Opening unwinterized AGP

[chape000]

Hello, this is my first post although I have been reading and using the sites information for a month or so. First I would like to say that I have an above ground 18' x 48" Intex vinyl pool with a sand filter. I have an inline SWCG that I used all last year, which was also my first year ever owning a pool. I lined everything out and let the SWCG do its job and I had to do hardly anything all year it stayed beautiful and in range. It was my wife's job to winterize the pool and it didn't happen and due to work demand it got away from me. when I decided to open in 3 weeks ago it was greenish black and full of thick algae. there was about 12 inches of debris on the entire bottom of the pool. So I first made the mistake of shocking the **** out of in with HTH Super shock and keeping chlorine at about 30ppm. this went on for about a week until the green went to a light cloudy teal and I hade 98% of debris out of the pool. I have been running sand filter 24/7 for 3 weeks also backwashing frequently. I stopped using the shock granules and started using chlorine bleach. I backed it off to about 15 ppm and worked on getting all of my other results into spec. After another 1.5 weeds of cloudy water I started adding DE to my sand filter and a tiny bit of clarifier into the pool with my vacuum turned upside down at the bottom of the pool to act as a main drain. Ihave been doing this for about a week with constant brushing and raking. my pool is still cloudy. I can see the botton just fine but still very cloudy. Using my handy dandy TF100 test kit. I have been testing the water no-stop. results for last night are as follows:

FC 8
CC 1
PH 7.2

This morning I did full tests and got:

FC 7
CC 1
PH 7.2
TA 80
CH 120
CYA 60

Is there anything I can do too clear this pool up in the home stretch? It seems to have stalled out where its at just on the brink of being done. I would like to discontinue bleach usage and revert back to SWCG for the summer but wanted to line the pool out first. (one thing at a time you know. my salt is very low from draining about 2' of water for winter which was the only winterizing done) any advice would be great. Pool store guy was no help, just wanted to sell me like 300 dollars worth of stuff and didn't seen legit. thanks.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

One point jumps out at me. You shouldn't backwash the filter that frequently. Wait for the pressure to go up 25% above the starting pressure. Sand filters are not so good at catching the finest debris. They need to get a little "dirty" before they will filter super fine dust effectively.

Do you have a CH test result?

 

[Shirker]

Could the cloudiness be calcium from the shock? It might take a while for that to clear. But you are not yet done slamming with a CC of 1.

 

[Defgufman]

Another candidate for skimmer sock for sure.......... Seriously, I'm an evangelist for those things ever since reading about them on this site. The difference in my pool with a sand filter has been nothing short of amazing. Just rinse it often as they gunk up quickly, especially with dead algae. Amazon has many choices.

 

[Shirker]

Yeah, I like the socks too. Bought a four or six pack last summer at a big box store for less than $5. I think I still have at least one unused sock left. I was surprised how long they last and really do a nice job with the pollen and small bugs. I don't know what to do about calcium cloud. Just wait for it to fully dissolve I guess.....

 

[chape000]

Welcome to TFP!


Do you have a CH test result?

I'm sorry the TH is CH I mistyped it so it is fairly low. not sure what the cloud is from. I fee like I have ruled a lot out.

- - - Updated - - -

Could the cloudiness be calcium from the shock? It might take a while for that to clear. But you are not yet done slamming with a CC of 1.

what should my CC and overnight chlorine loss be to be done slamming?

- - - Updated - - -

Welcome to TFP!

One point jumps out at me. You shouldn't backwash the filter that frequently. Wait for the pressure to go up 25% above the starting pressure. Sand filters are not so good at catching the finest debris. They need to get a little "dirty" before they will filter super fine dust effectively.

Do you have a CH test result?

oh ok. I was going from what the manual said. It normally runs at 9 psi clean. The book says to backwash when it gets into the yellow on the gauge. well, the yellow is at like 11-12. so not a lot of wriggle room there. I guess i was just making it "dirty" adding DE though

 

[pooldv]

25% above the normal clean pressure, if you add DE and the pressure goes up to 12 then that is the new normal clean pressure. And you would clean at 15.

 

[Azgirl71]

Your CC needs to be .5 or less and the OLCT needs to be a loss of 1ppm or less. Your pool also needs to be crystal clear to be done. I agree with the calcium cloudiness. As far as backwashing, I don't even look at the psi anymore unless I am adding DE. I just judge if I need to backwash based off of the flow of water coming out of the return. Once it slows way down, I backwash.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Adding DE to your filter does "dirty" it up which is it's purpose. As the filter gets a bit more clogged it will filter out smaller particles. That's also why it's recommended to only backwash when you need to by monitoring pressure as the filter is actually filtering better near the point of backwashing and a constantly cleaned filter doesn't filter the small stuff as well.
If it normally runs at 9 then you should only add enough DE to make it rise to 10.
http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/133-add-de-to-a-sand-filter

 

[chape000]

will continuing to slam speed up the process of getting rid of the cloudiness? or are we strictly talking about making sure the algae doesn't' come back? (i will do it regardless, just wondering)

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

You need to continue to SLAM until CC is 0.5 or lower; You pass an OCLT (ie overnight FC loss test shows a loss of 1.0 ppm or less) and the water is clear.

When all three are true, you are done SLAMing and can allow the FC to drift down to normal levels.

The SLAM is mostly to prevent algae from starting or coming back. The cloudiness might be cured by the chlorine or in most cases it's just a matter of filtering. Sand filters like yours and mine can take a bit to filter out all the small stuff. The DE helps with mine.

 

[Tsween]

I had a very similar situation last year where I got stuck in that cloudy stage for a week. I have a pump with a Hi and Low setting and being a first time pool owner, I thought running it on high would clear the water faster. Come to find out the Hi setting was only for vacuuming. After switching it to low, the water cleared up in a day or two.

 

[chape000]

my pump only has two speeds: on and off. So I just turn it on. its an index sand filter saltwater combo thing. 100 pound size. brought it up to shock level and keeping it there. will test tonight and in the morning to see ONCL and CC.