Sand question

[bbodb1]

Hello all,

I have not been around much for quite a while - which is wonderful because I have not experienced any pool problems (mostly thanks to the efforts of y'all around here)! (However, I have recommended this website to several folks in the area so I hope the user count has increased a bit...)

Of course, there is one issue that has cropped up last season and continued into this season. For some reason, my return water into the pool seems to be returning some fine particles back into the pool - at least I think the filter is the source of this stuff. It could also be the fact that our two labs swim in the pool and bring in dirt and debris from the yard but I am tending NOT to think this is the main source of the problem since most of the fine matter seems to be starting / collecting on the pool floor around the return jets mostly. I do see a some more of this same stuff collecting along liner seams on the bottom of the pool. It is NOT sandy though because when I move my foot through a patch of this stuff, I do NOT feel any coarse material on the pool floor. Also, as the stuff rises up from the bottom of the pool (again due to my foot stirring things up), the stuff sort of disappears (dilutes?) in the water to a point where it is hard to see. After some time passes (maybe a couple of hours), it seems to resettle to the bottom and recollect.

In reading through the forums here, I am thinking back to the last time I changed the sand (probably 5-6 years ago) and I understand the thinking here is there is no reason to change sand (as it doesn't wear out) UNLESS there was some reason to suspect the quality of the sand we used for the last change was suspect. I cannot recall for certain what brand of sand we used but it MAY have been the Quikrete sand (one I have read is to be avoided). With this in mind, I will be changing the sand here in a couple of weeks (when it hopefully gets a bit cooler).

With this in mind, can someone please verify the sand I see from my local pool supply (Leslie's) is a solid choice to use in a 20K gallon pool that runs year round (with a vinyl liner)?

Thanks!

 

[ajw22]

What you describe sounds more like dead algae from normal sanitation that a pool cleaner should pickup.

See Sand Filter Use and Care - Further Reading for a discussion on pool sand.

 

[bbodb1]

What you describe sounds more like dead algae from normal sanitation that a pool cleaner should pickup.

See Sand Filter Use and Care - Further Reading for a discussion on pool sand.

Thanks for the reply @ajw22 - I should have mentioned our method of pool cleaning is currently the vacuum brush and hose attachment to the return water (via the skimmer).

We used to have a Dolphin but when the electronics on the Dolphin stopped working, we just reverted to the old fashioned method described above. I can see what you mean though as the diaper (the bag) in the Dolphin would likely have trapped this stuff (and we would have washed it out/off the bag - and out of the pool - when we rinsed the Dolphin diaper)....

When the Dolphin died, I gave up on using any other sort of vacuum devices in this pool. Our pool is a lagoon type pool - imagine three circles pushed together just a bit. The bottom of this pool was always a challenge for any pool cleaner to effectively clean given the slants and curves on the bottom of the pool. We had a Kreepy prior to the Dolphin and it would not cover certain areas of the pool (mainly the area where the slants and curves are....)