Help before I do something STUPID (again)

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funandsun

funandsun

0
Bronze Supporter
Jun 11, 2017
758
Bloomington Indiana
Hey gang,

Been cruising your site most of the spring, getting our pool opened this year has been 1 thing after the other to the point that if I don't laugh I will probably just pull the cover back over it and wait to try again next year. Thing is, I too came to the light that this is all about numbers and sequences and I got bit by the TFP bug. I ordered my new shiny Taylor K-2006 kit, new pool Vacuum head and I was ready.... well actually I was left waiting for the guy who closed our pool to come open our pool which for whatever reason didn't happen, so we called in the company that installed our pool only to find out when the guy showed up that our pump decided that this was its last winter in Indiana and all we got was a hum and then smoke.

So, ordered up a Pentair SuperFlo VS, had it installed and boom we had water moving and it was time to get to work. I quickly got my CYA up to 31-32'ish, got my pH dialed in and started raising my chlorine... man this is going to be awesome!

Well... not so fast ... seems I have hit a brick wall as you can see by the pictures.

Let me add a few things here, I read about deep cleaning sand. Now, let me confess... I have not been good to my sand. I used floc the previous 2 seasons and filtered right to the sand, our pool is a swamp every year and every year we have beaten it into shape whether it wanted to or not, we would get 1-2 weeks of pristine clear water and then just as season was ending it would slowly dive off, I would drop the maintenance and rinse repeat.

This will be our 3rd season with a sand filter and honestly, I hate it. Wish I knew then what I know now, I would have never gotten rid of the cartridge system we had, but that said... today I did start off with the deep clean just to see what I would learn and it was interesting. I did not have a cake type film as I saw in another post.. (the one with the pic and a ruler) and as I gently moved the hose to the bottom and stirred the sand around yes, lots and lots of small things floated up and out. However, because of my past abuses to the sand, because of my reformation that I am currently attempting with pool care, I felt I should just start out with new sand, so I removed and replaced 150lbs of sand, cleaned out the housing, inspected my laterals and put it all back together.

I have a couple of issues (one I think I can figure out thanks to the excel sheet with the rmp-watts to GPM conversion) but with the variable, I am uncertain how much water to move through the sand filter (now I have a choice... I didn't have one with the 1 speed pump from previous years), my sand filter has not built a single psi of pressure for the last 5 days and yet the water is.. well you can see what the water is. This is also why I thought to go ahead and start with new sand, maybe it was so saturated it just was not able to get any more done for me.

Wrapping this up... because I can not go into SLAM without a properly working filtration system, how long should I give this new sand to show me signs of life before I kick this thing off my property and replace it with another cartridge system?

The color is slightly changing, the light and time of day is offering a better view than what it is in person, but it isn't white and there are lots of small particles floating around.

Readings
FC 15
pH 7.2 <tested prior to ramped up chlorine)
TA 90
CH 190
CYA 31-32

april 27 june 2 june 4 june 5 june 6 june 7 june 12
View attachment 63542View attachment 63543View attachment 63544View attachment 63545View attachment 63546View attachment 63547View attachment 63548

Many thanks for your thoughts and opinions and look forward to sharing the progress as I get this pool back into shape and then KEEP it there!
 
So how high are you running that pump? Is it high enough to cause pressure rise?

You're moving water, right?? So it has to be going thru the filter. Sand filters work just fine, just slowly. If you had a cartridge filter you'd be complaining about having to clean all the algae out or worrying about tears in fabric....

Are you brushing daily, and have you checked the bottom for debris? Any debris you haven't physically removed is just eating up chlorine which is better served killing off algae.

How often are you dosing and testing that water? Are you actually performing a SLAM or just a once a day dose that the algae chuckle about??

Have you read how to do the SLAM????? --> SLAM Process You've got the test kit, now make it earn its keep!! :whip:

Maddie :flower:
 
Hi Maddie,

I am running the pump at 2400speed and 760 watts which according to that excel sheet should put me around 49GPM, moving 49gpm in my little 13k pool theoretically turns the water over every 4.5 hours. That means over the last 14 hours I should have turned my water over 3x's.

lol about the complaining about the cartridge.. yes yes I know you are right.

Brushing every 4-6 hours when I check and adjust chlorine, been targeting chlorine around 15ppm this was info I had before SLAM which targets 20ppm. I can make that adjustment, but before I put in more chems, I have got to find a way to confirm this filter is even working.

Yes read slam, pool, school, and lots of lots of forum threads. I started spending about 2hrs a day reading and learning back in April... so I have a little seat time at least to accept the part that I need higher FC, CYA is critical and it's level is directly related to chlorine, pH is unreliable above FC 10ppm, must have a good working filter, and let the things work themselves out.

Is 49gpm too fast for the sand? psi is only 10, even with my 1 speed pump it was always 10psi at clean... but I have no idea what that pump's speed was.. If I drop speed down on this VS to where i want it wattage wise which is around 1500 give or take, psi in the sand filter drops to 5psi.

So how much psi do I or should I run at or how many gpm should I target? Am I disrupting the sand too much at higher speeds? This is where the cartridge to my mind makes sense... it just worked (we had cartridge for 7years).

Now, I am sure some could read my comments and think I will not be satisfied with sand ever... that is not the case... I could learn to love my sand filter especially after learning about the DE polishing benefits, and pictures of these pools has me loaded with envy and yes, since I am of the competitive nature I can not accept less from myself lol. So what I really want to figure out is, how to get the most out of my VS and my sand filter and then to avoid this in the future.

Many thanks

FunandSun
 
First things first, CYA testing will not produce a value of "31-32". Always round up to the next highest value when calculating your required FC. This will prevent an undershoot of FC during a SLAM. However, the most important thing right now is to understand your pool did not become a swamp in 7 days and it won't get sparkling clear in 7 days. Just looking at your photos shows how far you've already gotten and the need to get the SLAM started is obvious. As mentioned above, a sand filter will do a fine job of clearing the water of dead organic material–if you give it time. You really need to open a large can of POP (Pool Owner Patience). Get the SLAM process going today and be merciless to the algae that have taken over your pool!
 
You don't need to target 20 unless your CYA is 50. Just target based upon your CYA, which you say is 31-32. The test is done in increments of 10, so if it's not 30 then round up to 40 and target FC of 16

I have VS pump, and I run on high (3450gpm) for clean up jobs or SLAMing. Run half that speed normally. High speed puts my PSI at 30 (50% speed at 10), which is high but that's my normal pressure. PSI norms are different for everyone based upon so many variables: piping, sand filter size, distance from pump.
 
I did not test or adjust chlorine yesterday as I was working with the sand filter and pump and wanted to reach out to you folks about my concerns with this filter.

Just tested FC @ 4ppm, pH @ 7.4. I added chlorine to get it ramped back up will test again around 2pm and adjust as needed. I adjusted the schedule of the pump and the speeds, pump will run at 3000 speed between midnight and 10am, 10am-6pm will run at 2400, and will ramp back up to 3000 for 6pm to midnight. May not make a difference at all but thinking to give the pump a 20% break during the hottest time of the day.

Will enjoy my POP and update as I go.

Thank you
 
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2400 should be more than fine if the filter isnt jam packed with dead algae. Next time you backwash the filter check the pressure at 3000 rpm and then when the pressure rises 20-25% at 3000 rpm it is time to clean it again. The good news is that when I had a mild algae bloom (cloudy, not green) once 5+ years ago I had to clean my cartridge filter at least every other day for a while. :)

I run my pump at 1100 rpm for making chlorine with the SWG, skimming, filtering and solar standby. It uses 150 watts at 1100 rpm.
 
Thanks pooklv

I just tested and swept, FC 14.5ppm. pooklv, the psi at 2400 was 10 when I increased it to 3000 earlier it went to 12, I just checked it and it's still 12 psi.
I also added a column to my maintenance excel sheet for psi readings so I will start keeping a record of it.
 

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update

I ramped up speed of pump to 3450 on June 15th and have let it run 24/7.

Here are some pics of the progress.

View attachment 64003View attachment 64002View attachment 64001View attachment 64000View attachment 63999

left to right, showing the pool light at pool deck level, the stairs at pool deck level, the pool overview from top deck today, the 16th and the 15th.

You can now clearly see the 4th step from the top deck which we could not see prior and the water is clearing up.

Keeping in SLAM mode until I pass the overnight tests, but wanted to pass along the progress here.

Thanks,
 
Here is my update, thank you for calming me down a few days ago Tucsontico, POP was exactly what I needed. The last 36 hours have been really awesome. I could see on Friday that the filter was making progress, kept in SLAM, tested often and let the filter do its job.

Here are some pics to compare

June 15th
6_15_2017 pool.jpg

Today (minutes ago)
6_20_2017 pool.jpg

Light is visible, all but the drain now. Huge improvement visually.

WINNING!
 
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