A bit cloudy. Thinking I should slam?

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J

jasonlk1

0
Jun 4, 2012
92
NW CT
Everything has been fine until yesterday. I took the solar cover off since it had been on the last few days and put my robot in to clean up the pool. I usually robot clean it once a week. I didn't even pay any attention to the water clarity. We came home yesterday afternoon to a clean pool but I noticed right away the water was cloudy. I thought it was prob from the cleaner kicking up the pollen and stuff that had settled on the bottom. I bw the filter because every time I use the robot it raises my psi 2-4 from kicking stuff up with the pump running. We swam last night and that's when I noticed I couldn't see the other side of the 43 ft pool underwater with googles on which I normally can.

That got me thinking so after we swam I raised the FC from 4.5-6.0 like we normally do every night. Then I did a full test and put the cover back on. Results were:

FC 6
Cc 0
Ta 90
Ch 20
Cya 45
Ph 7.2

I just checked the FC this am as soon as I got up and removed the solar cover and it was 5.5.

So should I slam it and run my pump a little more the next few days? With the solar cover and solar heater we are now at and holding 80 degree water temp just this week. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

I think I'm going to raise the ph to 7.5 as well. It's been at 7.2 since we opened it this year. Last year it was 7.5 and we never had to touch it.

Any thoughts on all this?
 
1. If running the robot clouds the water, it sounds like the robot needs to be run more often. I would also identify what is causing the cloudiness.

2. Backwashing when psi increases by 25% is a better guideline.....you might be backwashing a bit too often.

3. If I had a pool that seemed to like pH of 7.2, I wouldn't change it. "Don't fix it if it aint....." :D

4.
So should I slam it and run my pump a little more the next few days?
Click to expand...
the SLAM process requires that the pump run 24/7.

It's hard to say exactly what steps to take. You have an obvious grasp of the chemistry involved but I am hazarding a guess that your filtration might be a little less than it needs to be. I think I would positively identify what is causing that debris or take some aggressive steps to get rid of it. Are you brushing?

As an aid to help with getting the cloudiness out, I would raise and MAINTAIN the FC up around 8-10 ppm while I was using brushing, vacuuming, etc. to get all that solid matter out of the pool.
 
I will leave the ph alone based on the recommendation.

I will try the 25% increase before I backwash. My press sits at 24 psi normally clean. So I will wait for a 5 psi increase up to about 29 and see how it does. I've always done it at 2-4 because it seemed that there was a noticeable decrease in flow from the returns at that level of increase.

Most of the cloudiness I believe is from pollen. As of late grass pollen has been bad but it seems that this week may be the end of it......I hope! We are going to pull the solar cover off and clean it good with a brush before we put it back on today. There is quite a bit of pollen built up on the top of it. That will keep more from getting back into the pool with the on-off process.

I did put some de in the filter this morning as well to help with some finer filtration. I have not needed to do this yet this season. I do usually brush once a week manually in conjunction with the robot.

I think I will go put the bot in for another cycle since the wife and kids just left for a few hours and then brush later tonight again and I like the idea of FC raise to 8-10 tonight as well. I will see how it looks after a day or two of this. I did brush yesterday as well after the bot did its job. Maybe I will bump the filter up a little longer as well. This season I have it set to run from 9am to 6pm mainly so I didn't have to mess with the shutoff valve on the solar heater. It only runs during peak sunshine. Last season the wife and kids didn't use it much because the temp stayed 73-78 most all season. This year it's been much better with this solar heater. We hit 81 water temp yesterday with mostly mid 70's during the day and 50's at night!
 
I think I'm going to open my filter and have a look see. I've been suspect of that from day one. This is not the first time I've dealt with this, just the first time this year. Last nigh I lost 0 FC and it's no clearer looking. Spread out from the returns is what appears to be filtered debris. My filter press was 26 last night. When i checked this morning after it started back up again it was 25??????? Why did I loose 1 psi. I've noticed in the past that if the pump shuts down and starts back up it will blow debris back into the pool. I think I have either crappy sand ie zeo sand or channelling going on. This only our second season with the pool. Idk. Can't hurt to take a look.
 
Zeo sand is gone. White pool sand is in. The zeo sand looked fine from what I could tell. It did seem like the outside 4 in or so was pretty hard so idk how much of that was actually filtering. Also I realized that there was only about 150 lbs of zeo sand in the filter. The filter requires 250 lbs. I do remember them saying zeo sand filtered better so it required less. Anyway comparing the 2 sands side by side it almost looked like the white sand was slightly finer than the zeo sand. Hopefully all that work will pay off. I ran the robot again and brushed this evening again then bumped the FC to 14. I let the filter run all night tonight so I will see how we look in the morning with clarity and FC.


Pile of zeo sand removed.
 
These are pics from this morning when I woke up. There is a slight improvement from over night. I also decided to do a full slam to see what happens. So last night I brought the FC to 18 and this morning it was at 16.5. So I have kept it at 18 all day today adjusting every 3 hours and I've brushed twice today and the robot is in now doing its thing. I will post results tonight after all of today's work. I also picked up one of those socks that was suggested. I've added de twice today as well. The first time the press rose from 25 to 30 in 3 hours this morning after I brushed and removed the solar cover.

The second pic is of the **** laying on the bottom that almost looks like it blows out of the returns. Idk.







 

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I still failed the oclt! I will just keep it up. We have noticed a difference in the water. I just thought I would have been done with this process this morning.

I just raised the FC back to 18 and brushed again this morning. Here is a current water pic and a pic of the sock from this morning. All of the stuff I kept thinking was being blown out of the pump from cycling off and on is still there but barely and the pump hasn't been turned off.

The sock pic......what is the green yellow stuff? Is it algae? Just curious.



 
You did rinse the new sand before turning to filter, right? :smile:

Have you pulled lights and ladders and cleaned/scrubbed every nook and cranny?

The yellow/green stuff on the sock could be anything from algae to pollen to wind blown debris. Algae feels slimy, pollen feel squishy, and dirt/sand feel gritty.

You're getting close!
 
We finially got it. Passed the oclt this morning. 19.5 last night and 19 this morning even after 4 tents of an inch of rain.

I back washed and rinsed the filter when I added the new sand before I started to filter. The only thing in the pool is the ladder and I disconnected them from the deck and flipped them over to scrub the underside.

I still, have no idea what that stuff is on the skimmer sock. I'm still getting it and it's not slimy. Almost feels like a wad of dead skin if you rub it between your fingers. Idk.

Thanks for the help back to clear water!
 
Congrats :cheers:

The stuff in the skimmer sock appears to be wind blown flower petals, tree junk, etc. That will slow down soon, but the skimmer sock will prefilter and keep it out of the sand :smile:

Be sure to follow maintenance FC min/target levels in PoolMath !

Happy swims :snorkle:
 
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