Dusty Bottom/Cloudy Water Issues

[MattTexas]

@Watermom-

I AM getting gunk when I backwash, but... see #14 above. For whatever reason I've never been able to measure a rise in pressure on my tank, even if I wait many weeks between backwashes.

[MattTexas]

Update:
Measurement at dusk last night 16ppm (0 measurable CC)
Measurement 1 hour after dawn today 16ppm (0 measurable CC)
Will maintain chlorine levels at 15+ today and repeat again tonight.

I backwashed yesterday and got plenty of brown gunk, but still curious about why my pressure gauge doesn't rise on this tank (see #14 above).

[Watermom]

Good that you lost no chlorine overnight and have the CC reading of 0. How does the water look? Keep filtering 24/7. I have no idea why your pressure gauge isn't rising. Maybe someone else will.

[MattTexas]

Water still looks blue/cloudy. Maybe a little less so than on previous days. But that may also be wishful thinking on my part. <G>

Still catching brown-ish "dust" (algae?) in the crevices on the bottom, and I definitely still have a very fine layer of the same stuff falling all across the pool floor. I stirred it up with my brush where it was visible.

Still running pump 24/7.

[Watermom]

In an earlier thread that I was helping with today, I wrote the following to somebody who was complaining that they constantly had sand all over their pool floor. I'm going to copy and paste my reply to them here. It doesn't totally apply to your situation, but part of it may since you aren't sure what the brown stuff is on the bottom of your pool.

Below is what I wrote in the other thread:

Is it possible that it is just dirt/dust?

My pool has a vinyl liner and underneath it is a foam pad that is taped together with tape. You can see these lines underneath my liner. I can vacuum my pool and have it look spotless but then hours later when the water quiets back down, the dirt/dust that is in suspension while I am vacuuming drops back down and always resettles in those 'lines.' No matter how slowly I move that vac head around and no matter how spotless it looks when I am finished with the vac, it reappears. This was also true in my previous liner pool. It is no big deal, though. Of course, I want my pool perfect but hey, there is dirt out there in the world and there is no way I'm going to keep it out of my pool. As soon as we get in to swim, that little bit of dirt gets swished around back into suspension again and you can't see it.



Now, Matt, what I want you to try: Turn your pump off for awhile (like maybe overnight tonight) and see if stuff settles on the floor. Then, turn the pump back on and very slowly vacuum the pool floor. Then, wait and see if that makes a big improvement. If it is dirt/dust and you are brushing the pool frequently, you are getting it all into suspension and that could be clouding up the water.

I'm not saying you didn't have algae; you obviously had something going on with CC readings and with overnight chlorine loss. But, I'm just wondering if part of it could actually just be dirt/dust. How long has it been since you vacuumed the pool?

[MattTexas]

I think there is a good chance it is dirt/dust as well. I just don't know.

Do you think I should vacuum to waste or to recirculate? I've been advised before to vacuum to waste, but it seems to REALLY take a lot of water out of the pool. In fact, I may need to stop, re-fill, and then continue several times to keep the water level above the skimmer. On the other hand, if it is dirt/dust, and if it is going into suspension (and thus, I would assume, through the zeo sand filter system), vacuuming on recirculate probably isn't going to help.

Also wondering about my vacuum head. Around the edges, it is covered with bristles, but it has a hole in the middle that draws in the water. This is very counter-intuitive for me, as it would seem to stir up the gunk before it can be pulled in by the intake. I've seen vacuum heads with no brushes, and just rollers that keep the head about 1 cm above the pool surface. These seem like much more sensible items to use for a problem like this. Thoughts?

Thanks, again, Watermom for all the help!

[Watermom]

You are right that vac to waste uses a lot of water. If your filter is working properly, you should be able to vac to filter. Maybe use a skimmer sock also to see if it will catch the tiny particles you vacuum up. Watch the filter pressure, though. If the skimmer sock causes the flow to be blocked too much, your pressure will go up. By the way, if the stuff goes back into the pool when you vac to filter, then you have a problem with your filter.

Vacuum heads with rollers are for inground pools. You just need to move the vac head really slowly! The brushes may cause a little of the dirt to get into suspension but shouldn't be too much if you move it slowly. The purpose of the brushes is to disturb the debris just a little so that it can get sucked into the opening. I always get into my pool to vacuum because I think it makes it easier.

(By the way, recirculate totally bypasses the filter, so you would never want to use that setting when you are vacuuming or trying to filter stuff out of the water.)

And ...... you are welcome!

[MattTexas]

Yes, I meant "filter" not "recirculate." Having trouble getting focused today, I guess.

[BigDave]

I'm pretty sure that West Texas is known far and wide for it's dusty dirt.

[MattTexas]

Update: I have tried vac-ing to filter per @Watermom's suggestion in #27. Didn't seem to help and now I'm also noticing sand residue in the hose after I backwash. Here are the details:

First, I left my pump off for about 13 hours. After that, the pool had cleared SOME although it was still a little cloudy.

Then, I started the vac process.

To be clear, since I got confused about this yesterday, I was set to FILTER on my sand tank. I went V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. I tried to take my time to make sure that I wasn't stirring stuff up before it could get into the filtration system. I also tried to work my way around the pool so that - as I progressed - I only stepped on areas that had already been vacuumed.

There was DEFINITELY a thin layer of something on the pool floor, all across the floor. In addition, large clusters of brown-ish "gunk" had settled in various pool crevices. I slowly passed my vac over all this stuff, and it vanished.

HOWEVER, there was a problem. After I got a little way into the process, I noticed that the pool was definitely becoming a little cloudier around the return inlet on the pool. The area where I was vacuuming seemed okay, but the return area was definitely a little murkier. I didn't take this at a good sign, but I nevertheless finished vac-ing the entire pool floor. I covered every square inch of the pool floor using the technique I described above. Once I was done the pool was a less clear than it was before I started. Its all a very nice shade of blue - its just murky.

Then, I backwashed, just to see if I had caught anything. Sure enough, once the backwash started I got a stream of white, but extremely cloudy water. It even looked cloudy sitting on the ground in pools. I would describe it as milky-white. Eventually, the backwash stream cleared. I then rinsed and restarted the filter.

Thereafter, I discovered a NEW problem. When I disconnected the backwash hose, I noticed a ring of sand (zeo?) around the valve where I connect the hose. I also noticed a little sand sticking to the inside of the area of the hose where it was connected to the backwash valve. Didn't notice it anywhere else in the hose (e.g., none at the other end of the hose and didn't feel any sand in the hose as I was rolling it up.) I've never noticed this before, and I think I would remember it if it had happened.

Now that I'm sure I'm free of algae, I'm pretty sure the pool has a lot of fine particles that are just getting through the filtration system. Here are the options I'm considering, though I'm open to others:

1. Try the "DE" test by putting a cup or two of DE in my filter to see if it comes out the inlet.
2. Putting enough DE in the fliter to "help" the zeo in my tank get the smaller items.
3. Filter sock. (Anyone had luck dealing with a problem like this using a sock?)
4. Floc and vacuum. However, I'm worried about whether I won't end up with the same problem, even after flocing.
5. Let everything settle REALLY well and vacuum the floor to waste. This will be a LONG process. I'll have to stop after 10 mins of vac-ing to get the water level back up to the skimmer (which will take about 30 minutes). It will definitely be a Saturday afternoon project.
6. Honestly, it would be just as easy as #5 to just drain the pool down to about 18" and then re-fill.

I'd really like more options. Can anyone think of any?