Opening swampy pool, high PH

[aylad]

Using bleach to maintain your chlorine level is what most of us do--it's easy, relatively cheap, and doesn't add anything to your pool that you don't want it to.

Keep your filter running--the chlorine killed the algae, but it's the filter that will remove the dead algae that's causing the cloudiness. Hang in there!!

Janet

[River Gronkowitz]

Thanks Janet!

Just an update on my numbers this morning:

FC 2
CC 2
pH 7.2
TA 50
CYA right between 30 and 40

I also went ahead and added 3lbs of dichlor to bring the FC back up after checking.

[aylad]

You might want to go ahead and stock up on some bleach to finish the job--you're soon going to be at the 40-50 ppm of CYA that we recommend, and at that poing you'll need to switch to something other than the dichlor. As Watermom posted earlier in this thread, each gallon of bleach should add about 2.2 ppm of chlorine to your pool, so keep that in mind when trying to figure out how much you'll need to buy....

Janet

[River Gronkowitz]

Just an update... Been running the pump and filter 24/7 for three weeks. Switched over to bleach after getting my CYA to 40 using the dichlor. My chlorine levels hold at 10 for a day or two before they start to drop off and I have to add a gallon or so of bleach.

The water is still really cloudy, to where I can can only see maybe a couple of feet down in the deep end. I see the bottom enough in the shallow end to make out large spots of dead algae that's settled to the bottom and I've been vacuuming this to waste as it accumulates.

Is it normal to take this long to filter out all of the dead algae, or could there possibly be a problem with the filter? Would I need to consider changing the sand in the filter or maybe adding DE to it?

[aylad]

Three weeks is a long time to get it cleared up, but remember that it took a long, long time for the pool to get in the shape it was in, so it's going to be a long process to clean it up. If you're still seeing improvement in water clarity, then the filter is at least working. Do you see anything blowing back through the returns? One thing you can do is add the handfull of DE into the skimmer and then watch to see if it's coming back through the return--if so, then the filter has a problem. If not,then it's trapping the particles and you just need to apply another dose of POPP--Pool owner patience and persistence! YOu might also open the filter up and just make sure that it has an adequate amount of sand in it. Your owner's manual will tell you how full it should be, but I think with sand the general rule is about 2/3 full.

Keep an eye on your pressure, and continue to backwash it when your pressure gets 8-10 psi over your "clean" pressure. I wouldn't backwash it any more often than that, because a dirty filter actually cleans better than a clean one.

[PoolDoc]

Is it normal to take this long to filter out all of the dead algae, or could there possibly be a problem with the filter? Would I need to consider changing the sand in the filter or maybe adding DE to it?

I'm going with, "there's a problem with the filter".

The two most common problems are (1) missing sand, blown out during backwash via oversize pool pump and (2) coarse non-filter sand, sold by pool stores trying increase their margin.

If you post your pump and filter make/model, we can probably tell if it's likely you've blown out sand when you've been backwashing. This is more common on AG pools, but it happens on IG pools as well.

But, either one of these problems will make clean up very slow. The DE test Janet described is also diagnostic: if you put DE in, and it blows back out, you DEFINITELY have filter problems.

[River Gronkowitz]

The filter is a Hayward S-200
The pump is a Hayward SP 1600-M and the motor model is UST 1102.

[PoolDoc]

Not quite enough info: the SP1600 is the general range for the Hayward SuperPump line up -- see which one you have on this page at Hayward.

And, here the S200 series page.