Dirt in Pool (Intex)

Okay so the neighborhood kids thought it would be cool to throw a few dirt clods over the fence & into our pool. The net was only successful in removing the grass clumps. The dirt basically dissolved as soon as the net touched them. I was able to vacuum quite a bit, but the return jet had muddy water coming through it. I cleaned in 5 minute increments, stopping to clean the filter & vacuum bag that fits into the skimmer. I made a lot of progress on the dirt that was on the bottom of the pool. Quite a bit ended up getting dissolved into the water (which is now murky). I ran the filter for a few hours & added my usual BBB chemicals since I was due for that anyway. The filter was off overnight, but nothing seems to have settled to the bottom for me to vacuum yet. We have company coming in on Friday & really don't want the pool to look murky. Any suggestions???? Keep in mind I don't have a sand filter. This one came with the Intex pool (4'X18').

My first suggestion would be to have a serious talk with the parents of the kids, and then make the kids come clean up the mess!!! That would also eliminate any invitations to come swim............

I'm assuming you have a cartridge filter? I am NOT normally a fan of flocculants or clarifiers, but I did have to use a clarifier this year because I had the dust from new zeosand thoroughly mixed into my water and it was the only way to remove it. If leaving the pump off for 12-48 hours does not allow enough to settle out for vacuuming, then you might try a clarifier...the one I used was a Natural Chemistry product called Clear and Perfect. It only took 16 oz for my roughly 29K IG pool, so it would be much less for yours...you squirt the stuff onto the pool surface and let the pump run overnight. In my pool, the difference was almost miraculous, after having tried everything else possible over the past 3 weeks to get all the dust out. That being said, I have a sand filter and the pressure rose pretty quickly as all the stuff filtered out, so you need to keep a close eye on your filter and clean it frequently if you go this route.

Janet

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Originally Posted by aylad

My first suggestion would be to have a serious talk with the parents of the kids, and then make the kids come clean up the mess!!! That would also eliminate any invitations to come swim............
Janet

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:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
I'm with Jan on this one. Also take some pics now while it is a mess to show them before it starts improving. Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestion. The pool store actually told me I could pull the cartridge & disconnect one hose from the pool and let it drain to the ground while vacuuming--but that I would lose a lot of water fast. A small amount had dropped & I vacuumed yesterday. Tonight I see a ton has gone to the bottom & the water is much clearer. So hopefully tomorrow morning I can vacuum the rest & have the pool ready for our weekend guests. Unfortunately I can't do much about the kids that did this, since we have no clue who it was. Hopefully it was a one time thing.