Filter filtering? Can't get clear!

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M

McKinney

0
LifeTime Supporter
Aug 14, 2015
30
HUNTERSVILLE/NC
Hello all,

Water filtering question. As you can see from these two pictures I have a very cloudy pool. I have been running my filter for a week now in preparation for SLAM. I started the process in March, weather and timing cut me short, but I spent a few days in SLAM and felt it was a good step. I went from green to this color. However, since then, and running the pump continuously I think my filter really taking a long time to clear up the pool.
20190414_094252.jpg20190414_094245.jpg

I deep cleaned the sand filter on Friday 4/12/19. Took about 30 minutes and was well worth the time. Flow seems to have increased. I added DE (1-cup) yesterday 4/13/19 to adjust the filter to 1lb psi. Should I add more DE? My robot is picking up nothing with the extra fine filters.

I want to make sure I am not missing something obvious that my noob status wouldn't have picked up.

I have kept FC between 20 and 25 over the last two days
CYA ~ 10ish adding slowly, treating as if 30
CH = 225
TA = 50
PH- 7.2

SLAMing for last two days now.

I appreciate your time.
 
You are very early in your SLAM process. A sand filter takes the very longest to filter out to clear after a SLAM.

We would suggest you bring your CYA to 30 ppm for the SLAM. As you cannot measure 10 ppm, it is effectively 0. The sun each day is destroying your chlorine in the pool before it can work on the organics.
 
The green is most likely algae....the filter will not clear it. You need to continue to keep the FC at SLAM levels until the water clears and can pass an overnight FC level test.
 
Two things that might help you feel better
1) Consider your pool to be a gigantic CYA view tube. At high concentrations of particles, the differences are very slight. 90 ppm and 100 ppm are close together, 20 and 30 are far apart. So you may have removed a whole bunch of stuff already. It's just not visible.
2) take a picture of the same spot every day -- a step or a ladder is the best. Then you can compare and actually see the improvement.

Do not be tempted by flocculants and especially not clarifiers. Not unless you want to scrape gooey sludge out of your filter when you replace the sand because it's all clogged up. .
 
mknauss said:
You are very early in your SLAM process. A sand filter takes the very longest to filter out to clear after a SLAM.

We would suggest you bring your CYA to 30 ppm for the SLAM. As you cannot measure 10 ppm, it is effectively 0. The sun each day is destroying your chlorine in the pool before it can work on the organics.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, I work from home and can measure my FC hourly if need be. I say ~10 because I can't get to the first number but it is getting closer. I am adding both a solid with CYA and liquid to maintain my numbers and increase CYA. I realize it takes time for CYA to rise and I obviously don't want to overshoot. I'll keep my eyes open and move my CYA a little faster.
 
Richard320 said:
Two things that might help you feel better
1) Consider your pool to be a gigantic CYA view tube. At high concentrations of particles, the differences are very slight. 90 ppm and 100 ppm are close together, 20 and 30 are far apart. So you may have removed a whole bunch of stuff already. It's just not visible.
2) take a picture of the same spot every day -- a step or a ladder is the best. Then you can compare and actually see the improvement.

Do not be tempted by flocculants and especially not clarifiers. Not unless you want to scrape gooey sludge out of your filter when you replace the sand because it's all clogged up. .
Click to expand...
Thank you, that was going to be a question about the floccing.
 
McKinney said:
move my CYA a little faster
Click to expand...
How are you currently adding CYA?

We recommend using the sock method. Use PoolMath to calculate how much CYA you need to add. Start with adding enough for 20ppm addition. Use granular CYA and place this in a sock. Yes, a regular tube sock or nylons. Anything as long as it doesn’t have holes. Tie the sock closed and hang it in front of a return. You can hang it off the end of a pole or stick. Just don’t let the sock touch the side wall as it could stain the surface. Every half hour, give it a squeeze or two to help it dissolve faster. You should be able to get it dissolved in a few hours this way. Since you are in the middle of the SLAM process, don’t put it in the skimmer. You don’t want the CYA to get stuck in the filter and /or backwashed out. 24 hours after the CYA is gone from the sock, you should be able to see the results with the CYA test.
 

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Just some feedback from this issue. It ended up that the control valve on my sand filter was bad/leaking. After 4 days with the new head module on I can see the bottom of the shallow end and all the rungs on the ladder of the deep end. This is for anyone that has a similar problem. What I didn't know was how to troubleshoot that portion of the filter. Maybe this would be an article idea for the pool school on how to troubleshoot filters to determine if there is a leak on the inside and thereby not functioning correctly. Anyhow, I think the important thing here is that this group and forum has provided me the competence and confidence to tackle these issues, find replacement parts and install new equipment without expensive 3rd party costs.

Thank you once again!
 
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