Polyfill in skimmer - how do you get it out without losing all that captured iron?

[BroncoBobblehead]

I've had good success using polyfill in the skimmer to grab some iron in my pool water (I'll spare you the saga). However, getting it out of the skimmer, I feel like I'm losing half of what's been captured in the poly when I pull it out. Anyone have any clever tricks to help with that? I've read up on various hacks with barrels, buckets, pumps, etc - so I'm not looking for that kind of solution, I'm just asking the practical question of just getting the poly out of the skimmer with minimal loss of the rust captured in there.

thanks in advance!

 

[Texas Splash]

Maybe try placing the poly in a skimmer sock? This way you could grab the entire sock and hopefully remove the poly intact?

 

[cledee]

This might sound silly, but have you tried turning off the pump and then pulling out the skimmer basket? When it's on and your trying to pull that out with the suction you may lose a some of it.

 

[BroncoBobblehead]

Maybe try placing the poly in a skimmer sock? This way you could grab the entire sock and hopefully remove the poly intact?

That may end up being the "best possible" scenario for it. I suppose I could even put it in a mesh bag or something but I fear even a skimmer sock is going to allow a lot to fall out in the skimmer water. My guess is that it might not be a whole lot better than just pulling up the basket with the poly in it. Another thought I had was turning off the pump for a bit and pulling it then vacuuming the skimmer water out with a shop vac perhaps.

 

[BroncoBobblehead]

This might sound silly, but have you tried turning off the pump and then pulling out the skimmer basket? When it's on and your trying to pull that out with the suction you may lose a some of it.

Thanks for the suggestion - and yeah, did try that. It does mitigate it some but still seems to leave a lot a brown water sitting in the skimmer (though probably at least some less than if the pump was on!)

 

[Texas Splash]

Of course there's always the other method of making a separate poly container.

 

[Mdragger88]

I wouldn’t sweat it too terribly much - you will catch it again when u replace the polyfill.

 

[Toxophilite]

Maybe with pump off and weir door up, have shop vac handy and right behind lifting out the poly, clear the skimmer bucket with the vac.

 

[Mdragger88]

Maybe with pump off and weir door up, have shop vac handy and right behind lifting out the poly, clear the skimmer bucket with the vac.

Any water removed will need to eventually be replaced (possibly with more iron laden water) so it’s kind of a moot move. Just continue to filter what’s there.

 

[Toxophilite]

Any water removed will need to eventually be replaced (possibly with more iron laden water) so it’s kind of a moot move. Just continue to filter what’s there.

It won't ratio out that way. You will lose at best a couple of gallons that the vac holds. Your poly filtered thousands of gallons.

 

[BroncoBobblehead]

Any water removed will need to eventually be replaced (possibly with more iron laden water) so it’s kind of a moot move. Just continue to filter what’s there.

agreed in concept but from now on I'm only going to put in softened RO water so I don't have to relive this nightmare again

 

[deanr]

I've just had amazing success removing iron with polyfill in the skimmer basket. I've been struggling with iron for quite a while, and finally decided to do an AA treatment and then intentionally oxidize the iron again and try to filter. I let the pH get up to about 7.3 post AA, FC up to ~8ppm and the water turned green (earlier than expected). Stuffed the basket with polyfill, and let it go for the remainder of the day and overnight. Next day, the water was noticeably less green and the polyfill was loaded with iron.

I just turned off the pump, lifted the polyfill out as quickly as possible even though I lost some into the skimmer. I then turned the pump back on low speed to pull the loose iron into the cartridge filter. The water i squeezed out of the polyfill was completely black. I dumped that, and hosed out the polyfill few times; it was several flushes before the water started clearing up. It was amazing how much iron was loaded into that material.

I then put the polyfill back into the skimmer and let it filter for another day. By the end of the second day, the water was completely clear blue again. There was a little bit of staining on the floor, but almost non-existent compared to what I started with. I couldn't have been happier (first time I've said that with respect to iron in all the time I've had this pool).

The cartridge filter was also loaded with iron; I also had great success cleaning iron out of that with AA. Just dump a couple tablespoons in a 5 gallon bucket of water, and then soak the iron laden cartridge filter in it. Comes out snow white and good as new - that AA is amazing stuff...

My suggestion for anyone struggling with high iron - give filtering with polyfill a try. Go ahead and push up the chlorine level after an AA treatment and be ready to start filtering as soon as the water color turns. You'll probably get some staining again depending on how much you started with, but you'll remove an incredible amount of iron in the process.