Help! Ruby sand blown into pool.

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J

JB89

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2023
61
DeQuincy, Louisiana
Pool Size
13500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair iChlor 30
I'm looking for advice on what I should do to reestablish my crystal-clear pool. Yesterday the pool company came out and changed my sand in my filter because they thought there was a possible issue with it. They backwashed the sand but forgot to rinse it. This is ruby sand, and it was blown back into my pool through the jets. This caused my deep end to become cloudy again which I've been fighting for weeks. I immediately deployed my standard vacuum cleaner and got everything out of the pool. I let the pool pump stay off through the night to ensure I got everything up (let it settle). This morning the deep in is still murky looking with no evidence of the sand. What would be my first step in action? I have contacted them, and they said they would return on Monday.

I'm awaiting my water test kit K-2006C to arrive, so I used my standard kit that came with the pool. The PH was around 7 and the chlorine was around 4. I used a test strip to see if I could possibly tell what else may be going on. I know this is really unreliable, but unfortunately, it's all I have until my kit arrives. It was showing my alkalinity to be around 40, stabilizer around 20 and the calcium around 126.

Keep in mind this thing has been in operation about 3 months, and I'm very new to all of this.
 
Jburch89 said:
I'm awaiting my water test kit K-2006C to arrive
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That's going to be key. Stay the course right now and and let's wait until we have some reliable test results. Then we'll know if you have a chemistry issue or not.
 
Texas Splash said:
That's going to be key. Stay the course right now and and let's wait until we have some reliable test results. Then we'll know if you have a chemistry issue or not.
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Ok sounds good. Thank you for the quick reply. I'll test with the 2006C tomorrow and post the results.
 
It’s just a form of zeolite media used as a replacement for traditional silica sand. It weighs less but costs A LOT more. Honestly, I’ll never understand these pool companies that keep trying to push “new and improved” which almost always “new and no better than the old stuff”. Anyway, you can look at the manufacturers troubleshooting webpage to see if anything helps -


My guess is that what you are seeing is the turbidity that comes from unwashed zeolite. Unlike silica sand, raw zeolite media from the bag is INCREDIBLY DIRTY. And it’s a kind of very fine particulate dirt, like silt, that remains suspended in water for a long time. If your chemistry numbers look fine, then you have a filtration issue and all you can do is wait it out. Please don’t use flocs or clarifiers. When used improperly, they can wreck the filter media and cause an even bigger mess.
 
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It’s a very common problem with zeolite sand media. It’s incredibly dirty because it’s a mined substance that is run through mechanical crushers and sieves. I’ve heard of pool owners that use zeolite sand will open the bags and individually wash each bag of zeo media in a wheelbarrow to remove the dust and silt. Then they go thorough many cycles of wash and rinse until the waste water is really clear. It’s a very difficult media to start up. Whether or not one gets the purported clarity from using it has never been well established on TFP but the few that use zeolite are zeo-fanatics … I don’t think there’s any downside to using it aside from the hit to one’s wallet considering how much it costs relative to regular silica sand.
 

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JoyfulNoise said:
It’s just a form of zeolite media used as a replacement for traditional silica sand. It weighs less but costs A LOT more. Honestly, I’ll never understand these pool companies that keep trying to push “new and improved” which almost always “new and no better than the old stuff”. Anyway, you can look at the manufacturers troubleshooting webpage to see if anything helps -


My guess is that what you are seeing is the turbidity that comes from unwashed zeolite. Unlike silica sand, raw zeolite media from the bag is INCREDIBLY DIRTY. And it’s a kind of very fine particulate dirt, like silt, that remains suspended in water for a long time. If your chemistry numbers look fine, then you have a filtration issue and all you can do is wait it out. Please don’t use flocs or clarifiers. When used improperly, they can wreck the filter media and cause an even bigger mess.
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Thats helpful information. I don't use floc or clarifiers.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
It’s a very common problem with zeolite sand media. It’s incredibly dirty because it’s a mined substance that is run through mechanical crushers and sieves. I’ve heard of pool owners that use zeolite sand will open the bags and individually wash each bag of zeo media in a wheelbarrow to remove the dust and silt. Then they go thorough many cycles of wash and rinse until the waste water is really clear. It’s a very difficult media to start up. Whether or not one gets the purported clarity from using it has never been well established on TFP but the few that use zeolite are zeo-fanatics … I don’t think there’s any downside to using it aside from the hit to one’s wallet considering how much it costs relative to regular silica sand.
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Yes, I agree from the Zeo-fanatics they say it's the best when using sand filter operation as opposed to filter type. The bright side of the pool still being young is this change didn't require any money out of my pocket.
 
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