Cloudy water after a week away...

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S

stkidsdoc

0
Jun 22, 2011
25
Hopkinton, NH
Pool Size
23000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
I'm new to BBB, but faithfully following this year with markedly less expense than our first year (last year). Pool was sparkling & gorgeous... so proud!
Left last Tuesday with a clean pool. When we go away we usually put a few pucks in the skimmer to keep the sanitizer up, but we were out. What could a few days do?? (we run the pump constantly, b/c we aren't here to turn it on and off!)
Returned last evening to a CLOUDY pool, and high pressures on the DE filter - 20. Immediately backwashed, 3x. Recharged with DE: pressure back to 15 immediately (opening pressure start of season was 10).
Water test with Taylor:
FC:0
TA: 80
CYA: 45
pH: 7.3

Added 1.5 gallons of 12.5% bleach and got to FC of 8, zero CC (in spite of the dead frogs in the skimmer basket!). 2 hours later I added 2 lbs of leftover cal-hypo HTH shock laying around from last season, and went to bed. (I didn't check the FC after the cal-hypo). Also added 16oz of 3x HTH algicide, since I hadn't added any this year (even at start up... cocky and optimistic with BBB!)

This am, FC 11. Zero CC. Still cloudy. Pressure back up to 20! Backwashed again, recharged with DE and added a little sparkle up with the DE (I got suckered into buying LOTS of stuff last year...). Added my last gallon of liquid 12.5% bleach and I need to go to work. (didn't recheck FC - no time to wait)

I need to tell my husband (who never touches the pool maintenance stuff) what to do tonight, as I won't be here tonight. I can't ask him to disassemble the filter, although I think that is likely what I need to do due the pressure popping up so fast. I'm out of bleach and any other chlorine products, so I will be asking him to go the store. He does know how to backwash :lol:

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Any thoughts on what the heck the cloudy stuff is? And can we run our new Aquabot when our FC is this high?? The robot is our new addition since June...

Sue

23,000 IG wedge pool, vinyl liner.
Hayward 36 sf DE filter.
Pool installed in about 2007 - bought house in 11/10.
 
You probably need to shock the pool but your testing and your chlorine additions are a too sporadic to be sure.

I suggest you ask DH to add one large jug of Clorox each evening until you can get back and have time to fix your filter (if you started @ 10 psi, you should be able to get back to 10 psi), check to see if the water clarity is improving, and then perform an OCLT to confirm the need to shock.
 
If you had an FC of 8 ppm and you added 7.5 ppm (2lbs of Cal-hypo) you should have been at 15.5 ppm. You woke up to 11 ppm so you lost 4.5 ppm overnight. If that was essentially an OCLT then you need to shock. I would have the DH pick up about 10 to 15 large jugs of bleach and add 1 as soon as he returns with it.
 
Thanks folks, these are helpful and in line with my expectations that more bleach is needed... Here's the kicker: it's going to be 85 and sunny on Friday, and 90 on Saturday. If I get to shock level and keep it there overnight tonight... what are the odds the kids can swim on Friday???

As for kicking the DE filter, yes it moves a little, but that idea makes me nervous :?

I think I may have to change plans and tweak the pool tonight.

So is the thought that the cloudiness is early algae, then?

THANKS!

Sue
 
Get it to shock level and keep it there as often as every hour, wake early in the morning and bring it back to shock level, continue keeping it there tomorrow, keep the pump running the whole time, and there's a decent chance you can swim Friday. I'd even say better than decent. Remember, you can swim up to shock level.
 
stkidsdoc said:
As for kicking the DE filter, yes it moves a little, but that idea makes me nervous :?

Sue
Click to expand...

When I say "bump" I am talking about a bump handle on the filter, not physically bumping or kicking the filter.
The bumping process moves the DE around inside the filter body and allows you to get a long time between changing the DE. I usually bump a couple times a week and if the pressure rises back up to "max pressure" (about +25% over starting clean pressure), I bump it. If the pressure rise back to max pressure in less than one hour, I immediately change the DE. See the video below on how to bump.

metal band DE filter
793dbf7f3974d114a81275aa8f890730.jpg

or
plastic band DE filter
Casey-DEFilter.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/embed/EqrLK67-PNE
[youtube:w30ko68a]EqrLK67-PNE[/youtube:w30ko68a]
 
Update: DH to the rescue! The previous owners of the house happened to have bought a second set of the DE grids, and my husband just single-handedly disassembled the filter, put in the new grids, recharged it, and added another gallon of 12.5% bleach. (FC prior to that bottle was 10)
One odd thing: the starting pressure, with freshly loaded grids is 15, when at the beginning of the season it was 10. These were brand new grids... Thoughts?

Oh, and the water by report was clearing over the day.

Thanks again!

Sue
 

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If you were getting 10 PSI on the old grids and now you are getting 15, that would seem to prove you have solved your filter problem. It was only getting 10 psi as it had a hole in it... the same hole it was blowing DE out of.

I guess an analogy would be if you were blowing up a glove like a balloon. If the glow had a small hole in one finger, the glove would not blow up all the way. Now that you have "a new glove", it blows up fine and holds pressure.

With the new grid, you should see a clear pool in a few days. I would vacuum as soon as practical.
 
@techguy, I would buy that theory if I had not been having the issues of too high pressure yesterday and this am. I will *hope* that you are correct though, as then my problem will be solved! Will post once I see the pool myself. Thanks for the advice! Great place, this forum...
 
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