Cloudy Water-Loss in flow rate

[jsrich28]

Hello

I am new to the forum and appreciate any advice!

I recently took over a pool that has a fairly decent bather load, around 150 per day average. The pool gets cloudy often even though my readings are consistently in the "ideal" range. The CPO who took care of the pool last year would add 1 gallon of clarifier to get the pool clear and then add 1/2 gallon a day. From what I have read, this is more than excessive. My feeling is that my sand may need to be changed, but I need someone smarter than myself to verify that. At the beginning of the season my flow rate was between 140-165 gpm. It has steadily decreased until I am at 110-120 gpm. Our health department states that the turnover time for the pool should be at a minimum of 8 hrs. Well I'm outside that now. I always backwash when the filter pressure is 8-10 psi over the base pressure. I keep my skimmer and pump baskets clean. I took the pump off and cleaned all of the hair out of the impeller and I even used a detergent to try to clean the sand. The most flow I can get out of it is 120gpm now. As far as I can tell, the sand has not been changed for at least 5 years. Aslo, the pool is in direct sunlight all day And it is normally between 86 degrees in the morning and 90 degrees in the afternoon. Any ideas?

Taylor test kit k2006 complete FAS-DPD

FC 6.5
PH 7.3
CC 0.5
TA 100
CH 280
CYA 35

 

[duraleigh]

Take off the top of that TR-140 filter and deep clean the sand. http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/73192-Deep-Cleaning-a-Sand-Filter

There is no need to change it if you clean it well. If that doesn't increase your flow, post back.

What was your clean psi when you had good flow?

What was your backwash psi when you had good flow?

What is your clean psi now that flow has slowed?

I have an opinion on that filter being undersized but let's get the easiest items fixed first.......the filter may be fine.

 

[jsrich28]

The clean psi was 25 when I had good flow. I would backwash at 33 to 35 psi. My clean psi is anywhere from 27 to 28 psi now.

 

[jsrich28]

So I tried deep cleaning the sand yesterday. I backwashed the pool, then did as the video instructed to clean than sand. After about 2 1/2 hours, stuff was still coming out of the sand. I had to move on to other things so I buttoned everything up and backwashed again. The water that came out was the darkest its ever been. After about 5 minutes backwashing, the water became clear. I switched to normal operation and noticed cloudy water coming out of the returns, so I turned off the pump and backwashed again. The water came out cloudy for another 3 minutes until it was clear. I switched to normal operation again and checked my flow. It was up to 140gpm from 110-120gpm. The cleaning made a big difference. When I cam in to check the pool again this morning the flow was back down to 125-130 gpm. I am wondering if I should try cleaning it again. I know for a fact that this has not been done for at least 5 years.