What to do? Mud..

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Strawberryshortcake

Strawberryshortcake

Bronze Supporter
Apr 22, 2019
424
Hot Springs, Ar
Pool Size
25000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool Core-55
We’ve had historic rainfall this month. A few days ago, we had an extremely heavy rainfall after a full week of nonstop rain... which lead to the side of my yard flooding, and a LOT of mud washing into the pool.

I’ve had the filter going nonstop but it doesn’t look any better. I thought I would see some improvement by now.

DE in the sand filter? Flock? I know flock is frowned upon, but it’s just so muddy. :(

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Same thing happened to me last year. I have cartridge filters so I ran 24/7 and would clean the filters daily. It's a process and took months, and plenty of chlorine, to get the pool back to it's normal self. You might want to try to hook up the vacuum hose to suck out as much of the solids resting on the bottom as you can.
 
I would be running the robot non stop. At first you will probably have to take it out every 30 minutes to clean out the filters, but I bet it would help clear it out much faster.
 
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Jnet said:
Same here. I could only watch as a wall of muddy water cascaded into my pool. It took a week of non-stop filtering and vacuuming (and lots of swapping and cleaning filter cartridges) to get it clear.
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YEP. I just watched helplessly from my kitchen in detached horror. Lol

Katodude said:
I would be running the robot non stop. At first you will probably have to take it out every 30 minutes to clean out the filters, but I bet it would help clear it out much faster.
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I can see bottom today!!! *in the shallow end* The pump has been off less than 24 hours so I think that’s a good sign. Still very cloudy so I’m thinking of letting it settle until tomorrow.

Then to throw the vaccum in or use the manual one? I have some really fine filters I can put on it. And honestly it seems to have better suction then i’ve ever gotten out of my manual one. But, I can’t control where it paths.
 
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Still a mess...
I guess it's looking a little brighter. Not so pea green :hammer:

After 48hrs of settling I could see the shallow end, but honestly there wasn't a whole lot there. A few lines of dirt. I attempted using the manual vacuum, but honestly, it seemed to just push it back into the water. So, I decided to turn everything back on last night. I backwashed, changed the schedule to never turn off, added a mesh hair net to my skimmer basket and put the 'fine' pleated filters on my robot. I ran it twice last night, and it came out with orangey mud coating it and some leaves but not too many. I've been running it all day today as well, mainly to keep everything stirred up. There is less gunk on the filter each time, any really no more leaves coming out, just mud.

I also just dumped 9oz of cellulose fiber (DE alternative) into the skimmer. Hoping that makes a big difference. The mesh hair net was absolutely caked with mud this morning.
Also brought the pool to slam levels.
 

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Well...

I think I've decided I'm going to use floc on Wednesday. I'm waiting because we have the remnants of a tropical storm coming right over us Monday night and I don't know if it's going to flood like that again. If by Wednesday it looks significantly different I may change my mind.

I have been doing everything I can but the water is not clearing and my above picture is pretty much where it has stayed. Whatever got in there just seems way too fine. I've been running the pump constantly and adding cellulose fiber. Keeping my robot in there and brushing. Even turning everything off doesn't cause much to settle, a bit on the steps and it's really fine, orangy colored dust. Even the skimmer nets and my pleated robot filter aren't catching much of anything.
 
I think that is a wise move. Sometimes the dirt needs help from floc. I like the plan of waiting until the storm passes over you then going for it.

Follow the directions to the T on the bottle AND make sure to vacuum to WASTE! I would have the hose adding water while you are vacuuming to waste as you will lose a lot of water doing this.
 
kimkats said:
I think that is a wise move. Sometimes the dirt needs help from floc. I like the plan of waiting until the storm passes over you then going for it.

Follow the directions to the T on the bottle AND make sure to vacuum to WASTE! I would have the hose adding water while you are vacuuming to waste as you will lose a lot of water doing this.
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Yep! I already purchased the floc, and I also picked up a different vacuum to do this with. The one I had is very small, it has brushes on it, and it's REALLY hard to move around the pool for some reason - like maybe it starts getting stuck due to the suction? So the one I picked up is longer and it has wheels on it. I guess it's more the style "professionals" use. I don't feel like I need the brushing activity and this might keep things in place better and allow me to move smooth/slow without kicking everything up. I have already put a bunch of water in the pool and except a good bit from the rain, and will have the hose running when I vac - just waiting on the rain to pass now!

It's 100 degrees today. I really want to swimmmm. :hammer:
 
splashpad said:
How did this go? Nice to see you still around :D
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I chickened out and still haven't tried to floc it. I'm just so worried it won't work lol. It is slowly...slowly...slowly... clearing. I was able to see a leaf in the deep end yesterday, though it was very hard to see. The shallow end is pretty clear. I have been backwashing, adding water, and adding cellulose fiber constantly.
Floccing is still on the table... I'm thinking I'll give it 2 weeks...
We did swim yesterday. Everything is sanitary.. it's just clouded :(

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Ahhhh...
AHHHH...
:drown:
So I had to come back to this thread.
I waited a MONTH for my pool to clear itself, patiently...and it finally did, for about half a week. And then we have another hellashish rainfall, the entire city was flooding all over. I do not know what's up with the rain this year. It's got to be a record. I had to run outside in the middle of the lightning and set the pump to backwash in order to keep it from completely overflowing; it was about 1 inch from the rim. And then I had to run it on BACKWASH for 25 minutes straight, to just barely keep up with the amount of rainfall! Insane!!

Anyway... as you can guess, it had a river of mud go into it AGAIN.
So this time I am floccing. It's in, it's done, now we wait. :sick:

In addition, we just tore up the yard. My dad (thank goodness) borrowed equipment from work and we've scalped the yard downwards and away from the pool and put in a trench. It's hideous but hopefully PROBLEM SOLVED. Now I need grass and landscaping rocks... :laughblue:
 
I really think for mud and yard stuff floc is the best remedy. It is not algae that needs to be killed. It is *stuff* that need to go out! Make sure to turn the hose on to add water while you are vacuuming to waste. For any one reading this-in order to use floc you have to have the ability to send the water out of the pool with OUT going through the filter.
 
Rainwater washing INTO the pool is one of the most difficult issues we hear about. The problem area that drains into the pool HAS to be corrected or there is really no sense having a pool. Rainwater should NEVER drain into a pool and it's the installers fault to let that happen.

IF you decide to use floc (I would just wait), be sure to READ ALL of Kim's post above. If you don't follow what she says, it can make the problem worse.
 
duraleigh said:
Rainwater washing INTO the pool is one of the most difficult issues we hear about. The problem area that drains into the pool HAS to be corrected or there is really no sense having a pool. Rainwater should NEVER drain into a pool and it's the installers fault to let that happen.

IF you decide to use floc (I would just wait), be sure to READ ALL of Kim's post above. If you don't follow what she says, it can make the problem worse.
Click to expand...

We purchased the house a year ago, and the pool has probably been there already for 30+ years, based on what I saw with google maps. So I imagine over the years the ground has shifted because of things the owners did, nature, etc. It looks like they had planted two large bushes that had just grown like crazy over the years, the root systems pushed up ground, etc. Anyway - in my last post I mentioned we excavated. The entire problem side as been scalped downwards all running towards a trench that leads to the frontyard, and we pulled the large bushy trees up too. And just in addition to all of that... the rainfall this year has been historic levels, we've not seen flooding like this over the city in decades. I had no problems with normal rainfall last year and the pool.

Hopefully that problem is solved.

I did floc - because I waited all of June for it to clear itself the first time. It would have been August before it cleared again. I've barely been able to use my pool this year so - I decided to floc it.

kimkats said:
I really think for mud and yard stuff floc is the best remedy. It is not algae that needs to be killed. It is *stuff* that need to go out! Make sure to turn the hose on to add water while you are vacuuming to waste. For any one reading this-in order to use floc you have to have the ability to send the water out of the pool with OUT going through the filter.
Click to expand...

Thanks kimkats! I did superfill the pool up day before we put the floc in and I'll add the hose when I'm vaccuming. I also have a waste port so no issues there hopefully :)
It's been about 21 hours since we dumped the floc in. The deep end is still a little hazy, but obviously it's MUCH BETTER. I am not sure if I'll floc a second time or just let the filter handle the hazy once I vac all the gunk out. In the photos you can also see where we tore up the yard... hard to tell, but it's all falling away from the pool area now into a trench that starts at 12 inches and falls to about 18 towards the front. It's UGLY has heck but it's a WIP. :p

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Got to love the FAST progress!!! I would vacuum and let it settle a couple more days and be ready to vacuum again. Then decide if you need to floc again. WIP is a good thing.......you will be able to watch and see what the rain water does how it is now and go from there later.

Kim:kim:
 

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