Josey Wales - Sand Filter

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J

joseywales

LifeTime Supporter
Jun 11, 2009
276
Exton, PA
I have a similar experience, so riddle me this. If MirelleJoe sees more silt, or whatever, then what? I have vacuumed a couple times, but in an hour or so I see more of the substance. It's not pollen. I waited an extra month to open just to avoid the horrible tree pollen I got last year. Water is VERY clear, and was actually darn clear when I opened the pool this year. There was some heave rains, over my mesh tarp, but once I turned on the filter I began to see the silt or dirt on the bottom of the pool and in my skimmer sock.

After filtering, backwashing, etc., it seems better, but the sock still has the dirt each time. And I see it sitting on the bottom of the pool. I'll let it run for 24 hours, then vacuum and see, but I'm not hopeful.

Sand filter is 6 years old this year, never been cleaned or sand changed.
 
Re: Sandpump Filter question

Is your vacuum capable of removing it? If you have a bag for your vacuum the silt might be just slipping right through the bag. Then it is dispersing in the water column only to settle again later on.
 
Re: Sandpump Filter question

JW,

The first thing I would offer is to clean your sand filter. There is no reason to change the sand but a sand filter needs deep cleaning every couple of years and sometime once each year depending. I would not do another thing until I opened that filter and cleaned it out.
 
Here is the process for Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter You can give that a try especially if it hasn't been done in a while.

But, post up a full set of test results from one of the recommended Test Kits and let's see what is going on. Constantly recurring "silt, sand, dirt" is almost always dead algae that keeps growing and getting killed every day and is on the verge of turning the water cloudy and then green. Usually caused by low chlorine level or high CYA level or some combo. How does hour chlorine level look compared to your CYA level and the Chlorine CYA Chart

You can also Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT) to see if there is something organic in the pool consuming chlorine.
 
Thanks all. It seems to be getting better, but I couldn't spend the time necessary to do conduct a full slam. Now I can. I also always let myself get distracted from a full slam, when I "think" something else is going on. For now, I will slam and ensure a proper shock.

I started the day with FC 3.5 and CYA - 0. I've never had great luck with CYA. Not a huge deal for me, but I would add cyanuric acid when necessary, via a stocking at the return. I'll head to the store today to get more acid.

Noon - FC 7.5, so I added bleach to get er back up to 10. CC - .5-1.0

Water remains clear and I've been brushing anything off the bottom about every 90 minutes. Yesterday, it would just reappear and show up in the skimmer sock, but today (with the added chlorine) that doesn't seem to be occuring. What I find intersting is that the dust or dead algae is NOT showing up in the skimmer sock. Does the high concentrate of chlorine actually dissolve it?

I'll check it again at 3:00 and run a full battery test. Pool is in the sun, so I'll lose some FC to that. I'm most curious about the overnight test.

I forgot to metion that I did a 4 minute backwash and 1 minute rinse after vacuuming up the pool the other day. That might also have helped remove some of the algae dust. Filter is about 13psi, wihch it has been for the past couple years.
 
Well, I was slamming the pool, then mother nature slammed us with rain. Still FC was 10-10.5 last night and it was 9 this morning. There was "dust" on the bottom of the pool, but I have no idea if the rain brought that or not. Ugh...

FC - 9
CC - < .5 (However, I used the drops it was near clear, if not clear. But I left the bottle sit and eventually it went pink again. Is that still < .5?)
TA - 60
PH 7.2
CYA < 20

I drained the poll back to its operating level, burshed the bottom, and added bleach to get to FC of 11 and will monitor all day.

Another question, can this process still be completed with mild rain? Looks like we still have some on the way, but it shouldn't be heavy.
 
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Thanks. I'm cautiously opptomistic. After 6 years you'd think I could tell algae from pollen. When I push it, it clouds away, but they both do that. The skimmer sock seems more greenish brown than any other color.

At this point, if my other readings remain good and I pass the OCLT, I'm writing it off to pollen. 6 years ago, this was a decent yard for a pool. But the nieghbor's trees have overgrown and it's getting harder each year to fight the pollen and debris. Not to say there wasn't some dead algae in the pool and I had just opened it, so a slam wasn't out of order. Tomorrow I'll post my findings from tonight and the OCLT.
 
One way to distinguish pollen from algae is if you have stuff on other surfaces and in the pool or just in the pool. Like when my old barn truck turns just as green as the pool surface and I can't see out the windshield.
 
FC last night was 11

FC this morning was 10
CC - 0
TA 60
CYA just < 20
Ph 7.2
Water is crystal clear and has been since I took the cover off.

Up until now, once I started slamming, I was only brushing the pool. There's very little that returns, and it collect where there are indents in the liner. I brush it and it puffs away. This morning I vacuumed those areas up, so we'll see if anything returns.

I'm thinking it's ok to let the kids swim in it for the weekend. We'll get plenty of sun today, which should help bring the chlroine level down. If I have to, I'll add Thiosulfate or peroxide. I'll also run another OCLT tonight.
 

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Sure, we're big fans of swimming around here! You are definitely safe to swim with FC anywhere between 3 and 10.

It would be good to add 15 or 20 ppm of CYA to the pool, that should help with daytime FC loss.
 
Thanks. I'll address the CYA, once I'm convinced I don't have other issues. The dust returned a few hours after vacuuming. I'm thinking I'll have to slam this thing again, after the weekend. I had FC of 10 this morning and at 9PM it's 4.5. We get a fair amount of sun, but ****. Even with low CYA, I don't recall losing that much FC in a day. CC is .5 or less. The test water barely gets a pinkish tint to it on the CC test. I'll run the OCLT tomorrow. DE is on my mind as well. Maybe the filter just isn't grabbing all it could.

I'll try to get a picture tomorrow, but aside from the small amount of dust or whatever it is, I do have a lime green stain on the liner floor, just uner the skimmer. I know that was there when I closed last year, but I tossed it up to leaving a puck in the pool when we went on vacation. Now I'm not so sure.

What can I clean the black staining off of the Chlorine vial with? Wasn't it vinegar?
 
Today
FC - 4.5 (OCLT passed)
CC .5 (so a tad higher than before, pinkish, but not pink. I would prefer clear, so we'll see)
CYA < 20
PH 7.2

Thanks. So just a couple questions:

1 - Now how to I avoid buying the gardening DE? I've read that some have bought DE at Home Depot, but am not certain how to determine which is correct. I have two pools stores within minutes of my house, so I guess I could buy it there. Hate to buy a lot though.

2 - How can I clean the Chlorine vial?
 
Thanks gtty. I just saw your post on another thread. I use a skimming sock and was thinking of adding a second sock. Your idea looks better. Where did you get that? I could not attach that to my return though, so I'm thinking the only way would be the skimmer basket, but that bag looks big abd bulky for that application. I'm not ruling out DE though, as it seems like a long term solution.
 
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