Just came home from a night away and the pool is full of mud. Neighbors indicated we had a horrendous rain storm last night. The one area of my backyard that is a bit lower than my other neighbors yard ran like a stream to my pool. You cannot see the bottom. I have poured in some floc and will wait and see if that helps. Anyone know what I should reasonably expect to pay to drain the pool and refill it? It's about 20 000 gallons. Oh, and can you shock while using floc? Thanks.
Torrential Rain, Pool Full of Mud
- Thread starter jonmar
- Start date
If it was a lot of dirt, I would let it settle (along with the stuff the floc is getting) to the bottom with the pump off. Then vacuum what you can to waste. Then do the shocking process with the pump running.
It's a ton of dirt. Water is brown. CL is pretty high from shocking yesterday, then got the big rain overnight. Any body have any experience with floc and dirt/mud?
Again, I would let it settle to the bottom with the pump off and then vacuum to waste before trying flock. If you turn you pump off tonight, it might be settled to the bottom in the morning.
With the pump not running, hopefully you can get the bulk of it out by filtering to waste as linen suggested. Then, keep your chlorine up and your filter running to manage the rest of it.
I had already added flock prior to posting earlier today. I ran it on recirculate for 3 hours and have had the pump off since 8 p.m. We'll see how it looks in the morning.
You had asked if anyone ever used floc. I have, prior to full bbb approach, on a very very filthy foreclosure pool. It took two sets of floc after leaf removal, but it did drop the material to the floor so that it could be vacuumed to waste. You have to vacuum very slowly to avoid stirring it back up, and you may have to stop and refill water in order to be able to keep going. You will still stir it up a bit no matter how slowly you go, so plan on a second vacuum session once it resettles.
If you've had so much rain and your pool is on lower ground than your neighbor, I personally would avoid draining-refilling due to the risk that a high water table could cause your liner to float or walls to collapse. If you end up determined to refill, you'd still have to use a plastic sheet to separate the water and refill at the same pace as you drain, so there'd be no real benefit to all that work because you'd still have a lot of sediment left at the bottom, I suspect, or would clog the floor drain.
Even if it's as muddy as the missisipi, it WILL clear, just so you know. Mine did, and it was black!
If you've had so much rain and your pool is on lower ground than your neighbor, I personally would avoid draining-refilling due to the risk that a high water table could cause your liner to float or walls to collapse. If you end up determined to refill, you'd still have to use a plastic sheet to separate the water and refill at the same pace as you drain, so there'd be no real benefit to all that work because you'd still have a lot of sediment left at the bottom, I suspect, or would clog the floor drain.
Even if it's as muddy as the missisipi, it WILL clear, just so you know. Mine did, and it was black!
Swampwoman said:
How long should I wait between floc treatments? This morning it looks pretty much the same. I am also leery about leaving the pump off for much longer as I don't want a secondary algae problem to start.
Usually if the floc hasn't nailed it in 24 hrs, it's not going to without another treatment. However, thanks to the pics, I'm optimistic that if you just start vacuuming to waste right now, then top up water and let it settle and filter another day befor another vacuum, you could nail it without more floc. When you filter, keep the skimmer open but close or partially close the floor drain (eg just leaving open a smidge).
In my experience, the top layers will then start to clear, but the floor stuff will more or less stay for the next vacuum. Note that you may have o backwash a lot, and keep n eye in the pump filter when you vacuum in case small leaves, pine needle, etc get into it. If your pressure is lower than normal after you vacuum, you might want to hose out the impeller a bit.
In my experience, the top layers will then start to clear, but the floor stuff will more or less stay for the next vacuum. Note that you may have o backwash a lot, and keep n eye in the pump filter when you vacuum in case small leaves, pine needle, etc get into it. If your pressure is lower than normal after you vacuum, you might want to hose out the impeller a bit.
I agree with swampwoman...vacuum to waste is what you need right now, not flock since your water is fairly clear. I would vac to waste, then get the FC up to shock level with pump running and see how it looks. Backwash you filter whenever the pressure goes up 25% from the "clean" pressure.
From you picture it looks like it has settled and you can vac to waste? Hopefully the rest will be quickly caught by you filter. If it isn't then, you could try a flock/clarifier again...but I am thinking you won't need too.
On my way home and am gonna vacuum to waste. I'll refill and filter. Gonna check where my CL is as well
You seem determined to use Floc, but as others have said, that probably isn't necessary.
When my PB was almost done and my pool was full of sparkling clean water, they backhoe driver accidentally dropped a load of dirt into the pool. It took a week to clear but ultimately cleared just fine with a bit of backwashing of the filter and probably some vacuuming by the PB crew.
When my PB was almost done and my pool was full of sparkling clean water, they backhoe driver accidentally dropped a load of dirt into the pool. It took a week to clear but ultimately cleared just fine with a bit of backwashing of the filter and probably some vacuuming by the PB crew.
Refill so you can do some more vacuuming. You should vacuum the deep end where the stuff is settling first next time! I would do it soon and I bet you'll see a big improvement.
Even if the floc worked, wouldn't it still be necessary to vacuum anyhow? Looks as if it is settled enough to vac, let settle, vac some more, etc. good luck, it's a beautiful pool!
Floc has it's place, but I would use it as a last resort. It is hard to get rid of. I assume you know that flock does not cause the dirt to settle. What flock does is cause fine particles (too small to be caught by the filter) to clump together so the will be filtered. What causes the dirt to settle is gravity working in still water. So what I would do is cut the pump off for as long as I dared letting the dirt settle and the vacuum to waste. I would be checking my FC level and if got too low I would vacuum to waste, refill, add chlorine to shock level, let the pump run for awhile to get the chlorine mixed, and the shut it down and let it settle. I would repeat this process. Now if I got to the point it was no longer getting better I might floc again.