I’ve always struggled with fine dust/dirt debri and I guess pollen. I’m going to be more consistent with skimmer socks. i realize I started with a dark green swamp, but the fact that pressure only rose the first day of the slam and the fact that the dead algae is visibly not being caught in the filter is disappointing. At least I am able to get some assistance with DE.
Have you gotten any resolve yet? I sincerely hope that since you haven't posted in a bit, you got it worked out. I struggle with fine dust/dirt too from all the farming around me. But that just settles to the bottom, I never get algae. That said, winter is a challenge as far as keeping algae from growing. You are in a warmer climate, so the water likely stays warm enough to favor algae growth. Where I live my pool water freezes almost completely. But even with the early warmth this year, no cover on my pool and the filter not even hooked up, my water remains crystal clear just from me pouring liquid chlorine it it and using my robot to circulate it.
I don't have all that dead algae to deal with, just dirt at the bottom to vacuum, but my dog's pool does. It looked like your pool at opening, and I just threw a ton of shock in it. In 2 days it was crystal clear, with all the dead algae settled at the bottom. It doesn't have it's pump up and running yet either. So it appears your slamming and water balancing has killed all the algae and the water is cloudy from the pump stirring up all the debris but not filtering it out, as if it were set on recirculate. I'm certainly not an expert, so don't anyone jump on me, this is just my thinking.
I asked about the pool guy's "inspection" because I wondered if he took anything apart, like your MPV. Or maybe the previous homeowner messed with it, not knowing how to do it properly. So the only way to figure it out is to take the MPV apart and pay attention to how the key assembly is configured compared to the handle settings, to determine if it was opened and not put back together properly.
At this point if it were me, I would just assume the MPV is bad in some way after 13 years of use, and replace it. I saw a new one like yours for $203 on Ebay when I was shopping around for mine. I know you replaced the gasket, but there may be something else worn out, perhaps the spring. You also can't rely on your pressure gauge being accurate. My pressure gauge has been bad from day one. It's pegged all the way around from it's 0 point, and my neighbor's is the same way.
I'm only beginning my 5th year with my filter and have an entire new MPV sitting here ready to install when I actually get my pump and filter up and running. Then I will rebuild my old one with new parts, and keep it on the shelf for future service. Mine was very hard to turn, made that screeching sound when turning, and it was sucking air. Even though we had real early warmth, we still got nights below freezing, which is why I haven't done it yet. We are over the hump now with the temps, so this week I will be redoing the whole thing. Some may think that's excessive, but I'm not as excessive as my neighbor who breaks down his whole system and stores it in the garage every winter, replacing all the sand every year.
I don’t believe I ever had ammonia, as my FC held pretty well after the first day as did my CYA. I continually have passed OCLT and CC has stayed at .5, but I cannot get past the milky blue stage which definitely looks like a filtration issue. I have tried a few logical fixes to no avail. At this point I am just trying to be patient and watch for improvement. Looking forward to following your progress which hopefully is much quicker than mine!
Any possible explanation?
but definitely take the win!