How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG pool?

[RobT]

Hi Everyone,
What a great site!!! I'm so glad I found this.
I just found this site this morning while I was surfing the web for solutions to my problem.
I am remodeling our lanai and pool with 1" pavers. I had to cut off the existing concrete cantilevered b/n edge to facilitate the install of the remodel coping. I, unfortunately, hooked up the water supply to the 14" concrete saw instead of letting the dust fly everywhere. I covered the pool the best I could but a lot of the slurry from the cutting fell into the pool and I'm having a real hard time vacuuming it out.

I have a 7 y.o. Pentair Triton II sand filter w/ original sand w/ Slide valve, and newer pump. The pool is roughly 10,000 gallons w/ Pebbletech finish.

I'm tried to vacuum the pool in the normal setting, but I guess the particulates are too fine to filter? and is running back into the pool at the returns. I thought I could slide the valve to the "backwash" position and vacuum. I know I will be draining the pool too, which will take some time as I'd have to do small areas at a time to refill the pool. In the backwash position I get about 15 seconds in and it loses prime and the suctions stops.

I had a reputable pool company out and they spent an hour and had the same thing happen and they couldn't figure it out.
They suggested draining the pool, cleaning it and acid washing costing $500-$600 bucks!

Any ideas as to the best solution without draining the pool?

Thanks Rob T

 

[harleysilo]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

You could try this pool-school/add_de_to_a_sand_filter and then vacumm again to filter.

Wait a few mins/hours and you'll get more suggestions.

 

[ping]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

Does your valve have a "waste" option? If so, vacuum to waste, it will bypass the filter altogether.

An acid wash does not seem to be a fix for this problem, anything else wrong with the surface?

 

[mpnret]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

Would you happen to have a robot? I know Aquabot claims they filter down to 2 microns, better than a DE filter. You sand filter is probably 30 microns at best.

 

[duraleigh]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

My take is you should NOT try DE or a robot. That slurry has plugged your filter in both directions. Correcting this is gonna be a big deal to do it right.

 

[mpnret]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

If you don't have a multi-port just disconnect the slide valve input or pump output and backwash without entering the filter. I'm not sure the amount of slurry you actually have, but if it is minimal I would still try the robot first. Just run it for 10 minutes and see what you have and go from there.

 

[p_mori7]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

I would run the garden hose into the skimmer as you are vacuuming to waste, that will prevent the vac from sucking air thru the skimmer as your water level drops below the skimmer.

 

[duraleigh]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

I'm gonna' repost since I overlooked that you had a slide valve....sorry I missed that.

I think your filter is plugging from the top in "filter" position because of the slurry. I think the laterals got plugged by the slurry when you attempted to vacuum from the backwash position. The sand then became cloggec in both directions. Here's my suggestion....

1. get rid of the slurry in your pool by removing the slide valve from the filter and vacuum straight out through the valve as suggested above.

2. Once you have removed most of that slurry, filter and backwash by watching the psi rise 25-30% each time.

You will likely blow some more of the slurry back into the pool since the laterals were covered with the slurry but there is no option to prevent that.

DE and Robots are for small cleaning jobs.....sounds like you have a big mess and it will take some large measures to get your pool back to clean.

 

[RobT]

Re: How to remove concrete slurry from the bottom of my IG p

Thanks to a for the suggestions.

I think I'm coming to vacuum it directly out of the pump. That way I will bypass the filter. It'l take some plumbing but may be worth the time in the long run.

Rob T.