Filtering through Main Drain without skimming

[langerking]

Since I need to dilute my CYA infested pool, I am draining down every day to below the skimmer and I am filtering through the main drain only. I am doing it gradually because I want to use rain water (I diverted one of my gutters) which has a pH of ~7.4 rather than my tap water (pH <6.8)

Obviously the floating debris will just circle around but other than that does this prevent any problems to operate like this for maybe a week? How long before not skimming starts to cause any problems?

 

[JasonLion]

Mid-summer that should be fine for a week. You will get a little more debris settling to the bottom than you are used to, but it shouldn't be difficult to keep up with.

 

[langerking]

Well it is going to be a lot longer than 1 week if I rely exclusively on rain to fill my pool. We are just not getting significant rain amounts and the rains have been really short in duration as in 5 or 10 minutes. I only took the water level down about 8 inches and in 5 days it still hasn't filled up. Its irritating because earlier this month the pool was overfilling and required multiple pump outs. This was before I diverted water from one of my downspouts into my pool. I may have to revert to well water if I want to get this CYA diluted any time soon.

 

[vinper]

that's why they have pole skimmers