Pool filter started while waiting for flocculant to settle

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bigspur

New member
May 22, 2022
2
Virginia
Good afternoon everyone. I added flicculant to my pool and was waiting for it to settle. Well, my wife decided to be an early riser and helper bee this morning and started the pump with the sand filter in "filter" mode. It ran for about two hours before I caught it and turned everything off. Now I have floating white clumps of debris on the surface and the water is still pretty cloudy.
Do you all have any suggestions on what I should do to remedy this issue, more floc, run filter cleaner through the sand filter, replace sand?
 
Well at least you have a sand filter so that will a bit easier to work with.

For now turn off the pump and do whatever you need to do to keep it from coming back on.
-Use a net to see if you can scoop any of the stuff on the top of the water up and out.
-Do a deep clean of your sand filter to see if the floc gunked it up. If it did you might have to replace the sand.
-Let the water sit overnight and see what happens.

I am going to guess you used the floc because your water was cloudy. I will tell you that if that was the case I bet you are on the verge of an algae bloom. Floc will not fix that. We have a process called a SLAM as seen here: SLAM Process to get rid of algae. You will need a good test kit and liquid chlorine to do a SLAM. Here are the test kits we use: Test Kits Compared Your local pool store my carry liquid chlorine. Walmart also carries it in a white jug in the pool supply area.

I know the pool store will test your water for "free" BUT is it really free if you walk out with your arms full and wallet empty? Here at TFP we help people learn how to take care of their pools using stuff from Target, Walmart, lowe, etc. How neat it is that?? It is the same stuff as what the pool store sells but cheaper!

Kim:kim:
 
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Welcome to TFP!

Sometimes the best of intentions can lead to unintended frustration, can’t they? I’ll be honest, I’ve not seen any cases of the “I accidentally ran floc through my sand filter” journey end in anything other than a total changeout of sand. Filter cleaner, deep clean, etc. usually just end up being a waste of time in these instances, delaying the inevitable. You can try a deep clean first to see how much gunk is in there. Over the course of two hours, it’s possible you’re lucky that it didn’t gum up bad at all.

The good news is that, while a bit of a pain, changing sand only perhaps ranks in the middle of the list of hassles you may encounter as a pool owner. The best part is, if you adopt and follow the TFP method, you may never have to do it again!

You’ll find that as part of this method, one of our non-recommended pool chemicals is in fact flocculant.



When you get a chance, post your most recent test results here for us.

FC
CC
PH
CYA
TA
CH
SALT (if applicable)
 
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bigspur said:
Good afternoon everyone. I added flicculant to my pool and was waiting for it to settle. Well, my wife decided to be an early riser and helper bee this morning and started the pump with the sand filter in "filter" mode. It ran for about two hours before I caught it and turned everything off. Now I have floating white clumps of debris on the surface and the water is still pretty cloudy.
Do you all have any suggestions on what I should do to remedy this issue, more floc, run filter cleaner through the sand filter, replace sand?
Click to expand...
Thanks everyone for the great feedback. I am going to wait until the morning, vacuum what's in there to waste and then change the sand. I was actually thinking about doing that anyway. This just solidifies that decision. Please let me know if I am overlooking anything. The original problem was extreme cloudiness after shocking and applying algaecide to treat algae. Thanks again
 
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