tri fecta of issues

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jasonbcvt

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Jun 1, 2014
5
Mathews NC
New pool owner first post
Let me start with the needed info
15,000 gallon IG vinyl
Hayward super pump DE filter
Jandy lite 2 heater

TC 4.5 FC 5.0 PH 6.6 TA 120 CH 300 CYA 150 Copper 0.54
My pool is about years old. Might first issue is the CYA. I believe my only course of action is to partially drain and refill pool. The second issue is the copper level. I am currently using Metal Out Plus. I believe I also need to add a metal sequestration until I can afford to replace heating element and whatever bad copper equipment is needed.

Finally the issue I understand the least is the rise in my filter pressure. A couple of months back I had a professional come inspect and clean my grid. (Mind you I wasn't paying attention to the pressure before the cleaning as we had just moved in). So I noticed a day or two later the heater was not working and the pressure was up 18. A phone call later to the professional I was told to backwash and that will lower the pressure which will allow the heater to work. And yes it did work, for a couple of days. In all I probably backwashed 4 times in two weeks. It occurred to me that while backwashing there wasn't any cloudiness in the viewer. So being the genius that I am I added a little more DE thinking I have washed it all out. That seemed fix it. Now two weeks later my pressure is back up to 19!

Sorry for the long thread. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
Welcome! :wave:

A couple questions will help us help you. 1) Where'd those test results come from? 2)What does the water look like; clear, hazy, cloudy, green, chunky green, black and evil? 3) Where do you get your water - water company or a well?

If the CYA is 150, yes a drain is called for. The CYA may well be above 150, actually. Draining 2/3 or more will also lower the copper level, unless it came from your well. Most likely, it came from some miracle-mineral-pack or cheap copper-based algaecide. Don't drain your vinyl liner pool below the last foot in the shallow end, lest the liner shift.

If the water is ugly, your filter loading up fast is quite reasonable and shows that it's working efficiently. Diatomaceous earth is like microscopic kitchen sponges, and the water passes through the holes. The DE coats a grid and the water goes through the layer of DE. Each time you backwash, you lose the actual filter and it has to be replaced. The grids inside are just there to hold the DE, they're not for filtering.
 
Thanks for quick response
My water comes the water company. The test came from a pool store (not Leslie's) I do agree with his results as they close to the same results as I get with daily testing. Yesterday my pool was sparkling and the pressure was 10. Today its a little cloudy and the pressure is 18. Is there a way to reduce the pressure aside from back washing? Of course I make sure my skimmers are free of debris.
 
Nope, backwashing is the cure for a clogged DE filter. That's the way filters work.

It could be that the screens themselves are clogged with debris if you ran it for any length of time without DE in it. The only way to know is to pull it apart and look. http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/72506-DE-Filter-Cleaning-Tutorial

If the pool store agrees with your test results, what test kit are you using? As far as I know, CYA testers stop at 100. And the scale divisions are not equidistant, so a guesstimate of 150 is probably more like 200. The way to tell better is by using the dilution method given here in post 8 step 9

With municipal water, the copper probably didn't come from the fill water, which leaves mineral packs or algaecides.

With high CYA and copper, a drain and rebalance is in your future, as well as a good filter teardown and cleaning. I'd do the filter first, so any water used to backwash is the old contaminated stuff you needed to get rid of anyway.
 
Is there a way to reduce the pressure aside from back washing?
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No. Filter pressure rises as dirt and debris are captured by the filter.....it sounds like yours is behaving perfectly normal.

When your filter psi rises by about 25% or more, the time has come to backwash out all the dirt and debris and start over.

Ignoring the backwash results in ignoring the purpose of the filter.
 
I use a 7 way aqua check test strip which has an upper limit of 200 for CYA. I looking into investing into a better test kit. I'm glad to hear the pressure indicates my system is working properly. Is it normal to back wash and replace DE almost weekly?
 
jasonbcvt said:
I use a 7 way aqua check test strip which has an upper limit of 200 for CYA. I looking into investing into a better test kit. I'm glad to hear the pressure indicates my system is working properly. Is it normal to back wash and replace DE almost weekly?
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No. A lot depends on where you are... if you have a dirt motorcycle track or a landfill next door, maybe. Most suburbanites can get by with once or twice a year. But if you have an algae bloom, it could clog up every couple hours. Or if the surface area of the grids has been reduced by loads of debris embedded in it from running without a coating of DE, then the pressure could rise really fast.

A better test kit is a must. http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/124-pool-test-kits-comparison
 
Is it normal to back wash and replace DE almost weekly?
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hard to say......Some people can keep a VERY pristine pool and backwash 2 times a summer. Importantly, you have to backwash as necessary....I do it about once a month.

BTW, you can disregard that 200 CYA test....it's pretty worthless.
 

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