Slightly Cloudly water - Chemicals in balance - Floc or clarifier?

[Gopherboy6956]

My new AGP has been up and running about 2 weeks now - I have all the chemicals in balance, with the exception of CYA - i'm slowy working myself up to that level as I dont want to over-do it. Anyways - pool just isn't super clear.
I have a Hayward sand filter (150lbs of sand) and 1.5hp pump that I run about 5-6 hours a day on the 7500ish gallons of water, so that should be ok. Backwashed pump a few days ago, pressure is sitting good there. There is some minor silt on the bottom that gathers over the week or so, which I vaccum clean.

Anyways - Thinking about trying some pool clarifier or floc - any recommendations there? Just thinking it might be the last 10% i'm looking for clarity wise.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank You!

 

[mknauss]

TFPC does not recommend the use of Floc, under nearly all situations. The use of clarifier, for one off conditions due to large organic infusions into the pool due to flooding or massive algae outbreaks killed via SLAM, a chitosan product (SeaKlear) is viable.

In your case, if the material is recurring, I would be concerned with an existing algae issue. Does the pool pass an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test? If so, first using DE in your sand filter would be a better option than clarifier.

 

[Donldson]

So a bunch of problems here, let's see if we can't get them straightened out.

First, you need to get your CYA up to an appropriate level. You're almost certainly getting dead spots with no chlorine due to the lack of CYA and lack of circulation. That silt you're finding on the bottom? Dead algae.

Next, why are you not running your filter continuously if you have a clarity issue? 6 hours a day will probably be just fine when you have clear water, but you don't yet. So for now you wanna turn it on and leave it on.

On the topic of clarifiers: you have brand new sand, don't go gunking it up with any of that pool store shortcut junk. Get your CYA up to level, perform the SLAM Process to completion, keep your filter running, and your water will clear up. You've got a beautiful new pool, don't start cutting corners on it. Not that it... um, has corners. Because it's round... Not sure if I was going anywhere with this, better stick with the SLAM and go from there.

 

[Gopherboy6956]

TFPC does not recommend the use of Floc, under nearly all situations. The use of clarifier, for one off conditions due to large organic infusions into the pool due to flooding or massive algae outbreaks killed via SLAM, a chitosan product (SeaKlear) is viable.

In your case, if the material is recurring, I would be concerned with an existing algae issue. Does the pool pass an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test? If so, first using DE in your sand filter would be a better option than clarifier.

Thanks for the heads up - I have not done an overnight test yet- I will do that.

So a bunch of problems here, let's see if we can't get them straightened out.

First, you need to get your CYA up to an appropriate level. You're almost certainly getting dead spots with no chlorine due to the lack of CYA and lack of circulation. That silt you're finding on the bottom? Dead algae.

Next, why are you not running your filter continuously if you have a clarity issue? 6 hours a day will probably be just fine when you have clear water, but you don't yet. So for now you wanna turn it on and leave it on.

On the topic of clarifiers: you have brand new sand, don't go gunking it up with any of that pool store shortcut junk. Get your CYA up to level, perform the SLAM Process to completion, keep your filter running, and your water will clear up. You've got a beautiful new pool, don't start cutting corners on it. Not that it... um, has corners. Because it's round... Not sure if I was going anywhere with this, better stick with the SLAM and go from there.

Hey - thanks for the reply. I guess I wasn't running my filter 24/7 as I figured turning the water over twice was all the filtering it needed - but I can definitely do that.
This filter is brand new - I did a short backwash the other day out of curiousity, and it took maybe 20-30 seconds to spit out clear water - the pressure wasn't up much at all from baseline. I'll test cya again tonight and add some more if needed - Last year in my other AGP (intex 18' w/sand filter) I kept things between 30-40ppm for CYA should I stop at 20 or go higher? Thanks!

 

[User777]

I have a much larger in-ground pool with a variable speed pump running continuously (at low power) with a DE filter, so my situation is slightly different. My pool will get cloudy when the DE gets dirty, I neglect to keep the chlorine levels up, and often after a major rainstorm that washes everything on my concrete into the pool.

The SLAM method works every time and you don't need floc, clarifier, or any other magical potion the pool store will sell you. Keep your chlorine levels up, brush your pool (and be sure to clean behind pool lights, in skimmers, and other hard-to-reach places where algae or mold grows), and make sure you keep your filter running long enough. 6 hours/day may not be enough, especially if you don't have swimmers to circulate the water, as algae and mold love stagnant water.

One other tip I have seen for sand filters is to toss some DE in there, which will filter smaller particles than sand alone. DE can be a royal pain because the finer filtration requires the media to be cleaned more often than sand, but it really does work.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Go at *least* 30ppm for CYA and if you're in a particularly hot sunny spot maybe up another 10ppm. You don't want too little or you lose too much FC to the sun.....and you don't want too much or you're just having to use a bit more FC than you might want.

Maddie

 

[Gopherboy6956]

So - follow up. I went slam and kept it at 10-11ppm for 3 days. Lots of silt on the bottom of the pool, but it got very clear. Passed an overnight CL test - 8pm 11ppm to 10am still at 11ppm. I took the cover off for the day (still only 20cya) and filled the pool right up to the top. Last night I vac'd to waste, got all that silt out of there without sending it back through the filter - and it's still clear and looks good. CL dropped to about 7.5 over the day without the cover, so I still need more CYA - but i'm installing another intake and return port tonight so I drained it a few more inches lower than the skimmer for now - so that will go in once I get the water level back up.

Thanks for the help!