Having the hardest time opening pool

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C

coreyblake

0
Jun 3, 2017
7
Rising Sun, Indiana
Only 3rd year owning a pool. A bit of a back story. Last year when opening the pool it would not stop being cloudy. For days and days. I found out the down pipe was busted. Branden new down pipe and laterals. Fixed it quick. Overnight the pool was clear.

This year it’s the same exact thing. I’ve shocked it twice. Added clarifier. No clarity at all. I took the filter apart. Checked the down pipe and laterals. Absolutely zero visible damage EXCEPT one of the laterals has a tiny tiny crack. Only noticed it when pushing on it. I hardly believe this one crack is causing me all the problem?? So with this year old lateral I also have a year old pump that’s working fine. New hoses. Got a brand new multi port valve yesterday. New sand today. This filter has been running for DAYS with absolutely no change. Looking in the water you can clearly see small particles. Some small algae particles. Just garbage that I would think the filter would catch. There’s literally nothing I can replace at this point UNLESS the lateral has issues I can’t see. That’s a $100 part. I don’t want to get one if I don’t have to but nothing at all is working. Maybe I should take a water sample to a pool store. According to my test strips though levels are fine.
 
jmhjgh said:
How often are you running the pump, and are you sure it is working properly (good flow from the returns)?
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I had it running all day. All night. Nice flow on return. I have limited water source here. We have a cistern. Not county water. Making this even harder. I have to haul water in. One trip with water only raises level of pool about inch and half. So back washing and vacuume to waste is very hard to do. A good rain today. Going to vacuume to waste. I put new sand in yesterday but no way possible to backwash for two minutes like it suggests. I’ll be below skimmer by then. I have downspouts coming into pool like I have last couple years. The pool is acting identical to when I had a broken down pipe but there’s no visible damage to that unit. I’ve inspected it twice. Other than small crack in one lateral but it’s tigher than the actual grooves in the laterals so surely that can’t be an issue.
 
From what I've read here, new sand isn't as efficient as dirty sand. There is something for sand filters called DE. Maybe one of the real experts can comment, but maybe you should look into DE to add to your sand. Did you read the Pool School guide?
 
Vacuum to the filter if water is a problem. Only backwash when the pressure rises 25%. Stick with it, it works. Get the test kit 2006C or tf100. Slam when the kit arrives. Post numbers after your test and experts will be hers to help.
 
Hi guys. Here’s an update. I’ve been beating myself up over this because it seems to be doing the EXACT same thing that it did last year when I had a broken down pipe. I’ve told all the pool guys this same info when I went to various pool stores. I recently tried Floc. Woke up to find that I still had a hazy pool but at least I could see the bottom. Vacuume to waste. And all it did was get cloudy again. Two days of this Floc method and after the filter starts up it just gets cloudy again. So I put a white t shirt over the return and watched as the pool was running and saw things build up in the white t shirt. So this thing is not filtering. Everything is literally brand new except the lateral and down pipe which is a year old. Found one crack in one lateral. Have a hard to believing it is causing all this trouble but I’m replacing it tomorrow.
 

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Thank you all for your help. After hours and hours and lots and lots of research I couldn’t find much info on cracked laterals. As far as possible symptoms or even videos. The general consensus at every pool store I went to was “a cracked lateral will just put sand in the pool but won’t make it cloudy”

The problem I had with that statement (but listened to all these pool store owners) is, what do you think a bunch of sand in your water is going to do? Yea large particles will sink to the bottom and you’ll have grainy sand on the floor (Which I did) but the fine sand particles will cloud it up. Throw a handful of sand in a pool and see what happens. It clouds up in a hug ball as it disperses through the water. I didn’t want to believe a tiny tiny crack in one single lateral that’s only a year old would cause this much trouble either, but low and behold. Replace the lateral and down pipe assemble and 24 hours later the pool is clear. Vacuumed today and the kids actually got in. Now this is all my fault. Each year has been a pain in the but, but again it’s my fault on not winterizing correctly. Won’t happen again :)
 
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