And so the pumpout begins..

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Richard320

Richard320

TFP Expert
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Jan 6, 2010
23,923
San Dimas, CA (LA County)
It's pretty obvious from the way my filter pressure climbs 1 psi/month that it will be a while until I backwash. And it's also clear that I need to water my lawns before they die completely. Right now the grass is sorta splotchy gold/lime green and brittle enough one doesn't walk across it barefoot. And a trip to the dentist and some other unusual expense have ruled out reverse osmosis for another couple months.

So about a week ago I bought a cheap submersible pump. Hey, if I have to buy water for the lawn, I'm gonna milk it for all it's worth. So the lawn gets water with 140CYA and 950CH and the pool gets 0 CYA and ~300CH. I really ought to test the tap water again, they may source it from somewhere different in the summer. Hmmm...

Anyway, the dilution begins. It's taking a lot longer than I thought it would. Who knew a lawn sprinkler restricted flow as much as it does? I expect this to continue now for months and months. It's not as efficient as draining half or more out in one shot and then refilling it, but none of the water's running down the storm drain, either. And my water usage should remain pretty stable to keep the water company off my back.

I'll keep you all posted if the FC/CYA does anything weird to the lawn or not.
 
Most of your water is coming from Metropolitan Water District. Due to a number of issues up north they have been sourcing very heavily from colorado river sources. Not really telling you anything you dont know. Your CH is 300-400

Keep us posted on the grass. I've had the same thought but was worried about killing the lawn I've struggled to cultivate.
 
I wonder if a guy with a '68 Jeepster, a blown brake booster and an R/O unit knew a guy that was mechanically inclined were close enough they could swap work? Sounds like a new concept for a Fall TV show!

Wish you were closer, Richard :cool: I'll bet we could make something work out!
 
lightingguy said:
Most of your water is coming from Metropolitan Water District. Due to a number of issues up north they have been sourcing very heavily from colorado river sources. Not really telling you anything you dont know. Your CH is 300-400

Keep us posted on the grass. I've had the same thought but was worried about killing the lawn I've struggled to cultivate.
Click to expand...
Actually, I just tested the tap water. 170!! And I'm pretty confident of that since I used the speedstir to mix it.
 
And the update

Everything is back to normal. All the hoses coiled up and put away, filter valves set back in position, pool is refilled. I guessed pretty good when I poured some acid in last night while it was filling, right into the hose stream. Needed 6 more ounces to get CSI back into the neagtives.

FC didn't drop much, TA is unchanged, CYA went down somewhere between 5 and 10, pH was good, but CH is actually higher than the last time I tested it 2 weeks ago. Well, I did have to add a lot of water during the heat wave, and the scaling is dissolving, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

Results before treatment
FC 11.5
CC 0.0
TC 11.5
pH 7.5
TA 80
CH 1050. Yes, it's true, checked it twice. Cycled the speedstir 3x during the test.
CYA 135, maybe even 130
Temp 76. That fill water must be cold!


And it's still clear and sparkly.

Too soon to see what it does to the lawn. It hasn't turned purple or anything yet.
 
The side lawns I watered the other day seem none the worse so this evening I watered them again, and soaked the big front lawn, too. Also soaked some of the planters, but none with our vegetables.

The worst part is the refill. I musta emptied 3 or 4 inches out, and it's taking forever to refill, and it's past my bedtime! :grrrr:
 
Just a quick FYI Richard,

This house I just bought had only enough backflush hose to reach onto the front lawn, so for the most part the previous owner has been dumping backflush filter waste onto it for a long time.

As part of my ritual when we purchased this house I dethatched the lawn within an inch of its life (17 bags worth!), the lawn where the hose dumped was actually moss not grass! The soil there is "bleached" and dead, it is soft and feels powdery. I have tried to reintroduce seed in that area along with some fresh soil on top to keep it wet and let it get started but I cannot get the seed to sprout. After two weeks of using bag after bag of fertilizer concentrated on this area along with the rest of the lawn I have given up, nothing "grass" related is going to grow there unless I remove the soil and start again.

The rest of the lawn looks great after the dethatching and has rebounded well (thanks to 6 bags of fertilizer and nightly waterings!) but the mossed area where the backwash hose dumped is dead dead dead...no weeds either though! I imagine only dumping a small amount on the lawn in a single instance is OK but be forewarned bleach and grass do not get along well. Amazingly there is still some green quack grass there but it isn't growing either, hasn't grown an inch in two weeks but its still green.

When I drained my pool to bring my CYA down from 250 or so to 60 I added enough hose to reach the street with a barbed fitting and some hose clamps, you can still see the section of the asphalt where I was dumping 50ppm chlorine shock water...its white! :shock:

If you like I can take pictures of the lawn to show you what happened there, its a little sunken and a square section about 7'X7', I wouldn't dump anymore on the lawn if I were you...its not worth it.
 
Just a side note, there are places that you can have soil tested for ph, and other essential statistics. Then you can add or neutralize only what you need to. Simply pumping fertilizer onto problem areas or lawns doesn't always work.

Hmmm. This theory sounds very familiar. Where have I heard this before? :wink: Good luck with the pools and the lawns guys.
 

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Uh oh. So that day when I put pucks into the automatic feeder and didn't cap the lid tight enough.... and then when the pump started whining I found water gushing out of the feeder onto the lawn, having washed away one puck already... so that dead looking grass is not going to rebound quickly, eh?

Guess I will start scratching in compost and MicroLife to see if I can get the soil back to living again.
 
For a 7'X7' spot its cheaper to just rip it up and add new soil and re-seed than to have testing done, thats how I am going to handle it. The ants that have had a hayday in the lawn since I dethatched won't even build there! :shock: I had a look again today since we have had some record rainstorms in the last few days to see if any of the grass has taken but all I see is fresh moss growing, I don't know what kind of moss it is but it grows almost as fast as grass. I had ripped out a section of edging around the perimeter of the foundation (added a rock border for flowers with fabric liner) and seeded it at the same time and its growing nicely so I know its not my seed.

I imagine the soil is basically sterile and contaminated with chloride+CYA, its the consistency of powder...more like diatemaceous earth than soil actually. The area around this spot is taking the longest to rebound but at least the grass is growing, I plan on reintroducing fresh soil and compost in the fall to get the lawn healthy again and re-seed.

I fixed the dang pool, I can fix this lawn. :whip:
 
And so the pumpout continues

The lawns that got soaked last time seem no worse for the pool chemicals - in fact they're thriving. Maybe i have high phosphates? The front lawn, which is further away and got less water because I got tired, is still alive. The heat wave last week when I was out of town didn't help matters much.

I have a day off today, so I'm doing it again. This time I broadcast some turf builder on the browning lawns before I started soaking. I have no idea if it's still good, it was left behind in the tool shed, but it was free.

Mind you all, this is just pool water, not filter backwash. No DE in it. Just lots and lots of Calcium. And even though I halfway expected to see my lawns turn white, they didn't.
 
The damage to my lawn took 20 years to occur Rich, pool install was 1991. The original drain hose was only 50ft long so it dumped in the same spot all those years, I imagine if you spread the water out on the entire lawn it might take 40 years to cause damage and then again it might only affect certain types of grass. At any rate I got a 100ft length of hose which reaches the city street drain, I have had to backwash twice this week because of rainfall...4 inches in the pool in one week alone.

The filter is squeeky clean though! :)
 
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