Hi guys, I love this forum. I've been a pool owner for about 5 years and have used the advice on here to solve all of my problems, and saved a lot of money along the way. I finally ran into a problem that thorough searching hasn't helped me with.
I had a rough start-up this season. We were doing some patio work, so I left the cover off over-winter. After scooping out all the leaves and shocking clear, I had a lot of iron staining on the vinyl. We'd been accumulating iron over the years, but we've been generally ignoring it. This was the worst I've seen it. We're in the process of selling our house, so I decided to sequester so that the vinyl wouldn't look stained. First, I disassembled the filter and thoroughly cleaned the fingers after filtering out all that mess from start-up. Then, I added 2qts Metal Magic and did a hefty AA treatment to rapidly lift the stain. The vitamin C did its magic and eventually the water turned cloudy white as expected with the Metal Magic. I didn't use algaecide, but rather started the treatment around 2.0ppm FC and kept it in the neighborhood of 0.5ppm for a few days before bringing it back up.
The problem is that 2 weeks later the water is still a little cloudy. You can easily see the bottom, but the water isn't anywhere close to crystal clear. Although I know this could be algae, it really doesn't seem to be. FC holding really well. The vinyl is spotless. I noticed that after bumping the filter (Perflex EC65) the discharge from the return looks a little cloudy for maybe 15-20 seconds and then clears up, and I now I think the filter might be leaking DE. Remember, I disassembled and reassembled it right before starting the sequestrant process. I took the filter apart again and inspected everything and nothing really stood out. No obvious tears in the fingers. The diaphragm looks maybe a little worn, but the surfaces that create the seal all look intact.
I was hoping you guys might have some advice on how to proceed. Although it could just be algae, I don't really want to try shocking it on a whim because of the sequestrant. On the other hand, I really can't tell whether there is, in fact, a DE leak. The cloudiness in the return when turning the pump on is accompanied by air bubbles from the bumping (there seems to be a small pressure-side leak somewhere that drags in a bunch of air when I bump), so it really might just be air that I'm seeing. It does seem to clear up after a few seconds. On the other hand, the water is really just a little cloudy, so it could just be a minor DE leak. A couple years ago I cracked the filter plate while bumping, which dumped a bunch of DE back into the pool and that was really obvious. This isn't like that. I did hold a clear plastic vessel down by the return right after turning the pump on to catch some of the water coming out and brought it up and it's quite cloudy. I have it sitting here on my desk to see whether it's just miniscule air bubbles in there and going to clear, but so far doesn't look any different.
If it is the filter leaking, what should I try next? Replace the diaphragm and O-rings? I suppose it could be any of the fingers, but short of replacing them all I'm not sure how I would figure that out. Since we're in the process of selling the house we've got constant showings, so whatever I'm doing, I'm doing in between those. So far nobody has noticed the problems with the water (like I said, it's not very obvious). I'm of a mind to just replace the whole filter to get it taken care of as quickly as possible, but if I shelled out $500+ to do that and still had cloudy water I might die of shame : )
Just in case it winds up being relevant, here were the numbers a few days ago (just checked FC since then and seeing normal loss):
FC - 6.0
pH - 7.2
CYA - 40-50
TA - 50
CH - 25
For fun, we used to keep some salt in the pool (1200ppm or so), but haven't added any in years or checked the level so it's probably half that or less.
Thanks for any help!
I had a rough start-up this season. We were doing some patio work, so I left the cover off over-winter. After scooping out all the leaves and shocking clear, I had a lot of iron staining on the vinyl. We'd been accumulating iron over the years, but we've been generally ignoring it. This was the worst I've seen it. We're in the process of selling our house, so I decided to sequester so that the vinyl wouldn't look stained. First, I disassembled the filter and thoroughly cleaned the fingers after filtering out all that mess from start-up. Then, I added 2qts Metal Magic and did a hefty AA treatment to rapidly lift the stain. The vitamin C did its magic and eventually the water turned cloudy white as expected with the Metal Magic. I didn't use algaecide, but rather started the treatment around 2.0ppm FC and kept it in the neighborhood of 0.5ppm for a few days before bringing it back up.
The problem is that 2 weeks later the water is still a little cloudy. You can easily see the bottom, but the water isn't anywhere close to crystal clear. Although I know this could be algae, it really doesn't seem to be. FC holding really well. The vinyl is spotless. I noticed that after bumping the filter (Perflex EC65) the discharge from the return looks a little cloudy for maybe 15-20 seconds and then clears up, and I now I think the filter might be leaking DE. Remember, I disassembled and reassembled it right before starting the sequestrant process. I took the filter apart again and inspected everything and nothing really stood out. No obvious tears in the fingers. The diaphragm looks maybe a little worn, but the surfaces that create the seal all look intact.
I was hoping you guys might have some advice on how to proceed. Although it could just be algae, I don't really want to try shocking it on a whim because of the sequestrant. On the other hand, I really can't tell whether there is, in fact, a DE leak. The cloudiness in the return when turning the pump on is accompanied by air bubbles from the bumping (there seems to be a small pressure-side leak somewhere that drags in a bunch of air when I bump), so it really might just be air that I'm seeing. It does seem to clear up after a few seconds. On the other hand, the water is really just a little cloudy, so it could just be a minor DE leak. A couple years ago I cracked the filter plate while bumping, which dumped a bunch of DE back into the pool and that was really obvious. This isn't like that. I did hold a clear plastic vessel down by the return right after turning the pump on to catch some of the water coming out and brought it up and it's quite cloudy. I have it sitting here on my desk to see whether it's just miniscule air bubbles in there and going to clear, but so far doesn't look any different.
If it is the filter leaking, what should I try next? Replace the diaphragm and O-rings? I suppose it could be any of the fingers, but short of replacing them all I'm not sure how I would figure that out. Since we're in the process of selling the house we've got constant showings, so whatever I'm doing, I'm doing in between those. So far nobody has noticed the problems with the water (like I said, it's not very obvious). I'm of a mind to just replace the whole filter to get it taken care of as quickly as possible, but if I shelled out $500+ to do that and still had cloudy water I might die of shame : )
Just in case it winds up being relevant, here were the numbers a few days ago (just checked FC since then and seeing normal loss):
FC - 6.0
pH - 7.2
CYA - 40-50
TA - 50
CH - 25
For fun, we used to keep some salt in the pool (1200ppm or so), but haven't added any in years or checked the level so it's probably half that or less.
Thanks for any help!
