Flow issue

[ForlornLawnGnome]

I am still learning pools, so trouble shooting them isn't my strong suit yet. I have had two symptoms since the pool opened for the year (about 2 weeks ago).
1) There is always debris on top of the water. Partly, this is because the trees are pollenating like crazy (Thanks NC), but also I don't think that the skimmers are skimming properly. I can watch the debris swirl around the top of the pool, but it doesn't seem to be going into the skimmer itself for the most part? There is a little bit of suction, but not a whole lot I don't think. This seems to be the same across both skimmers.
2) The Heat pump is reporting that the pressure is too low for it to kick on (why I started looking at things to begin with)

Things I have checked:
Filter pressure is at ~12, base line is usually about 10, so that seems good.
Emptied the skimmer baskets. They get more gunk again but it's mostly floating on top of the water in the skimmer, not settling into the basket (Not sure if this makes a difference)
Emptied the little catch basket before the pump (not sure it's name), verified there is no air there
Water level is good, about halfway in the skimmers, the weir(?) goes up when the pump turns off and pulls down so there's just a little bit of water going over the top when the pump is on
I did not backwash the filter today, I have put in some of the CYA increaser which says not to back wash for 24 hours (the skimmers were acting this way before the chemical addition, don't know about the heater)
I have ordered a drain king to check for obstructions but it won't be here until this weekend

2 skimmers, 1 main drain, all are open.

Thanks!

 

[ajw22]

1) There is always debris on top of the water. Partly, this is because the trees are pollenating like crazy (Thanks NC), but also I don't think that the skimmers are skimming properly.

...

Emptied the skimmer baskets. They get more gunk again but it's mostly floating on top of the water in the skimmer, not settling into the basket (Not sure if this makes a difference)

If you are getting gunk in your skimmer baskets then your skimmers are working.

Skimmers work slowly and you rarely see the surface debris get into the skimmer.

When trees are shedding continuously with pollen or dropping leaves it can look like there is always debris on the water as it is constantly being deposited.

Filter pressure is at ~12, base line is usually about 10, so that seems good.

Not exactly. It is 20% over your clean filter pressure. We recommend cleaning a filter when PSI increases by 25% over clean pressure. So you are just about there.

Backwash your filter.

We recommend adding stabilizer using the sock method and not adding it into the skimmer. The Stabilizer is probably also clogging your filter as well as the pollen and causing the low flow condition with your heater.

So you can wait a while for the stabilizer to dissolve before backwashing and not have the heater operational. Or backwash now, test your CYA in a few days, and add more stabilizer using the sock method.

I would definetly backwash your filter before dealing with a Drain King.

 

[mknauss]

Put the MPV in recirculate. That will see if you have a suction side issue or a plugged filter issue.

 

[ForlornLawnGnome]

We recommend adding stabilizer using the sock method and not adding it into the skimmer.

If I am remembering correctly, the sock method is putting the stabilizer in a sock and putting that sock in the skimmer? I put the stabilizer one of the stretchy mesh things that can go over the skimmer baskets, tied that up and stuck it in the skimmer. Is there somewhere else I should be putting that? Is the stretchy mesh-for-over-skimmer-basket sufficient or do I need to find an actual sock? (nouns are escaping me today)

Put the MPV in recirculate

Thanks! I will check this in the morning while the baby naps, too dark out to see anything now

 

[ajw22]

I put the stabilizer one of the stretchy mesh things that can go over the skimmer baskets, tied that up and stuck it in the skimmer.

If you did that then you can backwash now.

Is there somewhere else I should be putting that?

I prefer dangling socks full of stabilizer in front of returns...