Oh boy.....

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cj133

Well-known member
May 6, 2018
704
NJ
So

I've neglected my pool for a while due to some things going on.

But I kept my FC at a reasonable amount.

Typical:
CYA 40
Ph : 7.6
FC : 4

I ignored it besides keeping my chemicals right. It needed a vacuuming bad for over a month. I finally got around to it today and most of it was a brownish green.. after vacuum and even during the water became very cloudy. I'm 90% sure the vacuum sucked most of it up but I guess the sand filter didn't capture it. I back washed twice during this.

Most of it vacuumed up very easily aside from a few spots that needed some scrubbing with the vacuum.

At this point I'm assuming I've got an issue so I raised my fc to roughly 16ppm

What can I do at this point? Just wait?
 
Oh I forgot to mention.
I run my two speed pump on low 24/7. 1.5hp Hayward with a 250lb sand filter.

I emptied the skimmer every day and kept my FC around 4 but I guess that wasn't enough on my part.
 
I think this is where a sand filter kind of bad. If you have a lot of fine debris it may be going through the sand filter. If you are not getting an overnight chlorine loss then I would suggest maybe add DE to the filter to get it to filter finer particles. I now have a sand filter vs the DE I had before, I can tell you that it cleared my pool of debris quickly. I'm new to the sand filter and am hoping that if I need to really clear the water quickly throwing DE into it will work out.

Here's the instructions on using DE in a sand filter. Add DE to a Sand Filter
 
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VinnyinNJ said:
I think this is where a sand filter kind of bad. If you have a lot of fine debris it may be going through the sand filter. If you are not getting an overnight chlorine loss then I would suggest maybe add DE to the filter to get it to filter finer particles. I now have a sand filter vs the DE I had before, I can tell you that it cleared my pool of debris quickly. I'm new to the sand filter and am hoping that if I need to really clear the water quickly throwing DE into it will work out.

Here's the instructions on using DE in a sand filter. Add DE to a Sand Filter
Click to expand...
Would a slime bag help?
I suppose my concerns which may very well be moot are blowing the DE into the yard where the kids and dog play.
 
I never used a slime bag so I can't answer the question. There are people here that use filter socks, I think they go into the skimmer basket but I have never used them either although I would be interested in learning more about them.

As for DE, the amount you would use is a lot less than in a standard DE filter. My township may be going toward treating it as hazardous waste which is one reason on why I went to sand with the other being Hayward uses fingers and I like grids. These 2 reasons are why I went sand. We are all different when it comes to safety, my take on DE is it is not that big of a deal but that is just my opinion. Our sons and our dogs played in the backyard and it wasn't all over the place. I would say that if you came to my yard and looked you may not find any traces of it even after me using it for 20 years. No big piles, if anything maybe you'll see a slight white residue if I pointed the area to you and you looked hard though I doubt it. Based on what the current opinion is of DE I can see why someone may not want to use it, I did not want to deal with what my township considers "hazardous waste" after using it for 20 years. Will I put a little into the sand filter, yes if need be.
 
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cj133 said:
Would a slime bag help?
I suppose my concerns which may very well be moot are blowing the DE into the yard where the kids and dog play.
Click to expand...
It’s about a cup of DE per use - really not anything to worry about. The main risk is breathing in the powder while u are adding it- not after it is wet as it’s no longer airborne. If u are concerned with it still you can use filter fiber instead.
 
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Something I neglected to say above, my "DE" that I used was Aqua Perl which is a DE substitute. It is perlite which is different than the ditoms used in actual DE. It worked just as well and I believe I used it for about 16 years.
 
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I'm going to pull the head off the filter before I do anything.

I bought 25 pounds of DE but started reading it could cause clumping etc. *Could*.

So then I started reading what else could cause issues and I'm concerned I may have clumping and or channeling so before I do something that could make things worse and even make me blame the DE I'm going to dig a little deeper.

In the past 40 years I've never seen a sand filter work this bad so either there's a ton of super fine stuff in the pool or the filter needs help.
 

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ccbill said:
Did You pass the OCLT?
Click to expand...
Yeah no issues.

However ....

Hayward sand filter laterals issue

I'm completely baffled right now. I pulled my filter apart because it's been working pretty terrible and I found the laterals had worked their way up into the multiport quite a bit and I guess kinked the top of the pipe? Either that or it kinked from me twisting it trying to get it out. It...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
So I put the filter back together today. I had some issues with the o ring for the top of the tank seeping but I think I got it finally.

Right now...... Not impressed.
My next filter will likely be either home made or a Pentair.

The Pentair Triton 2 looks pretty good.
 
Cough cough cough * go cartridge * cough cough.


Ahem. Excuse me. Scratchy throat today.
 
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