Dealing with the usual springtime algae

[fog80]

Ive been continously adding 12.5% bleach and brushing the pool to get the water color from a dark green to a cloudy blue and can see some of the bottom. There is no CYA in the pool and im scared to start my DE Filter because anytime i have live algae in the water it clogs up the "fingers" and i have to open the whole thing up and soak the fingers to clean them.

Is this just how it is or is there a better way?

[aylad]

DE filters tend to blow live algae right on through, as you've experienced. If you can leave your system on "recirculate" until all the algae is dead, and then turn it back to filter, it might work better for you.

[fog80]

unfortunately i can either filter or vacuum to waste, no recirculate option.

When i run the filter with this cloudy water i usually get a slimy film all over the fingers, the pressure rises very high and I get a trickle of water out of the filter and i lose prime. Only thing I can do is bump it like every hour, backwash every day and then open the filter and clean the fingers......and then do it all over again.

[aylad]

That really bites....maybe Pooldoc or one of the other DE filter gurus can chime in here and give you other ideas...

Janet

[fog80]

i opened up my de filter last night, hosed it off charged it with fresh de and ran the filter. I got good pressure for longer than i expected, but when i went to bump it, i realized that the shaft pin must have slipped because its not giving me any resistance.

Im going to open the filter again today and hope the pin is still in the filter, otherwise im going to need to order another shaft pin kit and its going to push my cleanup back a few days.

[lstinthot]

I would think if your selector valve does not have a recirc position you could take the filter assembly out of the housing while you run the pump while you kill the algae. Once you believe the stuff is all dead, put the filter back in and let if do the final cleanup.

I typically just run my DE fitler and backwash more often if needed, last year we had to back wash every day for a week.

Just a suggestion,

[Hornman120]

We had a DE filter in our old house. My wife (prior to our marriage) used to just shut off the pump during the winter and let it turn green. When spring rolled around, I took charge and did the following; Shock the pool and run the filter. It clogged up after a few hours. Backwashed and did it again. After a couple of cycles, it got to about 12 hours between backwashes and then 24 hours. Took about a week to get the water nice and clear. Anyway, that's how I did it in 1983. We bought a different house that year which had a cartridge filter and.....never allowed the pool to get green over the winter againt.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Kevin