Abiagail - Dirt collecting on bottom of pool near jets

[abigailveh12]

Please do not hijack another's thread......it is very confusing. here is your new thread.

I have this problem as well -- Bought this house in July of last year, has a DE filter which is pretty uncommon for this area, I've had a pool with a sand filter so I thought it was a problem with the filter (pool inspector told us we had a sand filter). Had another "expert" come and look, he said that it was just fine "dirt" that was missing the filter and to backwash every few days. I did a "big" cleaning of the filter in October -- looked like it had not been cleaned in quite a while -- I had a really hard time getting the DE and debris out of the bottom of the filter but after three hours of putting the filter back together (it was missing parts and several nuts had rusted) I turned on the pool and things were fine, but just a few days later the "dirt" was back.

We regularly have the chemicals checked and haven't had an algae problem (we get full sun so we keep a REALLY good eye on it). Vacuuming gets rid of the dirt, like the above poster, but just a few hours later it is back. We also have a water loss issue, although we can't figure out exactly why but possibly an issue with the spider gasket, that may or may not be part of the issue. We've also had to recently had to replace the "main drain" line due to a tree root invasion but the "dirt" problem didn't get better or worse.

Pool is approx 15 years old, 20K gallons, freeform IG gunite, looks like everything is original and has a DE filter.

 

[Bobby72]

Re: Dirt collecting on bottom of pool near jets

if your noticing this buildup directly under your jets, especially the jets closest to your filter system you could have a cracked lateral in your sand filter which would allow fine particles back to the pool. This is usually especially evident after vaccuming or a backwash. Only way to know for sure is to remove sand and inspect laterals at the bottom. if it is a DE you could have a small tear in the grids.

 

[Smykowski]

Can you post a full set of test results?

Debris settling to the bottom can be many things. Simply airborne dust/dirt that sinks before making it to the filter, particulates making it through the filter due to damage (this is less likely, but a possibility), or improper chemistry allowing something to grow in the pool, but it is being kept at bay just under the visible threshold.

 

[abigailveh12]

I replaced the Spider Gasket yesterday (see pic) so I had my water tested while I was at the Pool Store...
FC 12ppm
TC 12pm
CC 0ppm
pH 8.1
Alkalinity 62ppm
CA 26ppm
Cooper 0.13ppm
TDS 250ppm

As you can see from the picture of the Spider Gasket it was certainly in need of replacing

I also did the backwash/rinse cycle that is mentioned in the DE filter info the filter was certainly gross and the pool water became very cloudy. After it settled it looked like this I talked a a local pool guy who come highly recommended and he said that once the water settles to vacuum it (to waste) and run the pump over night. If there is "silt" to then run the pump on recirculate and then if there isn't then it's somewhere in the filter. When I took the filter apart at the end of the season last year I didn't see any problems with the grids but what you see on the bottom of the pool in the pic above is what we find every day, now that is a very exaggerated amount but you can see what we are dealing with. I hope now that the gasket has been replaced we don't have this issue.

I might add that we had shocked the pool the night before so that might account for the high FC...