Muddy Water

May 9, 2016
47
The city, florida
Pool Size
12800
Surface
Fiberglass
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Starting up my 11k IG fiberglass pool and am dealing with some pretty muddy water. During the backfilling some dirt was dumped into the pool which has led to muddy water. I’ve been running the filter 24/7 except for last night when I turned it off hoping that some of the dirt would settle. I vacuumed to waste this morning and got quite a bit of it off the swim outs and bottom but I can see more than a few inches into the water. I’ve backwashed several times and have been shocking with liquid chlorine, but it’s still pretty dirty. I’m probably just being impatient but the kids are eager to get in! For what it’s worth, I have a single-speed pump and sand filter. Additionally, I’m filling with well water as the level lowers due to backwashing/vacuuming to waste.9CA16DC2-C7B6-4F69-BF75-127A05B6C670.jpeg
 
Do you have some water chemistry test results? That looks more like cloudy green (iron and / or algae) than mud.
 
Be grateful you have a sand filter because a DE filter would clog so often and so badly that it would be faster to drain it all and shovel out the mud. Even waiting for the well to recover!

I'd keep doing what you're doing. The alternative is to leave the vacuum connected and on its side down in the depths and try to filter it out.
 
TC is > 3ppm (temporary test kit only reads to 3, waiting on delivery of Taylor kit),
Great. Once you get the kit, post up the results. Add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine into the pool each day with pump running until you get your kit.
 
While waiting for my test kit, I decided to put in a cotton shirt in the skimmer and within an hour it was completely brown. I’m assuming this means I added a lot of iron to the pool from my well. As I understand, the SLAM level will help the iron “separate” from the water where it can be vacuumed to waste, but I’m adding iron back in every time I top off the water. What now?
 

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Do not use a sequestrant if you want to filter out the iron.

Once you have filtered out a bunch, you might consider a sequestrant for maintenance, but remember it is an item you have to add regularly.
 
Thank you, I’m just getting a little frustrated with the lack of progress. This makes day three with the pump running 24/7 with little to no progress. In the last 24 hours I’ve added over 7 gallons of 10.5% LC. I can still only see the first step. I’m hoping my test kit will be here any day, but I’ve resorted to using my local hardware store for testing in the interim. According to their test this morning, my FC was .1 so I’m guessing it’s being consumed really fast. This is the second pool I’ve owned and have never run into this issue before. Now that I have the poly-fill in the skimmer should I turn off the main drains and only use the skimmer?
 
Most of your flow should be through the skimmer.

It takes time. Can you fill our your signature? Knowine the type of pool, volume, equipment, etc helps us help you.
 
How often are you having to backwash your sand filter? Be sure you are waiting for the pressure to rise by 25% over clean pressure.
 
So you are gaining 25% over clean pressure a couple times per day? That is pretty dirty --------
 

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