Filled my pool with creek water...

[rachie_cb]

... and now I can’t get it clear. The lady at the pool store told me she would feel bad taking my money as attempting to get it clear would be fruitless.

We just moved from a town, out into the country. Before all I had to do was fill it up with the hose, pour some salt in it, and I wouldn’t have to touch it for the rest of the season. We’ve had a pool for five years and I’ve never had to worry about the water or chemicals, so I’m completely out of my element.

I have tried doing google searches, but results are limited. Readings are: free chlorine: 12 ppm, PH 7.7, and alkalinity 115.

Anyone have any suggestions? I really don’t want to pay $400+ to drain and fill the pool, as my husband might have a heart attack after all the work he did to fill the pool.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

You can clear that up. Members have filled from creeks before and cleared up swamps worse than that.
Take a look through Pool School, starting with ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry to help you learn about the chemistry and what we teach.

You need to invest in one of the recommended test kits: Test Kits Compared
And then follow the SLAM Process process.

Most of the issue is going to be waiting for the filter to do its job.

Please fill out your signature with your pool and equipment details.

 

[duraleigh]

All you have to do is get the dirt and organics out of your pool and what's left is crystal clear water.......simple, huh?

Actually, that's about all there is to it. You have one or maybe two big obstacles.....

1. Your filter may be too small to handle water that is that dirty.......post a pic of your filter

2. It looks like you pumped the water directly from the creek without pre-filtration of any kind. That massive amount of dirt may be hard to overcome.

Post that pic of your pump and filter or gives us a brand name or model and we'll go from there.

 

[rachie_cb]

You may be right about the filter. I have an Intex krystal clear sf80110-2 sand filter. It seems like it is pushing out water appropriately, but the suction doesn’t seem very strong overall, but I have noticed the suction varies. I hooked up a surface skimmer and initially it seemed to be working, but last night I cleaned out the filter and the skimmer and it didn’t seem to be working correctly. The skimmer just floated on top. I didn’t feel the suction I was familiar with when I had my previous Intex pool. Now I have a 22x52 Intex XTR pool.

I tried to filter out the water from the creek, but the pump was too strong and the filter couldn’t handle the pressure. So you are correct. It was not filtered. My mom was adamant my grandpa always used creek water to fill thier pools growing up, and cleared it up with chlorine... so I didn’t question it. Lessoned learned there.

I know some people aren’t a fan of Intex... this is my 4th Intex pool. Ran my previous 18’ with cartridge filter and never had a problem until now. ?

 

[rachie_cb]

I wanted to update this for anyone in the future who may do a google search (like I tried fruitlessly) and wanted a solution.

After two weeks of back and forth to the pool store, my water was balanced perfectly, unfortunately no change was made in the water clarity. Flocculants were out as we didn’t have a clean water source to replace it. I’m not sure that would have worked anyway.

The lady at the pool store told us she didn’t feel right taking our money any more and gave us the card to a water hauling company.

My husband pumped out the pool, leaving about 3” left due to the limitations of the pump. I couldn’t clean the rest out for about two days. During they time the silt separated from the water, which was about 1/2 inch thick! I then had to use a shop vac to get out the remaining water and sand (this took about 3 hours).

Water was brought in later that day. Crystal clear since.

I’m not saying all creek water would be hopeless, but I would definitely take into consideration the amount of sediment in the water before filling.