Flooded pool / dirty water

[Moniell18]

My yard / pool flooded Sunday night and must have gotten a lot of dirt and sediment into it because it turn completely brown and you can’t see more than a 12”. Been shocking it and running the filter constantly just incase algae started developing from the sediment but I have seen no improvement at all in the water clarity in 2-3 days. I was planning to wait it out and let the filter does it’s thing but the wife is ready to get the kids out the house and wants me to speed the process up. Bought some floc, read the instructions and understand it’s not what you recommend but seems like the only way to speed up the process. Going to recirculate, let it settle and vacuum to waste. One things that is confusing me that I need help understanding is why my filter pressure isn’t increasing and needing to be backwashed over the last 2 days. My clean filter pressure is usually 14 and it will start to rise normally and I know it’s time to backwash. The past few days, with all the sediment and cloudiness, I assumed it would rise after a few hours but it hasn’t. Do y’all think something is wrong with my filter?

pic is first morning after the flood. Can post current pic when I get home.

 

[mknauss]

Help us out -- complete your signature. We do not know what type of filter, etc.

 

[Moniell18]

Sand filter. Don’t know the model

 

[mknauss]

Hard to believe that your filter is not capturing some of that. I suspect it is.

In your situation, you can use FLOC. This is not an algae issue, it is a solids issue from flooding. Better is to use clarifier as it will not destroy the sand if you get it in the filter like Floc will. Get SeaKlear Chitosan if possible if you use clarifier.

 

[Moniell18]

You would think it has to be but just had me puzzled why it wouldnt be driving the pressure up. Got me thinking something may be up with filter. Pool was crystal clear just prior to it flooding so I know it’s been working fine

 

[mknauss]

Have you shut the pump off overnight and then vacuumed to waste the next morning?

 

[Moniell18]

I haven’t but that’s the plan for tonight with the aid of the floc. I bought Pool Time Sink to Clear Flocculant. I’m sure that not the best product but it’s all they had available.

 

[mknauss]

OK -- do your best to keep it out of the sand filter. Once you get this cleaned up, do a deep clean of the sand filter.

If I were you I would get some of the clarifier I mentioned above to have on hand if this type of flooding is normal.

Also, you really should resolve your drainage issues. A pool should never get any run off.

 

[Moniell18]

That’s the plan. I just moved in 2 months ago and it’s the first time this happened. It happened while I was sleeping so I’m not sure what happened and where it came from.

 

[Moniell18]

Can I use my dolphin to help vacuum or do I just need to do it with the hose type to waste?

 

[mknauss]

You can use it before you add the floc. After you add the floc, do not use it until you are absolutely sure the floc is gone. The floc will plug up the robots filters for good. And destroy them.

 

[kimkats]

Floc is your friend BUT you have to vacuum to waste. You will need to use a manual vacuum head and hose to do this. Go oh so slow when you vacuum. Once you get the water flowing see if you can keep vacuuming without the pump running so it will so not take as much of the water out. You should also be adding water in such a way to not disturb the dirt on the bottom of the pool.

You might have to do it a couple of times to get it all out. Good luck!

 

[Moniell18]

Thanks for the help. Wanted to wait it out but here goes nothing!!

 

[wireform]

Once the floc is out you can add DE to the filter slowly and stop with a 1 PSI rise although you may have to babysit the filter cuz it'll start trapping the fine stuff and your pressure will rise quickly.

 

[Moniell18]

Update: added floc last night and let it circulate for 2 hours per the instructions. Shut the pump off and let it sit till lunch today. Everything dropped to the bottom and vacuumed out pretty easy. Filling the pool back now and will let it settle out again to make another pass with the vacuum. So glad I did it after seeing how think the dirt was on the bottom.

 

[mknauss]

Once you do the second pass (might need a third, see how it looks) I would suggest you follow the SLAM Process.

 

[Moniell18]

Will do, thanks

 

[kimkats]

SWEET!!!