Pool flooded - sparkling oasis turned into muddy pond

[Albee]

We had a bad storm here on Friday night and my pool got flooded. Since then I am running the pump 24h. Unfortunately I do not see much progress in getting it clean.
Please see attached pic.

I am adding Dicalite filter powder to my sand filter every time I need to backwash. Back washing is necessary every 2h with the powder as the is no water coming out of return, which I guess is a good sign as it tells me that the filter is picking up the small sediments of the mud. Without the powder the pump runs over 12h without the pressure going up. So I guess the powder method is more efficient to clear it up. But again running it since 1.5 days non stop and it is still a muddy pond with very little sign of removing the mud.

Also I shocked it just to be save and switched the salt system off.

I do have two pickups deep end and skimmer. I switched most of the skimmer off. Thought that would help as the mud is probably below the surface. Also I do have a robot which I haven't utilized yet to fight the mud.

I am thankful for every advise as I wanted to get it clean as soon as possible.

Hayward 1.5HP pump, Sandfilter, Hayward Turbo cell, Glass fiber pool.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

This may be one of the rare times a clarifier makes sense. What are your test results?

 

[pwrstrk]

Try the robot and see how it does. This is prob going to take some time. POP !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

 

[Samantha_in_AL]

Have you tried turning the pump off for a while to see if some of the dirt will settle to the bottom so you can vacuum it out? It's worth a try.

 

[4knights]

Have you tried turning the pump off for a while to see if some of the dirt will settle to the bottom so you can vacuum it out? It's worth a try.

Exactly what I did when we got it with a big storm. No pump for 12 hours, then most settled to floor. Vacuum to waste very slowly so your not stirring back up.
Then shock process.

 

[Samantha_in_AL]

Have you tried turning the pump off for a while to see if some of the dirt will settle to the bottom so you can vacuum it out? It's worth a try.

Exactly what I did when we got it with a big storm. No pump for 12 hours, then most settled to floor. Vacuum to waste very slowly so your not stirring back up.
Then shock process.

A storm blew a flower pot into our pool a couple of years. This method worked great for me.

 

[techguy]

I vote for the let it settle then vacuum method, assuming it works.

 

[Patrick_B]

Oh Man! Hope you have some luck getting it to settle. I like the idea too. Let us know what happens.

 

[Medic3]

OH MAN! I see some type of retaining wall in the future? Keep us posted! ::

 

[harleysilo]

How exactly did the flooding occur?
Does this happen often?

Have you seen these long tubes that you circle a house with to keep it from flooding, they are filled with water. Probably cost a fortune, but i see they have them on the small side at only 1' tall.....

Check this out http://www.aquadam.com/index.htm

http://www.aquadam.net/RefMaterials/Aqu ... ations.pdf

 

[CUTiger78]

Can ya drain a fibreglass pool? I don't think I'd have enough POP for that to clear.

 

[chiefwej]

I don't think you want to drain a pool after a flood. The ground water level will be very high and you will float the pool right out of the ground.

If you have a way to vacuum to waste, I agree you should raise the chlorine level, then shut down the pump, let. It settle then vacuum to waste. If not, just keep plugging away.

 

[Albee]

Hi Guys, first of all thanks for all your advise.
I shut down the pump for about 36h to see if it settles.
Unfortunately negative. I didn't see much improvement.
Vision is about 1 foot from surface. Not much settled. :grrrr: red clay here in NC. Its almost like a dye.
I am losing patience. Will go back to filtration with DE.
See if that helps.
I am concerned about draining it because of the potential ground water issue.

Keep you guys posted.

And Yes I will definitely add some sort of retaining wall or french drain system to protect my pool in the future.

 

[techguy]

Looks to me like you will have a fun week of DE babysitting. Good luck .

I know my DE filters fast but when dirty requires a lot of attention.

 

[Medic3]

I think if you throw a sump pump in the bottom and try a couple partial refills it could help. And or maybe a floc then vacuum? Not sure about the floc though because I never used it before, I just know what it is supposed to do. More pics please.

 

[crek31]

Flour sack towels or cotton socks on the returns? No clue if it would work, but people talk about catching metals that way.

 

[Patrick_B]

You might try a slime bag or two on your returns. They work wonders on fine, fine, silt here. If you try a clarifier, I would test it in a bucket of pool water first.

 

[Albee]

Update:
Pool is sparkling since 2 weeks again. I just wanted to share my experience to help the next person that gets something like that.

a) I tried cleaning up the mess by running the pump 24h for a couple days added DE to improve the filtering, but that didn't help. -> fail
b) Tried clarifier -> fail
c) Tried flocking -> fail

Realized that there is no quick solution when dealing with dirt. You need lots of POP.
Even called pool store and they said that they had 6 model pools flooded and the only thing that helps is switch off the pump and wait till it settles and then vacuum to waste.

d) Switched off pump and waited a solid 2 days until I used the vacuum for the first time. It took that long for the stuff to settle. I was dealing with very fine sediment type dirt. Also the vision at that time was about 10 inches from top. So I was vacuum in the dark as I couldn't see the bottom.
e) Waited another 1.5 to 2 days. Then I was able to see the bottom on the shallow end. Vacuum to waste again.
f) Waited another 1.5 to 2 days. Saw bottom on deep end. But also was dealing with algae at that time. So vision was blurry from green algae. Final vac to waste.
g) Shocking and running pump again 24h for a couple days. Used DE and back washed regular.

Hope this will help somebody in the future with a similar problem.
Thanks for all the advise from you guys.

 

[Patrick_B]

Good for you and congrats on being sparkling again.