Spa full of de

[Benjw9418]

I have recently purchased a house with a pool with a spa connected to it. It is my first pool, but my neighbor has one and has been helping me some. I have the chemistry down for the most part. On Monday I took apart my Hayward model DE 6020 and cleaned it real good and inspected the filters. View attachment 57265. All the filters looked fine with out any ears or holes in them. I put the recommended amount of de is called for, 7.5lbs. On Tuesday I checked out the pool and the water looks great but I have a lot of de in my spa. First on why?What is the easiest way to clean it? Also my spa stays pretty dirty as well, how can I keep is cleaner? I have a mesh cover over it now. It is under an oak tree. . Thanks



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[Rocco]

The best advice I can give you is to make sure you completely disassemble the filter to clean it and inspect it before fully assembling again. As you most likely know small holes in the mesh or incorrect assembly can allow DE to pass through. Another possibility with DE getting back into the spa/pool is a bad spider gasket. This is in the multiport valve that you adjust to filter/backwash/rinse/waste. Do you notice any water coming out of the waste port when the valve is not turned to waste? This is a good indication that the spider valve needs to be replaced.

In regards to trees my recommendation is to trim the tree back or get rid of it completely. If this is not an option you could put a solid cover over the spa or place a tarp over your mesh cover.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Ben,

Welcome to TFP... A Great resource for all your pool questions... :super:

I suspect that you got DE in your Spa because you have your valves or plumbing set up so that your Spa Spillover is running all the time. Just a guess of course.

That by itself does not say why DE got past your filter, but because the volume of the Spa is smaller than your pool it is more likely to be noticed.

Sometimes a little DE will initially get by, so my question are:

1. Is the DE continuing to get in your pool/spa or was this a one time event?

2. How are you adding your DE back into the filter?

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[Benjw9418]

I won't be able to check again until tomorrow due to work. I did have some in the pool as well because I have some in the filter of my pool vacuum, but not much. I mixed a lb or so in water at a time and poured it into the skimmer. Also how do you open the drains at the bottom of my spa? And can u drain just the spa?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Ben,

You should have two sets of valves.. One set is call the Intake valves and is connected to the input (suction) side of your pump.

The other set of valves are called the Return valves and are connected to the output of you filter, or pump, going back into the pool or spa.

If you want to empty your spa, you would turn the Intake valve so that it sucks water from the Spa and not the Pool. You would set the return valve so that the water returned to the Pool.

Obviously you can't do this for too long before your pump would be sucking air, not a good idea..

If you can post a picture of your equipment pad, we can help figure out which valve is which, if they are not marked.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Benjw9418]

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[Jimrahbe]

Ben,

Just a little too close to see everything.. but...

The valve in the lower right appears to be your suction valve and in the picture the Spa return is off... All your water is being sucked from the pool.

The valve in the lower left, where you can only see the handle, appears to be your return valve and in the picture it is set to return about 70% of the water to pool and remaining 30% to the Spa. (But I can't see the labels,, so it could be the other way round)..

Jim R.

 

[Benjw9418]

The spa does overflow into the pool so I guess I should leave the suction valve turned off to the spa. If I do turn it on for the spa will it suck all the de out of the bottom of the spa? Should all these setting stay the same? This is how everything was set when we moved in.


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[Jimrahbe]

Ben,

Well, as with everything it depends.. You really want to keep fresh water in your Spa, so that it stays chlorinated, so without automation, it is best to run the way it is currently set up.

You will have to use a brush, but you can open the Spa drain valve and push the DE into the drain.

I would shut off the spa return (jets) when adding DE just to prevent what happened.

Just keep in mind that since you have a SWCG your pH will tend in increase... And, with the spill over running all the time that will cause aeration which will also increase pH.. So I would adjust the return valve so that the spillover just spills over. More like a dribble-over...

Jim R.

 

[Benjw9418]

Thanks. Appreciate the advice


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