New pool owner - SWG

Jump to latest Follow Reply
attachment.php


This morning picture....shown for two reasons. You can see some clarity and see the bottom a bit. You can also see the mud I'm contending with to the left/forward of the stairs.

- - - Updated - - -

Wish there was a way to speed up refill....I'm getting impatient and want to vacuum more!
 

Attachments

  • 20150628_091230.jpg
    20150628_091230.jpg
    59.3 KB · Views: 205
Yes, the mud has been a pain. I did borrow the neighbors hose with the promise to reimburse their water bill....oh well...You do what you have to do to get it done by the 4th!

So I've spent since 7am vacuuming the pool. The visible mud from the shallow end down the slope to the deep end and the deep end walls is gone. At least the best I could do. I tried to vacuum across the deep end flat area but visibility was zero that deep so I'm sure I didn't get it all up. But I'm hoping that's near enough the main drains (I have two) to suck that mud up. I threw Big Buddy (my wife's pet name for the Dolphin, since iRobot is little buddy inside) back in to let it do its work. It'll be interesting to see after 3 hours how much mud it picks up compared to before, as before, the filters were completely packed with mud within an hour.

So, I'm back to filter/circ on the main drain while the pool fills back up from my last vacuum, then I'll turn the skimmer back on. Been manually skimming with a net for the past hour. Going to visit the pool company to see what they can do to help my wife the next couple of days cleaning, as I have to fly out of the country mon/tuesday. I've taught the wife how to take FC samples, so she'll text the results to me every 4 to 6 hours, and I'll run the #'s through poolmath and text back how much bleach to add :) Is everyone this crazy about pool cleaning...haha

PS....I've emptied the pump basket 3 times today, and it's full of little rocks, and one frog..obviously from our little mudslide and the pool contractors dropping concrete bits and pieces from our lip and the stone wall.

Other than staying on top of FC levels, anything else I should be doing???
 
Just took new samples with pool back on filtering...The water has clouded back up due to the suspended mud, but the good news is that CC has dropped to zero! At least I think that's good news. FC = 11.5, so with a goal of 12, I'm going to put bleach in to raise it back to 15. Better to err on the safe side, since I'm about to go out of town.
 
Quick question....I know part of SLAM is running the pump constantly. I have a variable speed pump, and I have a mud problem I'm trying to get rid of concurrently with the SLAM. I know best case you try to get most of that out of the way before starting SLAM but as you know I'm trying to have the pool ready for a party on the 4th. Last night late, I shut the pump off (before reading about the continuous need), to let all the mud settle. It did a good job overnight of letting the mud settle and coating the bottom of the pool and using a very slow vaccum to waste I was able to get maybe 75% of the mud off the floor. I then resumed SLAM/Pump running, today and while my FC levels I've been keeping at 12 or above, the water is again very cloudy due to the stir up of mud. I'm contemplating either shutting the pump off again for an early morning vac to waste, or I thought, would it be okay to just set the timers and run the pump on slow speed during the night...maybe not cause as much turbulence but also keep with the requirements of SLAM.

I've also been running the Dolphin and cleaning it out every 2 hours and it's still picking up a fair amount of mud too, and it's very nature of scrubbing is kicking up mud too.

Also of note, I've been monitoring my Sand filter PSI and only had to backwash once today, and it took less than a minute to clear (of course this is a new install, so maybe to be expected).

Thoughts? Is it better to get the remaining mud out if I can with another good vac in the morning at the expense of shutting off the pump, or is it better to pray and hope the sand filter can clean it up in 6 days?
 
you may want to add DE to your sand filter, it will clear better but you will need to watch the pressure as it will rise fast..
 
Sounds good....I just did another quick vacuum to waste before calling it a night. Tested FC again and it's at 20 (expected 15 but may not have mixed long enough yet). CC had crept up to .5, but I attribute that to the pool is in the shade starting at around 3:00pm. I'm going to test once more at 10:00pm to see if it drops a little from additional mixing. Hopefully it's still at 15 or above (target 12) and I'll feel okay letting the pump stay off for 6 hours (I'm up at 4am before I leave for my flight and if I lost too much FC, I'll turn the pump back on and adjust SLAM).

Also, I've sent probably 6 inches of water level to waste with vacuums....Should I add some CYA for that amount of loss. I realized today, that I added a bit strong to begin with, as my 28,000 gallons estimate ended up being 23,000 gallons according to the pool contractor. I had him bring up the design drawings today and he said it was a 23,000 gallon pool, so I was a bit heavy on the CYA anyway, so I'm probably ok?

One thing I noticed is that even with pump running all day, mud settled in the corner behind the stairs, which tells me I'm not getting water changeover and circulation in that area, right? It was a section about 2' x 2' where mud settled. Is there anything other than playing around with the returns? Eventually I will have deck jets and a water fountain as part of the returns too, but for now I have those shut off, until I get the water quality under control. They may add some additional turbulence later and help water turnover.

Starting day 2 (24 hours) with 6 days left and I'm already seeing a difference. Keeping fingers crossed.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I just did some research, that may contribute to why the 'mud' is taking so long to clear. So, I'm here in central NC, where most of our 'soil' is just red clay. Well, clay particles can be as small as 2 microns, whereas I believe the sand filter is only going to remove particles in the 10 to 20 micron range. Probably worse than that since this filter is new, and I've read a dirty sand filter actually cleans better. So, I think cowboy was on to a good recommendation. Going to leave word to the pool contractor to add some DE to the skimmer. About a cup, maybe?
 
You are on it, about a cup.. Watch your pressure it will rise fast I think.. And that's good, replace de after backwash
 
Thanks for the quick response....what about clarifier also? Something like Kem-Tec 326 to try to bind the particles together. Too much overkill?

Also, what is too much PSI? I'm running about 15 to 20PSI after backwash. I've been backwashing when it gets over 25, so about twice today, but it clears up quick...less than 2 minutes. The muliport valve on top says its good to 50 PSI. But I don't want to break anything.
 
Add your DE slowly. About a 1/4 cup at a time. Here's a good article on it:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/133-add-de-to-a-sand-filter

But the article suggests to wait about 2 minutes then add more. I would suggest waiting longer. I added a 1/4 and waited 2 minutes exactly, then added another and waited 2 minutes and so on. Almost no change in the gauge pressure. I ended up adding about a cup and a half waiting 2 minutes b/t each 1/4 cup before the pressure came up 1 psi. Then I checked it again about 10 or 15 minutes later and the pressure had gone more than 75% and the return was down to a trickle. I immediately backwashed and the pressure dropped back to my clean sand psi. The next time I added about a 1/2 cup, waited 15 minutes, then added a 1/4 cup. 15 minutes later, the psi had risen by 1. So by waiting longer, I ended up adding 1/2 of what I did the first go round, and it was perfect. It really cleans the water well. But mine was almost clean to begin with, but watch your gauge. With as much junk in your pool as I have read and seen from the pics, yours will probably raise pretty quickly with just a little DE. Hope this helps and good luck!
 
Out of town but wife monitoring fc...had to add 90oz this morning. Cc still 0. She sent me a pic. You can see on steps the amount of settlement last night with pump off...it looks bad but it's actually much much better than night before.
 
attachment.php


- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and she added 1 cup of DE, 1/4 cup at a time to the skimmer. Didn't really see any appreciable increase in pressure...Not being home I didn't want to go to crazy with it and cause pressure spike, so I'll evaluate better Wednesday.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't know what's up with the posts...double posts and missing posts.

To repeat, she also added 1 cup of DE to skimmer today, 1/4 cup at a time, with no appreciable increase in PSI. Will monitor tomorrow.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20150629_100932_405.jpg
    IMG_20150629_100932_405.jpg
    33.4 KB · Views: 140

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply