Hi everyone,
We moved into a house with a pool (18 months ago) and I am tearing my hair out to keep it clean and clear.
During the cooler months this is not a big issue, but currently (August) it is nigh on impossible. The symptoms are that the pool goes from sparkling clean to having a slight greeny hue and there is an increasing build up of green muck at the bottom of the pool. If I try to vacuum this, it just seemingly passes straight through the filter and the pool goes very dirty for a number of days until it all settles again. The short-term solution is to vacuum to waste, but this is very inefficient and expensive.
We have already tried a number of thing including:
- Changing the sand in the filter (now has glass media)
- Fully draining the pool and re-filling (we had very high Cynauric acid and I believed this to be the problem, but having done this 2 months ago, the issue has not improved)
- Regular testing and keeping pool in balance (I wouldn't say it is perfect, but I work hard to keep it close to perfect)
- Weekly dose of algaecide
When we had the filter media changed, it was noted that the pump is far too strong for the filter size (I don't have the output/capacity to hand) and so I have a theory that we might be suffering from "channelling" in the filter which is stopping the filter doing its job and the "dead" algae is not being removed. Last time I looked the filter pressure was quite low (less than 0.5 bar) which made me think that the water is just passing straight through with no resistance.
So questions are:
1. Does this sound like channeling could be the problem?
2. How can I diagnose this? Will it be evident if I open up the filter?
3. I was reading about adding some DE to the filter, might this help?
4. Any other ideas..!!??
To be clear, we are tenants in this house and won't be here forever so are unwilling to invest in a new (less powerful pump), but if this is the only solution then I will have to try and lobby the landlord! I would like to be (reasonably) certain that this is the issue before I go down this route.
Many thanks in advance
Cheers
James
We moved into a house with a pool (18 months ago) and I am tearing my hair out to keep it clean and clear.
During the cooler months this is not a big issue, but currently (August) it is nigh on impossible. The symptoms are that the pool goes from sparkling clean to having a slight greeny hue and there is an increasing build up of green muck at the bottom of the pool. If I try to vacuum this, it just seemingly passes straight through the filter and the pool goes very dirty for a number of days until it all settles again. The short-term solution is to vacuum to waste, but this is very inefficient and expensive.
We have already tried a number of thing including:
- Changing the sand in the filter (now has glass media)
- Fully draining the pool and re-filling (we had very high Cynauric acid and I believed this to be the problem, but having done this 2 months ago, the issue has not improved)
- Regular testing and keeping pool in balance (I wouldn't say it is perfect, but I work hard to keep it close to perfect)
- Weekly dose of algaecide
When we had the filter media changed, it was noted that the pump is far too strong for the filter size (I don't have the output/capacity to hand) and so I have a theory that we might be suffering from "channelling" in the filter which is stopping the filter doing its job and the "dead" algae is not being removed. Last time I looked the filter pressure was quite low (less than 0.5 bar) which made me think that the water is just passing straight through with no resistance.
So questions are:
1. Does this sound like channeling could be the problem?
2. How can I diagnose this? Will it be evident if I open up the filter?
3. I was reading about adding some DE to the filter, might this help?
4. Any other ideas..!!??
To be clear, we are tenants in this house and won't be here forever so are unwilling to invest in a new (less powerful pump), but if this is the only solution then I will have to try and lobby the landlord! I would like to be (reasonably) certain that this is the issue before I go down this route.
Many thanks in advance
Cheers
James