Woke up to this muddy mess, at a loss of what to do next...

[bmsm6]

We woke up to this. Filter pump had been running, spa pump wasn't (which is why it is still clear). Shut off the panel into service mode, but now I'm not sure what to do next and wondering if anyone has ever had anything similar happen or can offer advice? Not sure yet if the mud is seeping up through the strip drains or seeping from the back wall. We've had the pool a year, had lots of big rains, and nothing like this happened.

 

[JohnT]

Ouch! That will ruin your day.

Looks to me like it backed up through the drains. Do you know where the outlet for the drains is?

I think you are going to be doing a lot of cartridge cleaning. If your pool builder or other pool service has a self contained vacuum, it might be worth letting the crud settle for a day and having them try to vacuum out what they can. Heck, if you could find a used 120V pump on CL it might be worth rigging your own vacuum system to pick up the dirt from the bottom.

 

[bmsm6]

The mud actually came in from the back wall, our neighbor had a mud slide and their drain was clogged with debris, so the muddy water came thru into our yard, then our strip drains carried it around the pool.

Pool builder is saying fastest solution would be to drain, clean, and refill. Expensive but may be worth lessening the hassle....

 

[slickraft]

The mud actually came in from the back wall, our neighbor had a mud slide and their drain was clogged with debris, so the muddy water came thru into our yard, then our strip drains carried it around the pool.

Pool builder is saying fastest solution would be to drain, clean, and refill. Expensive but may be worth lessening the hassle....

I've had worse than that from a flood. After it settled, I vacuumed to waste the majority of the silt. After that, I let the suction-side pool cleaner and sand filter take care of the rest. Took about 5 days to look reasonable again.

 

[bmsm6]

I've had worse than that from a flood. After it settled, I vacuumed to waste the majority of the silt. After that, I let the suction-side pool cleaner and sand filter take care of the rest. Took about 5 days to look reasonable again.

I feel like I should know this, but how do you vacuum to waste? I have never done that before and not sure how I would do it. There isn't a valve I could open between the pump and filter I don't think...

 

[slickraft]

I feel like I should know this, but how do you vacuum to waste? I have never done that before and not sure how I would do it. There isn't a valve I could open between the pump and filter I don't think...

Not all pool filter setups have a "vacuum to waste" option depending on the installation. If you don't have that you would have to vacuum it through the filter and do a lot of backwashing.

 

[JohnT]

I feel like I should know this, but how do you vacuum to waste? I have never done that before and not sure how I would do it. There isn't a valve I could open between the pump and filter I don't think...

I doubt your system is set up for it. Generally only on sand and DE filters. That's why I suggested the portable vacuum.

 

[AftonJeeper]

You might have a 3 way valve like below to empty your pool. Pretty sure that would do what you DE and Sand folks call vacuum to waste.

 

[bmsm6]

I doubt your system is set up for it. Generally only on sand and DE filters. That's why I suggested the portable vacuum.

Thanks for the response. You're right, we aren't set up for it. Luckily our pool builder was able to send out two of his guys today to drain, pressure wash, and vacuum the silt from the pool and pipes. Now we just have to clean out our filter (I need to research on here what we should soak the 4 cartridges in and for how long), and then the water company should be out tomorrow or Thursday to fill the pool from the fire hydrant. On the bright side, we won't have our high CYA problem anymore, once I get the water balanced again...

 

[blakeusa]

I had a very similar situation with mud in the pool. I let it settle with the pump off.
Vacuumed up
Clean cartridge filter a couple of time during process.
Ran my robot after this and it all cleaned up within a week.

 

[Sseaman]

Sounds like you are getting it handled. Have you talked with the neighbor about the cause coming from their property so it doesn't happen again?

 

[bmsm6]

Sounds like you are getting it handled. Have you talked with the neighbor about the cause coming from their property so it doesn't happen again?

Yes, the neighbor had contractors out today to install a temporary fix so the drain won't clog again (metal screens that'll catch debris such as pine straw but will still let the water flow through), and hopefully they'll do a more permanent solution soon. We've had more heavy rains tonight and have been checking the drain periodically and the water is draining perfectly. The frustrating thing is that our neighbor has had this mud slide issue multiple times in the past 2 years, and I think each time it added more mud/pinestraw over the drain, which wasn't cleared away as it should have been, and finally it took this extreme situation impacting us to motivate him to finally get it fixed.

We did get the pool refilled today, I had some issues getting the pump primed but finally got it, so spent most of the afternoon adjusting the water chemistry and it is already starting to clear up nicely. Ran the robot for two cycles already and it is still picking up some leftover red mud silt, so will probably run it a few times tomorrow as well until we get all of it. I'm just happy it looks like we'll be able to swim this weekend after all!