It has been a difficult month in my pool.
I have kept up with BBB for the most part, but with almost 60 days of 100+ degrees, my pool has been eating chlorine like candy. I have been using at least 1 of the big jugs every day, sometimes more. Anyway, I kept up with it.
Then we got some wind. Pretty heavy winds of around 80mph. I did not remember this until later analysis however. All I know is that one day my pool looked great, and the next day it was cloudy and had piles of what looked like dirt on the bottom.
I vaccumed it up and retested everything and the numbers looked fine. The next day, it was back. The same amount, in almost the same spots. It was not a complete coverage on the bottom, but seemed to pile up in splotches, especially in the indentations on the bottom. It was not slimy and completely dissipated wiith the slightest disturbance. Vacuumed again. Tested. Everything ok.
Next night, back again. Getting frustrated. Did not vaccum. Went out to dinner instead.
Next ngiht, virtually no change. A slight bit more on the bottom and water a little less cloudy. My wife declares it to be algae so I start shocking process.
I shock, and shock, and shock for a week. Same results. Finally, I get really ticked and dump a ton of bleach into it. Like twice the normal shock amount. I know, stupid, but I was mad and this was my solution.
The next day, big change. The brown dirt-like piles were pearly white, but back again. FC was 60 and CC was still 0. This was when I started doing a lot of reading on mustard algae and found that most of the cases of reported mustard algae are something else, like tree pollen.
Sooooo, I learned about skimmer socks and decided to try panty hose over the skimmer basket. Yesterday there was about a 75% reduction in the amount of stuff on the bottom. If this holds up for tonight, I expect clear water when I get home tonight.
I'm not ready to declare that pollen is what it was, but I doubt it was anything alive. Also, it appears my sand filter is not catching everything it needs to.
Is it really possible to add DE to a regualr sand filter? Is this recommended? If so, how do you do it?
I have kept up with BBB for the most part, but with almost 60 days of 100+ degrees, my pool has been eating chlorine like candy. I have been using at least 1 of the big jugs every day, sometimes more. Anyway, I kept up with it.
Then we got some wind. Pretty heavy winds of around 80mph. I did not remember this until later analysis however. All I know is that one day my pool looked great, and the next day it was cloudy and had piles of what looked like dirt on the bottom.
I vaccumed it up and retested everything and the numbers looked fine. The next day, it was back. The same amount, in almost the same spots. It was not a complete coverage on the bottom, but seemed to pile up in splotches, especially in the indentations on the bottom. It was not slimy and completely dissipated wiith the slightest disturbance. Vacuumed again. Tested. Everything ok.
Next night, back again. Getting frustrated. Did not vaccum. Went out to dinner instead.
Next ngiht, virtually no change. A slight bit more on the bottom and water a little less cloudy. My wife declares it to be algae so I start shocking process.
I shock, and shock, and shock for a week. Same results. Finally, I get really ticked and dump a ton of bleach into it. Like twice the normal shock amount. I know, stupid, but I was mad and this was my solution.
The next day, big change. The brown dirt-like piles were pearly white, but back again. FC was 60 and CC was still 0. This was when I started doing a lot of reading on mustard algae and found that most of the cases of reported mustard algae are something else, like tree pollen.
Sooooo, I learned about skimmer socks and decided to try panty hose over the skimmer basket. Yesterday there was about a 75% reduction in the amount of stuff on the bottom. If this holds up for tonight, I expect clear water when I get home tonight.
I'm not ready to declare that pollen is what it was, but I doubt it was anything alive. Also, it appears my sand filter is not catching everything it needs to.
Is it really possible to add DE to a regualr sand filter? Is this recommended? If so, how do you do it?
