I am new to posting but have been using TFP pool school since I moved into a house with a pool last summer. After we got the pool all balanced and happy when we moved in last summer it was easy to manage, and then for the winter we put a cover on it (it doesn't freeze here) and left it alone.
This summer we opened it and the water was great. I put a solar cover on it to get it warmer faster so we could start using it sooner. The solar cover catches most leaves and stuff but rain water can still run into the pool and carry pollen/dirt/etc.
We have a TON of live oak trees around our pool which put insane amounts of organic junk into it. We generally have to vacuum at twice a week.
My current problem - with the cover on, I've been bad about vacuuming it, so a lot of **** collected on the bottom, primarily pollen. But the water itself was crystal clear and values were good (pH, TA, FC/TC). I vacuumed it on Monday and stirred up so much stuff I couldn't see into it anymore by the end of vacuuming. I left the cover off and have been backwashing my filter daily, making sure my bleach is good, and the water is not clearing up at all. It is still green/yellow and cloudy, and I could just see the bottom well enough to see a lot of the brown grit accumulated in the cracks and dips, but not much leaves or anything. I vacuumed again today (Thursday) to scrub up that "silt", of course stirring up a ton of it in the process.
I don't think the problem is algae because the pool is holding bleach fine overnight (I use liquid bleach, about a gallon every few days, keep the level around 1-1.5, I keep my CYA at 0 because it saves me hassle and the solar cover traps the bleach well enough). And it only got cloudy when I stirred up the stuff on the bottom on day one, and its just been cloudy every since.
Is it possible I need to change the sand in my filter? That's all I can think of at this point. I don't know when it was last changed, but it was installed like 10 yrs ago and I'm inclined to think its probably never been changed. I know some people never change their sand, but with SOOO much debris getting into my pool daily I'm wondering if that is my issue? I'm running the filter 24/7 right now (last summer I always ran it 24/7, if I turned it off it got dirty quickly).
Also I know some people add some DE to their sand, should I do that too?
Thanks for any help!
This summer we opened it and the water was great. I put a solar cover on it to get it warmer faster so we could start using it sooner. The solar cover catches most leaves and stuff but rain water can still run into the pool and carry pollen/dirt/etc.
We have a TON of live oak trees around our pool which put insane amounts of organic junk into it. We generally have to vacuum at twice a week.
My current problem - with the cover on, I've been bad about vacuuming it, so a lot of **** collected on the bottom, primarily pollen. But the water itself was crystal clear and values were good (pH, TA, FC/TC). I vacuumed it on Monday and stirred up so much stuff I couldn't see into it anymore by the end of vacuuming. I left the cover off and have been backwashing my filter daily, making sure my bleach is good, and the water is not clearing up at all. It is still green/yellow and cloudy, and I could just see the bottom well enough to see a lot of the brown grit accumulated in the cracks and dips, but not much leaves or anything. I vacuumed again today (Thursday) to scrub up that "silt", of course stirring up a ton of it in the process.
I don't think the problem is algae because the pool is holding bleach fine overnight (I use liquid bleach, about a gallon every few days, keep the level around 1-1.5, I keep my CYA at 0 because it saves me hassle and the solar cover traps the bleach well enough). And it only got cloudy when I stirred up the stuff on the bottom on day one, and its just been cloudy every since.
Is it possible I need to change the sand in my filter? That's all I can think of at this point. I don't know when it was last changed, but it was installed like 10 yrs ago and I'm inclined to think its probably never been changed. I know some people never change their sand, but with SOOO much debris getting into my pool daily I'm wondering if that is my issue? I'm running the filter 24/7 right now (last summer I always ran it 24/7, if I turned it off it got dirty quickly).
Also I know some people add some DE to their sand, should I do that too?
Thanks for any help!