Helping a friend: This should be a good one

Jump to latest Follow Reply
It sure seems like you should be seeing much better results by now. Has the filter been opened up to check the condition of the sand?
If not consider a deep cleaning while its open. If that doesn't seem to help then consider replacing the sand.
 
We took the pump apart on day one and inspected it. Everything looked good to me. Just to be sure, the sand was up to the top part we took off to get to it.

Sanity check, red line indicates sand level

nHhEmvj.png
 
Ok, so we had an accidental but interesting experiment. Apparently i didn't back wash out all the DE at lunch. There couldn't have been much, maybe 1-2 oz. When she got home in the evening, the pressure was 20-21 PSI (post BW pressure is 13). Backwash was very very milky white, much more stuff than could have been the leftover DE. So my thought was the small amount of DE collected a lot of "stuff" in the pool in 6 hours. We will continue with small amounts of DE when we can monitor every 4-5 hours and go from there.
 
I haven't posted to the forum before, but I'm going to hop in here just to give you a heads up, in case you are making the same mistake that I was making in trying to clean up my own swamp, because our experience looks similar. I did 2 weeks of SLAM, really careful to follow all the rules, etc and getting very, very little progress......except, it turns out that my pool was much larger than I knew! I thought I had an 18' round, it turned out I had a 24' round (I never measured it because my husband said 18, I later found out he said that because it "looked like" his childhood pool). Well, that's almost 2x the gallons of water (7600 vs 13,500)! So the little bit of CYA I had put in (to a pool that is all day in the sun) wasn't nearly enough, nor was the 32 gallons of 12% chlorine (not that it would have mattered much with essentially no CYA in the pool). UGH!! Once I realized and redid my calculations, I started making (and am currently still in the process of) real progress.

So, all of this is by way of saying....check your pool size!! Pouring chemicals into a totally wrong size pool is unbelievably frustrating!
 
Tammy S said:
...

So, all of this is by way of saying....check your pool size!! Pouring chemicals into a totally wrong size pool is unbelievably frustrating!
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure we've got the right pool size because Pool Math is pretty spot on.

Day 26 (11 days of filtering)

There is improvement. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the green hose is visible almost 1/2 way down the shallow end. Also the skimmer is clearer.
I added maybe 50 mL of DE at lunch, will check psi around 4p and adjust as needed.

Pz07Fnk.jpg


Here is 4 weeks. I think this shows that constantly filtering with SOME DE is the only thing that is going to clear us up.

FU35vyG.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mr Bruce said:
We took the pump apart on day one and inspected it. Everything looked good to me. Just to be sure, the sand was up to the top part we took off to get to it.

Sanity check, red line indicates sand level

nHhEmvj.png
Click to expand...

I thought the sand went closer to the top of the "egg" rather than the middle, but smarter people here will confirm that. I know the filter label shoudl tell you how many pounds to add. But it will not say if that shoudl fill to teh middle, the top, or somewhere in between.
 
11 days of filtering. wow.

I just did a slam a few weeks back and every time I brushed my pool got as clouded as the one in the photos.

My sand filter (glass media, new about 2 years ago) can clear it up completely to crystal clear tfp standards
in 3 days if I run it 24/7

I guess having to monitor it and not being able to run 24/7 must be whats really taking it so long.
 
It is running 24/7.

11am added 1/4 cup DE.

330pm no PSI increase. BW and add heaping 1/2 cup DE

5:45 PSI at 21, 50% increase from post BW pressure. BW + 1/4 cup for the evening.

New working DE amount starting tomorrow AM: 1/3 cup with checking every 2 hours.

I have read lots and lots of SLAM threads. I have never seen this floating sediment issue.
 
Last edited:

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
It seems like there has to be some kind of filtering problem going on. If the sand filter is
working as it should I don't believe the DE is really necessary, I mean it helps ya but
this pool should have cleared up within a week of running the filter 24/7.
 
Apparently the dreadful previous house owners refilled the filter with playground sand. I cannot emphasize the cursing and gnashing of teeth this has caused. Updates to follow.
 
OH, Adult word, NO! THAT will explain so much! Will also look REAL close at the parts of the filter like the pipe and laterals.

I am going to have to ask.................how could you tell it was play sand instead of pool sand???? I have not really thought about how the two are different so it is an honest question.

Kim HUGS and more adult drinks!
 
I only have circumstantial evidence, namely a half empty bag of sandbox sand in the tool shed. There is no sandbox at this house.

Day 30? (<1 day of filtering with normal (#@$!ing) pool filter sand).

Immediate improvement. The 2nd step is much better defined than previous picture. FC holds, CC is <1.

PFqHF8D.png

7/6 -> 7/2
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply