Floc - rookie mistake

[ROCMILLER]

I’ve been dealing with some pool cloudiness for the past few weeks. Initially I thought it was pollen. Been sweeping, runnning the vac, backwashing, etc. my chemical levels have been a little high (as indicated by the pool store — I just bought the TF-PRO kit so never again with them)

Anyways it was recommended that I FLOC the pool, then vacuum to waste. They wrote everything down but left one detail out. To set the pump to recirculate. So I dumped the floc in. Ran the filter for an hour before I turned the pump off. Waiting 24hrs set the pump to waste and started vacuuming.

Of course over the 24hrs of settling time. I jump on this forum start searching and immediately had a panic attack. One for FLOC’ing in the first place, and two for running the pump while putting that Crud in my pool

Question now. Am I screwed here? I vacuumed but it still stirred a bunch of stuff off. My guess I’ll have to do this 2 or 3 more times. What about my filter situation? Will I be able to backwash to help any future issues? Any suggestions?

I’m hoping my testing kit comes quickly. But first I need to get the pool under control from this situation. I cannot dump the pool and refill as it’s a liner and over 35k gallons.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Mdragger88]

You may need to reply the filter media- what type of filter do you have?

 

[RLP]

Start adding 3 ppm liquid chlorine daily until your test kit arrives.

Fill out your signature with as much detail as you can. Type of filter, pump, gallons of pool, etc

 

[ROCMILLER]

Dumb question is the signature part of the profile. I thought I put that info in

Vinyl in ground, 35k gallon pool, sand filter 1.5hp pump single speed.

 

[mknauss]

Dumb question is the signature part of the profile. I thought I put that info in

Create Your Signature - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[RLP]

Not a dumb question.

click on your user name up top next to the search bar. (In the blue band)

click on signature, next to account details.

 

[RLP]

Now I got Marty'd. Lol.

 

[ROCMILLER]

Got it thanks. I left out one detail. I did have skimmer socks in when I used the FLOC. Maybe this helped prevent any damage?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

One time use of floc is not going to ruin your filter. Just vacuum as much of the settled solids to waste as best you can. Then, once you feel like you’ve done enough, backwash the filter, rinse the filter and then put it back into normal service. If the filter does capture any floc, it will settle in there. Just keep an eye on filter pressure and backwash as soon as it rises 25% over clean pressure.

 

[Mdragger88]

Got it thanks. I left out one detail. I did have skimmer socks in when I used the FLOC. Maybe this helped prevent any damage?

Perhaps! Do a good backwash then rinse first then see where you’re at (if pressure seems normal)
If not, You may be able to get by with a deep cleaning before resorting to sand replacement. Get all the floc vacuumed to waste first before backwashing or filtering.

Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter

This post will walk you through the anatomy of a sand filter, and then provide a video at the end for how to deep clean your sand filter. The filter used in the photos and videos is a Hayward S180T top mount sand filter. The images are of a similar filter. Obviously not all filters are...

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