Filter bypass?

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APoolFanCT

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May 21, 2020
15
CT
Pool is cloudy and just won’t clear up. Balance is perfect. Brushing and robot vacuuming daily. I realized my (non robot) vacuum was sending dirt back into the pool so I put in a brand new plm200 pentair cartridge filter. Same issue.

Clearly, water is bypassing the cartridge. Any tips for how to fix this on a pentair stage 2 filter system? It worked great last season.
 
A full set of test results will help figure out what’s going on.

Is your water warm enough to turn on your SWG?
 
opened about 2 weeks ago

FC 10
CC 0
CH 90
TA 60
PH 7.2
CYA 45 (I know it’s low, will add when water clears)
Salt: 2000ish (will add more)

not running the SWG yet, manually dosing liquid chlorine

It’s a beautiful blue color, but it’s cloudy. When I run the robot vacuum it clears up a little more each time. Pretty confident it’s the filter.

the one hitch - it was taking forever to clear up (normally clear in 24 hours after opening) and chugging chlorine, so I took a sample to the pool store and they told me copper is 0.8ppm. I have a bottle of jacks to toss in when FC comes down.

my pump went last year. I figure the cartridge housing is busted now. Next year will probably be the heater. All were about 13 years old.
 
You‘re 3 hours ahead so it’s probably dark, but photos are always helpful. How far down can you see? It’s hard to gauge how cloudy it is verbally.

Have done an overnight chlorine lost test?
 
Correct on darkness. First step is clear, I can see the robot’s outline in the shallow end but blurry, in the deep end it’s completely invisible.

OCLT is holding steady.

when I hand vacuumed the walls a week ago, green algae was shooting right out of the jets, tried the new filter and same result. Usually jets shoot clear, right?
 
In the past week, since you saw the green algae shooting out of the returns, have you SLAM’d it? There is the 3 criteria before you can end the SLAM, right?
 
Good question - I had been slamming for a week (got FC up to 28 at one point, oops...) It just didn’t seem to get better. The pressure on the filter is startup pressure (12 psi). Could it be filled with dead algae even if pressure is nominal?
 
Oh boy. I got some new reagent in today since the stuff I had was a bit old. If I’m to believe it’s not watered down, my FC is closer to 40. Could that cause the cloudiness? Should I add a chlorine neutralizer at this point? Is all my equipment hosed?
 
With FC that high, turn off your SWG. Turn the percentage to 0 (zero). Your FC will burn off in time. You definitely don’t want to bleach your liner.

With new reagents, post a full set of results.
 

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Okay new numbers-

FC 24
CC 2

Ran the test twice, with water from an arms length deep and got the same result. Any advice? If this is true then (1) the FC consumption is crazy since yesterday and (2) I’ve been above SLAM for 5+ days (last added chlorine Thursday) and the water is still cloudy. Any advice on next steps?

here is a picture - as it gets deeper it fades to a sort of milky white
 

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To ride the pool of copper you need to drain it. If stains, you use the sulfamic acid to lift the stains and then drain.
 
Just a thought on your new cartridge. When it was installed was the air-relief screen installed with it. Many times they are not on the cartridge when it comes out of the box but lying in the bottom. Without that, debris will just pass through as well.
 
The filter was pretty dirty when I changed it, so I think it’s actually working okay. I gave the connection points a good scrub down to be sure, and put in a new pressure gauge for good measure. I got a good seat on the filter and the pressure reads 14 now - higher than before I cleaned it (it was 12 at startup before).

Once the FC comes down to SLAM levels I’ll monitor and keep adding chlorine until it clears, I guess. And keep vacuuming and brushing. I guess there could be something lurking in the deep end that’s too big for the vacuum to pick up? No way to tell until it clears.
 
Update for those keeping track at home:

FC 22
CC 0

Getting more clear now. Vacuum is coming up completely empty except an occasional grackle offering. I’ll keep an eye on the FC and redo the OCLT when the water is fully clear. Then when FC comes down to maintenance levels I’ll add the jacks magic.
 
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