Pool recovery after fire -- ash in water questions.

[lalittle]

We were basically at ground zero for the Woolsey fire in Los Angeles over this last week. Thankfully, our house came through fine, but I now have a few questions about cleaning a lot of ash out of a pool. I did search the forums and found a few threads about it, but I'm looking for further clarification on some specific questions.

What I did was to first scoop out as much as I could with a silt bag on a leaf rake. This worked okay, but so much ash got stirred up that it became difficult to see the bottom clearly. I then started running the cleaner (Pentair Rebel on a Quad 100 filter), keeping an eye on the pressure and the leaf canister, which I had to dump a couple times during the process. The pressure got pretty high, so I shut everything down and fully cleaned and charged the filter. I then started the cleaner back up again and added chlorine and acid to get the chemistry back in line. I added a bit more chlorine than I normally would have (it was real low at this point), but I definitely didn't "slam" it. I once again just let the cleaner run for a while, and after another day or so the pool now looks about 90% to 95% clear -- still a bit cloudier than normal, but getting close to "fully" clear.

My plan is to add chlorine again tonight to put it on the high side, and just keep filtering.

I thought that this was all on track, but my neighbor -- whose pool was no worse than mine -- was told that their pool needed to be fully drained and refilled. I'm therefore wondering if there is some aspect to this situation that I'm not aware of -- some reason that fully draining and refilling is needed even if the standard cleaning procedures appear to work.

- Does ash change the chemistry in ways that cannot simply be taken care of by cleaning and re-balancing?

- Even though my pool is "looking" pretty good at this point, and the chemistry seems to be back to normal, is there some "hidden" aspect to this that I don't know about?

- Should I use some sort of flocculant in the pool? Again, it's looking pretty good, but having never been through a fire like this before, I'm curious if there are extra steps that are needed even when no visible issues are present.

I'd appreciate any feedback on this that goes beyond the other threads on this subject. I want to make sure that I'm not missing something -- that I'm taking the appropriate steps to FULLY return my pool to normal.

Thanks,

Larry

 

[mknauss]

Do not use floc. Just keep filtering. You have a DE filter. It will get all the solids.

No need to drain. Do your chemistry tests and follow the recommend levels in Pool School. Most likely no need to SLAM but you can do a OCLT in a day or two.

pH is something to watch. We always assumed ash would be acidic, but in the past instances, it has not seemed to effect the pool water pH all that much.

 

[lalittle]

Thanks Marty.

Yeah -- I expected to seem some really out of whack pH levels, but they were pretty much where I would have expected to find them without all the ash.

Now I'm really curious why the neighbor's pool person said they had to drain/refill. Not only is it another expense, it also just adds more work. Maybe that's the point -- I don't know. I already told them that a drain/refill didn't seem necessary, so we'll see what they say tomorrow.

Just to be safe, I figure I'll give my pool another gallon of Cl tonight, which will put it a little under shock level given the current CYA level. I'm fine to not use the pool or spa for the time being, so I'm not concerned with higher FC levels for a little while.

Thanks,

Larry

 

[lalittle]

It turns out that the FC didn't drop as much as I thought it would since yesterday, so I think I'm just going to let it ride tonight. I'll continue to keep a daily eye on it for a few days until I confirm that everything is stable.

L

 

[wogster]

We were basically at ground zero for the Woolsey fire in Los Angeles over this last week. Thankfully, our house came through fine, but I now have a few questions about cleaning a lot of ash out of a pool. I did search the forums and found a few threads about it, but I'm looking for further clarification on some specific questions.

What I did was to first scoop out as much as I could with a silt bag on a leaf rake. This worked okay, but so much ash got stirred up that it became difficult to see the bottom clearly. I then started running the cleaner (Pentair Rebel on a Quad 100 filter), keeping an eye on the pressure and the leaf canister, which I had to dump a couple times during the process. The pressure got pretty high, so I shut everything down and fully cleaned and charged the filter. I then started the cleaner back up again and added chlorine and acid to get the chemistry back in line. I added a bit more chlorine than I normally would have (it was real low at this point), but I definitely didn't "slam" it. I once again just let the cleaner run for a while, and after another day or so the pool now looks about 90% to 95% clear -- still a bit cloudier than normal, but getting close to "fully" clear.

My plan is to add chlorine again tonight to put it on the high side, and just keep filtering.

I thought that this was all on track, but my neighbor -- whose pool was no worse than mine -- was told that their pool needed to be fully drained and refilled. I'm therefore wondering if there is some aspect to this situation that I'm not aware of -- some reason that fully draining and refilling is needed even if the standard cleaning procedures appear to work.

- Does ash change the chemistry in ways that cannot simply be taken care of by cleaning and re-balancing?

- Even though my pool is "looking" pretty good at this point, and the chemistry seems to be back to normal, is there some "hidden" aspect to this that I don't know about?

- Should I use some sort of flocculant in the pool? Again, it's looking pretty good, but having never been through a fire like this before, I'm curious if there are extra steps that are needed even when no visible issues are present.

I'd appreciate any feedback on this that goes beyond the other threads on this subject. I want to make sure that I'm not missing something -- that I'm taking the appropriate steps to FULLY return my pool to normal.

Thanks,

Larry

Your neighbours pool company, may be looking at what is the least work for their staff, draining a refilling, is going to be a lot less work, then what you did..... Besides they are not paying for the water, which I would expect in California would be quite expensive.... Think about it this way, they would need a staff member and truck on site for a full work day, for each pool, to do what you did.

Their method, have a 2 man team grab a bunch of big rental pumps, go to pool and drop in the pumps, drain most pools in an hour, depending on the size of the pool and the pumps, while they are waiting, they clean the filters for cartridge units and setup the fill hoses. Once the pool is empty, they start the filling and instruct the customer to call when full. As they drain they wash down the walls, from any trapped ash. Another guy gets the filled call, goes and tests the water, throws in the chemicals, does a backwash for sand filters and they are done. Could likely do 4-6 pools a day....

 

[kimkats]

What he ^^^^^^^^^^ said!

Your pool is clean and SAFE now. Can you see the bottom? Is the water balanced using your awesome test kit? It is all good and SAFE! I am very glad you asked though so you know for sure.

Kim

 

[ajw22]

Just keep an eye on your filter pressure and have bags of DE on hand. Your filter may need a few backwashes to get all the ash out.

 

[lalittle]

Thanks for all the replies. Everything appears to be back to normal now.

In the end, I only did a single full cleaning of the filter, but this is likely because I'm using a Quad 100, which is technically oversized for my pool. This was the point of getting the 100 instead of the 80 or 60 -- so I could go longer without cleaning.

With regard to my neighbor's pool, I spoke to them about my experience along with what was said here, and they ended up NOT draining their pool. Their pool is also back to normal now.

Thanks again,

Larry