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!