G
Guest
Hi guys, nice site you have here!
I'm stuck, hoping for some help.
I live in a Chicago suburb, and this is only my 2nd summer with an above ground pool. It's an 18 ft round, ~8k gallons. It came with our new house, and included a DE filter. I hated the DE filter last year, so this summer, I bought a 90 sq ft. cartridge filter with a 1hp pump. I heard/read the cartridge filter was much lower maintenance than the DE.
Well, so far, it hasn't been. On pool opening, the water was pretty green. After lots of shock, the water is no longer green, but significantly cloudy. I can just barely make out some discoloration on the pool bottom (most likely leaves).
pH is 7.4, alkalinity is 160 ppm, free chlorine is 10 ppm (lots of shock to try to reduce the cloudiness), calcium hardness of 120 ppm.
Everyone tells me to just let the filter run and run as much as I can. But here's my problem... the pressure goes from about 9 psi to 17-18 psi in half an hour, and the flow of water completely stops.
I take out the cartridge, cleaning it the proper way (I've read the thread on how to properly clean it), and start the pump back up. I'm back down to about 9 psi every time, but without fail, within half an hour, it goes up 8-9 psi and I get no flow. I've been doing this repeatedly for about 2 weeks now.
The pool store where I bought the filter/pump suggested a muriatic acid soak. I did that (20:1 water:acid ratio), but there were no bubbles like I've read that indicate minerals being dissolved or whatever. I clean it again, start up the filter, same result.
Is it possible that something in the water is clogging the filter element? Should I try letting it soak in a dishwashing detergent mix over night?
I'm going crazy here. I can only run the stupid filter in half hour increments. At this rate, the pool will never be clear.
Help, please?
I'm stuck, hoping for some help.
I live in a Chicago suburb, and this is only my 2nd summer with an above ground pool. It's an 18 ft round, ~8k gallons. It came with our new house, and included a DE filter. I hated the DE filter last year, so this summer, I bought a 90 sq ft. cartridge filter with a 1hp pump. I heard/read the cartridge filter was much lower maintenance than the DE.
Well, so far, it hasn't been. On pool opening, the water was pretty green. After lots of shock, the water is no longer green, but significantly cloudy. I can just barely make out some discoloration on the pool bottom (most likely leaves).
pH is 7.4, alkalinity is 160 ppm, free chlorine is 10 ppm (lots of shock to try to reduce the cloudiness), calcium hardness of 120 ppm.
Everyone tells me to just let the filter run and run as much as I can. But here's my problem... the pressure goes from about 9 psi to 17-18 psi in half an hour, and the flow of water completely stops.
I take out the cartridge, cleaning it the proper way (I've read the thread on how to properly clean it), and start the pump back up. I'm back down to about 9 psi every time, but without fail, within half an hour, it goes up 8-9 psi and I get no flow. I've been doing this repeatedly for about 2 weeks now.
The pool store where I bought the filter/pump suggested a muriatic acid soak. I did that (20:1 water:acid ratio), but there were no bubbles like I've read that indicate minerals being dissolved or whatever. I clean it again, start up the filter, same result.
Is it possible that something in the water is clogging the filter element? Should I try letting it soak in a dishwashing detergent mix over night?
I'm going crazy here. I can only run the stupid filter in half hour increments. At this rate, the pool will never be clear.
Help, please?