Gah, I made this long post, and it didn't save, so I'm typing it in again.
Okay, so I'm a first-time pool owner (38,000 gal vinyl pool with SWG, sand filter, Ozone/UV system, and variable speed pump). We've had it running for about 2 weeks and everything has been crystal clear, easy to maintain and we were happy campers.
The place where we put the pool has always been dry (even though it's in a low place of our land). Okay, so we had a week of heavy rain, and then a deluge. It ended up making a river from my neighbor's land, flowed through ours, made a little waterfall through our gate, washed over our dirt (which is waiting for landscaping) and dumped a mess into our pool.
Needless to say we couldn't see the bottom - but did fairly well with "blind vacuuming and backwashing the filter. Pool guy said - use flocculant, but after reading here. I thought, no do SLAM. And so we started on that path. Water was brown (not green) and of course very cloudy (couldn't see the bottom).
After several days there was virtually no improvement. I started to suspect the dirt was so fine the filter wasn't able to get it out. I considered adding DE to the filter, but was confused by the various "types" and didn't want to put a bunch of stuff in my filter that might ruin something brand new.
Out of frustration I turned to flocculant. My thought process was that my situation wasn't what most people were using it for (cloudy water due to poor chemistry). In my case, I had a situation that this stuff was meant for (tiny dusty particles suspended in my water) I kept the amount on the "light side" as I didn't want to get excess running around in my water. I also didn't bother adding in a ton of chemicals (most of which had been washed away) - although I still had high chlorine levels from SLAMMING).
Next morning (yesterday) we could see the bottom and while the deep end was still cloudy the shallow end looked pretty good. We vacuumed to waste, replaced the lost water, dropped in a few gallons of bleach (to keep any algae bloom possibilities at bay - even though we weren't slamming now). We added another dose of flocculant and by midday we had a perfectly clear (although very low in chemicals) pool.
So I started getting everything back (using recirculation on high and waiting 30 minutes between chemicals. I added in 3 12-pound bags of baking soda (ALKALINITY was at 21). A full bottle of stabilizer (CYA was at 20), A full bottle of PH UP (PH was at 6.8), 14 bags of salt - Clorinator was off because of "low salt". Chlorine was at 5 ppm so I did nothing for it. Oh and hardness was also low (although I forgot the number) but I didn't do anything to correct it yet as I thought the other chemicals were more important. All this was "low" based on pool math, but I thought it best to start there and then retest in the morning and then add more as needed.
After several days of depression and worry. I felt good. The pool was back in shape. Disaster had been averted. And then it started to rain. As a precaution I had built a little barricade (with cinderblocks and gravel) where the waterfall had flowed into the pool. The rain was heavy -- the heaviest I've ever seen it. No waterfall appeared but the ground wasn't able to absorb the water as fast as it needed. My pre-planning paid off, the barricade diverted the rainwater around the pool. I was very happy...and then the waterfall started. Just a little, the barricade was enough to keep it bay, but then there was a roar. I'm not kidding an actual roar, and it started again. Well, you guessed it. In minutes we were right back to the exact same dirt-filled mess...and we hand't even been able to swim as the chem levels were all out of wack. I suspect that several hundred dollars of salt and pool chemicals is now gone (again). And I'm at square one.
We have rain predicted for the next few days. So I probably shouldn't start the "restore" process for a few days. But I have questions...
Oh, I should also note that after the first flood we had pretty substantial "liner float" - My wife got into the pool and was able to smooth out most things before the water under the liner receded but we did develop 3 wrinkles that "set" before she was able to work on them. Part of the problem is she could only find them by feel (couldn't see the bottom). I suspect the liner is floating once more and that probably means we have a window of opportunity to fix those few wrinkles from last time. Since we are vacuuming to waste anyway, and don't have any chemicals left in the pool (I suspect), should we just empty the pool even further in the hopes of removing the old (plus any new ones that might have formed). And if so, how would we do that? I mean once the water level gets below the skimmer we can't remove water by vacuuming to waste. Do we just close off the skimmers and leave the main drain on and turn the valve on top of the file to waste?
Sorry for the very long post and all the questions. But any help would be greatly appreciated.
Okay, so I'm a first-time pool owner (38,000 gal vinyl pool with SWG, sand filter, Ozone/UV system, and variable speed pump). We've had it running for about 2 weeks and everything has been crystal clear, easy to maintain and we were happy campers.
The place where we put the pool has always been dry (even though it's in a low place of our land). Okay, so we had a week of heavy rain, and then a deluge. It ended up making a river from my neighbor's land, flowed through ours, made a little waterfall through our gate, washed over our dirt (which is waiting for landscaping) and dumped a mess into our pool.
Needless to say we couldn't see the bottom - but did fairly well with "blind vacuuming and backwashing the filter. Pool guy said - use flocculant, but after reading here. I thought, no do SLAM. And so we started on that path. Water was brown (not green) and of course very cloudy (couldn't see the bottom).
After several days there was virtually no improvement. I started to suspect the dirt was so fine the filter wasn't able to get it out. I considered adding DE to the filter, but was confused by the various "types" and didn't want to put a bunch of stuff in my filter that might ruin something brand new.
Out of frustration I turned to flocculant. My thought process was that my situation wasn't what most people were using it for (cloudy water due to poor chemistry). In my case, I had a situation that this stuff was meant for (tiny dusty particles suspended in my water) I kept the amount on the "light side" as I didn't want to get excess running around in my water. I also didn't bother adding in a ton of chemicals (most of which had been washed away) - although I still had high chlorine levels from SLAMMING).
Next morning (yesterday) we could see the bottom and while the deep end was still cloudy the shallow end looked pretty good. We vacuumed to waste, replaced the lost water, dropped in a few gallons of bleach (to keep any algae bloom possibilities at bay - even though we weren't slamming now). We added another dose of flocculant and by midday we had a perfectly clear (although very low in chemicals) pool.
So I started getting everything back (using recirculation on high and waiting 30 minutes between chemicals. I added in 3 12-pound bags of baking soda (ALKALINITY was at 21). A full bottle of stabilizer (CYA was at 20), A full bottle of PH UP (PH was at 6.8), 14 bags of salt - Clorinator was off because of "low salt". Chlorine was at 5 ppm so I did nothing for it. Oh and hardness was also low (although I forgot the number) but I didn't do anything to correct it yet as I thought the other chemicals were more important. All this was "low" based on pool math, but I thought it best to start there and then retest in the morning and then add more as needed.
After several days of depression and worry. I felt good. The pool was back in shape. Disaster had been averted. And then it started to rain. As a precaution I had built a little barricade (with cinderblocks and gravel) where the waterfall had flowed into the pool. The rain was heavy -- the heaviest I've ever seen it. No waterfall appeared but the ground wasn't able to absorb the water as fast as it needed. My pre-planning paid off, the barricade diverted the rainwater around the pool. I was very happy...and then the waterfall started. Just a little, the barricade was enough to keep it bay, but then there was a roar. I'm not kidding an actual roar, and it started again. Well, you guessed it. In minutes we were right back to the exact same dirt-filled mess...and we hand't even been able to swim as the chem levels were all out of wack. I suspect that several hundred dollars of salt and pool chemicals is now gone (again). And I'm at square one.
We have rain predicted for the next few days. So I probably shouldn't start the "restore" process for a few days. But I have questions...
- Should we run the pump to have the filter get "some" stuff out? Or keep the pool still to let some of the dirt sink without flocculant.
- When the rain ends, I'm going to use floc again because as it did the job last time. But I have some questions about that. The first time I didn't balance the pool but the floc worked fine. My thought process was I didn't want to add in a bunch of chemicals just to drain them out when vacuuming to waste. Was that a mistake? I mean it worked, but was I just lucky? In other words should I follow the instructions and get the chem level to what it suggests before applying? Or is this balancing before flocking just designed to get me to buy more chemicals? Also, what is the best flocculant to use? I'm seeing mixed reviews on all the various brands. But again, I suspect they were using it for the wrong reasons.
- I suspect I should get some chlorine in while the pool "sits" to avoid adding an algae bloom to my dirt problem. But at what level? Should I be at shock level? Or just normal operating level?
Oh, I should also note that after the first flood we had pretty substantial "liner float" - My wife got into the pool and was able to smooth out most things before the water under the liner receded but we did develop 3 wrinkles that "set" before she was able to work on them. Part of the problem is she could only find them by feel (couldn't see the bottom). I suspect the liner is floating once more and that probably means we have a window of opportunity to fix those few wrinkles from last time. Since we are vacuuming to waste anyway, and don't have any chemicals left in the pool (I suspect), should we just empty the pool even further in the hopes of removing the old (plus any new ones that might have formed). And if so, how would we do that? I mean once the water level gets below the skimmer we can't remove water by vacuuming to waste. Do we just close off the skimmers and leave the main drain on and turn the valve on top of the file to waste?
Sorry for the very long post and all the questions. But any help would be greatly appreciated.
