of dirt, now I don't see anything except when I brush the steps.
Agreed with the others, although depending on how much debris and dust blows into your pool, you may never be able to eliminate it even if you ran the pump continuously.
This is what I am using- doesn't say how many microns?
http://poolsupplying.com/pool_supplies/view_item.php?item_id=274
see response from Harmsco customer service:
"The human eye cannot see anything below 40 micron, so I am not sure why the 20 micron isn’t catching your “floaties”. However, the ST/6 is a swimming pool cartridge and as such is only available in 20 micron, but you can purchase the equivalent size in the Harmsco industrial cartridge, part number 801-10, which is 10 micron."
they are saying if particle is visible, it would be larger than 40, so a finer filter would not help....
Not sure about that ... you are seeing the light reflect off the particle which could make it appear larger I think.
Shekkie
0
Even after deep cleaning my sand filter I still had a ton of floaties visible by the light at night. I changed the sand and I see very few now. My pump run times are the same as before.
+1
Also, what you see are most likely groups or clumps of particles, and the water could be magnifying it a bit.
CJadamec
TFP Expert
I'm with bizzle on this light reflection off other particles will make things you can't see under daylight conditions standout. Water and light do funny optical things under such high contrasting light conditions. While the folks at harsmco aren't wrong they also didn't mention that their pool filter isnt rated as an absolute filter. There are a certain percentage of partices that will make it past your pool filter. That's why going to a finer filter will catch more of the stuff you can see. I would hate to see what their industrial filter costs. It would probably be cheaper to just invest in a DE filter.
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