Another Green Monster

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J

jmorgans

0
Jun 1, 2015
35
LI, New York
So I had a double whammy- a hole in my cover over the winter and two weeks of no power to my pump due to a cut electrical line. The result is quite green.

This is not my first SLAM and I have been successful before using the advice on TFP. I really thought I had it down but I am on day #13 with some improvement but boy is this slow. When I started you couldn’t see through the water at all. Now I can see my bottom step but still not the floor. Water is still noticeably green.

I have been backwashing the sand filter every 1-2 days but this morning I noticed the pump barely moving any water and had to backwash again after only 12 hours. I guess that is good assuming it’s filling up with dead algae?

Brushing walls every other day (hate this) and running robot vacuum daily. It fills with tons of dirt every time (I should add that we just completed work in the backyard as well and I’m sure some construction debris made it into the pool).

Numbers this morning:
FC 11.5
CC 0.5 (surprised this isn’t higher)
CYA 30

I saw another SLAM post where the guy was going on a full month. Kudos to him but I don’t have that kind of patience. Considering cutting my losses and doing a drain/refill.

Some questions:

1) How much longer should I expect this to take?
2) Should I add DE to my sand filter?
3) Could my old filter be nearing the end of its life and thus requiring these frequent back washes or is it just part of the process?
4) Anything I should know (pitfalls) if i decide to drain and refill?
5) Any other advice?
 
We’ve seen some pretty long SLAMs lately. Unfortunately there just isn’t any way to predict how long it might take.

Is there currently debris in the pool? If so, the SLAM will go a lot faster if you scoop all of it out.

Have you done a deep clean of your sand filter?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, are you sure of your CYA? How often are you testing FC and boosting back to 12? Where do you get your fill water?

How old are the reagents in your test kit?

sorry for all the questions!
 
kellyfair said:
We’ve seen some pretty long SLAMs lately. Unfortunately there just isn’t any way to predict how long it might take.

Is there currently debris in the pool? If so, the SLAM will go a lot faster if you scoop all of it out.

Have you done a deep clean of your sand filter?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, are you sure of your CYA? How often are you testing FC and boosting back to 12? Where do you get your fill water?

How old are the reagents in your test kit?

sorry for all the questions!
Click to expand...

Dont be sorry, I appreciate the quick response! I’m pretty sure about the CYA. I usually have my son’s younger eyes double check me. Using a brand new TF-100 kit. I have been removing any floating debris but there is probably quite a bit more on the bottom (cant see). Will run the robot vacuum more frequently this weekend.

I have never deep cleaned the filter. How do you do it ?
 
You really need to get all that debris out... your chlorine is working on breaking it down.

Make sure you are doing your CYA testing like this:

In Full sunlight, back to the sun, fill tube to first line. Quick glance, don’t stare! Still see dot? Fill to next line, quick glance. Still see dot? Repeat. The first line where you don’t see dot with a QUICK glance is your CYA. Maintain proper FC level accordingly.

You can pour solution from test test tube back into bottle and do test multiple times, to be sure.

Here’s a link on deep cleaning filter:

How to Deep Clean a Sand Filter
 
You don't have to drain the whole pool you can clear this. Verify the CYA and hold the SLAM with liquid chlorine. Drag the floor with the leaf net blind if you have to make multiple passes. Get that debris out of there on the bottom of the floor because that's what's going to eat up your chlorine.

You can try adding some de to your filter it may help speed up things with filtering things out, but you have to watch your pressure gauge. With the DE filter grabbing more finer particles your filtration systems going to load up faster. Remember sand filters out at 20-40 Micron. DE filters out at 5 micron. Set the pH to 7.2 with muriatic acid if it's higher. Add the DE and keep running the pump and holding the SLAM until the water clears. The more debris you get out of the pool before you SLAM the better, the fast of the process will go and the more effectively your chlorine will work for you.
 
Convinced my pool guy to do some vacuuming “blindly” (he wanted to wait for the water to clear so he could see). This helped a lot. Finally started to see some progress and today I can see the bottom! Not the heads or tails of a coin but the bottom nevertheless. I’m optimistic that we will be swimming this weekend. Did not do the deep clean of the filter but now down to backwashing once a day instead of twice.

So here’s a dumb question from a 7 year pool owner. What do I need to do my own vacuuming? I have always used a robotic vac and let the pool guy do it a couple of times each season. Do I just buy a long vacuum hose, pole, and head? Is the pole I use for my skimmer and brush likely to work? Does the vacuum hose plug into any skimmer line?

Thanks!
 
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