Newbie needs advice

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No real noticeable change tonight. FC was at 24. I bumped the FC up and vacuumed what I could. It's tough doing it blind!

Now, I think I may have DE in the pool. The white haze on the bottom has me thinking so. There was also white residue where my waste pipe discharges onto my driveway. I'm thinking I added too much de both times I changed it. I followed the instructions on the filter but it doesn't give an amount to add when changing media. It only says the filter capacity is 7 lbs so that's what I've been adding. Based on my reading tonight I should've probably been doing about 5.5! I've nern reading on here and it seems I'm probably due for afull tear down and cleaning. My filter does not have a clamp style band for disassembly but several bolts around the collar. I found the owners manusl online and it says nothing about taking it apart for cleaning.

Why no visible improvement?
thoughts on cleaning the filter?
thoughts on removing de from pool or don't worry about it for now?

im learning a lot fast...sometimes the hard way!

ill post updated water pic in morning.
 
Why no visible improvement?
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Ahhh, patience. Remember just a couple days ago the water was black. Then that dark green. A pool that heavy in algae will take several days to transform, and may even take a week or two to completely pass the SLAM. Try to be as consistent as you can and the bleach will do its job.

thoughts on cleaning the filter?
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At some point you will need to dive-in there and clean/inspect well. If any of the grids are damaged, you'll have to replace them of course. Now might be a good time to have a couple sourced lined-up for replacements just in case. Here are a couple pages that may help you:
Use and care for DE filters
DE Filter Cleaning Tutorial

thoughts on removing de from pool or don't worry about it for now?
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I wouldn't worry about it for now. Once the water begins to clean enough for you to confirm the bottom is clear of debris, and you've inspected and/or repaired any grids inside, then you can get focused on those kinds of things.

In the big picture, try to remember that the pool sat abandoned for a very long time. Algae isn't just "in" the water, it's attached to every square inch of that pool and equipment - hence the scrubbing, etc. A lot of biofilm needs to be broken-up and disturbed as the bleach breaks everything down. We see hundreds of pools each season that turned black or green just in one winter (few months) that can take a week or two to finally become pristine again. But your science experiment will eventually transition. One day you'll wake-up and see the water make a big change to let you know you're on the right track. Just continue to watch the FC and maintain it as best as you can. After a few days, you might want to re-check the CYA as several backwashes and water replacements can cause it to lower a bit. Have a good day!
 
Thanks Texas. The water was black last Saturday...9 days ago. It's been green for a week. Point taken on having patience nonetheless. I only started the slam Sunday...2 days ago.

Thanks for the continued advice and assurance that this is going to work.

You gave a nice nice day as well.
 
I'm in Southern TN, and our pool turns dark green every winter. That being said, when I started the SLAM process this spring, it took 7 days of SLAMing before I had a clean pool. You have a TON of algae the bleach is trying to disinfect, the process works, just give it more time. As Texas said, one day (hopefully soon) you will wake up and notice the pool is a nice light blue.

Are you running your filter 24/7?

Lets see another up close picture when you can.
 
I am running the filter 24/7. I am probably due for another de media change as my pressure has been climbing.

I cant upload anymore pictures. I Met my quota.

if I give money in support, will my quota increase for this post or do I need to start a new one? I'm happy to support the page with all the great advice and support I've been getting.
 
if I give money in supporter, will my quota increase for this post or do I need to start a new one?
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If you become a TFP support, you're picture upload capabilities increase immediately upon processing your support status. You would continue with this thread. :)
 

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There you go! Pics uploaded nicely. :goodjob: Definitely a change happening in the water. In a heavy SLAM like yours, simply focus on the basics:
- Check CYA occasionally to ensure it didn't drop too much from backwashes
- Maintain that SLAM FC as best as possible
- Backwash as required when pressure increases by about 25%
- Scrub/sweep the pool surfaces as much as you can each day.
- Once the water gets clearer, look for any other areas that could harbor algae (i.e. behind lights in a niche, steps, ladders, etc). Many of things items require disassembly to really check.

Hang in there!

Oh, and of course .... THANK YOU for being a TFP supporter! :salut:
 
Tonight I rented a dolphin robotic and confirmed my suspicions of DE on the pool bottom. The dolphin ran for about 45 minutes and when I checked it, it was caked pretty good with DE. Unless dead algae would look similar to that?

My FC is staying above shock level with steady dosing of 10% liquid chlorine (about 1/4 - 1/3 bottle per day). I'm going to run the dolphin for the next couple days. This weekend I will tear down the filter for a thorough inspection room and cleaning. I'm sure the last owners never did so and I want to make sure I don't have a torn tube or something.

CYA is still around 60.
 
Grrrr. Took apart the filter and it was definitely in need of a cleaning. Everything else appeared fine...no obvious broken or torn tubes. I thoroughly sprayed off all the tubes and reassembled. I added new DE and it appeared as though it was coming out of the return jet. Tested it with a sock and sure enough there is DE being caught in the sock. Is that normal upon refilling the DE? I will check again in a while but I feel something isn't right

picture of filter before cleaning:
IMG_5142.jpg
 
demilio56 said:
Grrrr. Took apart the filter and it was definitely in need of a cleaning. Everything else appeared fine...no obvious broken or torn tubes. I thoroughly sprayed off all the tubes and reassembled. I added new DE and it appeared as though it was coming out of the return jet. Tested it with a sock and sure enough there is DE being caught in the sock. Is that normal upon refilling the DE? I will check again in a while but I feel something isn't right

picture of filter before cleaning:
View attachment 60435
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No, not normal, especially with your type of filter that doesn't use a backwash valve. Somewhere, one (or more) of those fingers has a tear. It doesn't have to be very big. Have you ever seen how much water your pump can move? It's like a firehose! The slightest gap will send a lot of DE out and it's so fine that a little goes a long way.
 
I had a DE leak a while back; my filter was very old, so I decdied to replace it. I'm thrilled I did because I went 2 sizes higher, and despite the ridiculous amount of daily trash in my pool (especially this spring), it is still fine after 6 months, and the old one needed cleaning every three. Also, the back pressure is far lower. When it is clean the gauge doesn't even come off the needle at my nominal filtering flow rate.

Back to DE being in the pool; you hit on the solution that worked for me, the way I eventually got it all out was with my Dolphin robot. It took a couple weeks, but I may have had a lot of DE in there.

Now back to your situation, I'd guess you can replenish this filter with new elements, and if you can find he bad one, I think they can be replaced singly for only a few dollars. In the mean time, if you can find the bad one, see if you can plug that one hole.
 
I've done some research and found that the prior owners must have taken the filter apart and not reassembled it correctly. Take a look at my photo. You will see that there are no screws holding the top and bottom tube plates together. I assume that also means there cannot be a proper seal between the two with the gasket. I will get screws tomorrow. and a gasket if the pool store has one. The existing gasket looks to be stretched out and doesn't look like it's going to fit between the plates properly.

The pool is still green. I'm still maintaining shock level.
 

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