First test readings of season

[michael3]

Got to looking and pushed the brush around just alittle bit and the dark I`m seeing on the bottom is all the junk sinking to the bottom, I may end up with some stain but it looks like if Ican get the settled stuff vacuumed out Im going to be in pretty good shape.

[stma]

REALLY !!!??? Good Man !! Did you lose the cloud and the green as well...?? I think I need one more day of DE filtering and it will be perfect... Just did the ascorbic dose and the walls and floor came clean and free of stains within 45 minutes.... @ Ben: I'll assume Natural Chemistry Metal Free is not HEDP ?? Believe you mentioned Jack's Pink Stuff ...?

[michael3]

Steve, yes when I dumped the 2nd floc treatment in, within an hour 8 could see junk sticking together and it started settling. Clear blue water with all the crap on the bottom. I tried to vacuum some, I think I stirred up more than I got. This part won't be fun. I had to stop and I am adding more water

[stma]

So it sounds as though you needed Floc (which didnt work for me) and I needed Poly... JUST REMEMBER this next year !!

[michael3]

Stuff worked great, now to get it off the bottom, seems like no matter how slow I went I was stirring up more than I vacuumed. This part isn't going to be fun wonder if the de would catch it, I would backwash every 5 minutes if I knew I could vac thru filter

[stma]

you could attempt it..... if you look at your return jet when you hover over some of the crud, and you dont see it return to the pool, you may have a shot.... know what I mean ? It worked for me that way....

[michael3]

May be a question for Ben or Watermom or BigDave, they been so helpful. Can I vac the floc garbage that settled to the bottom thru the filter with th DE powder added or will this make a royal mess? The floc worked great but trying to ease over the debri I'm stirring more of it up than I'm vacuuming. Would adding polyquat at this point allow me to vac thru filter?

[BigDave]

You, both of you(michael3 and stma), are getting results with methods that are pushing the edges of what we recommend. I'm glad you're finding a path that works. Moreover I'm really interested to hear how you're using these tools to get clear. I'm learning a lot in these threads - thanks.
I can only agree with stma that

... if you look at your return jet when you hover over some of the crud, and you don't see it return to the pool, you may have a shot...

Adding anything right now is a unpredictable gamble - it might be OK. it might make more cloud.
The secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self destruc...

[stma]

The secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self destruc...

LOVE IT !!

It's true though Dave...What has always worked in the past, didn't work this year... I myself, am blaming it on the 17 year Cicada

[michael3]

To funny guys, lol. Self destruct, I keep waiting on my pool to spin around and around and spit green stuff at me lol. THeres no doubt the DE was working but with as cloudy as my pool was there was no way it would have cleared this season I dont think. When I added the floc the first time it didnt show any real signs of working so I did it again and within hours stuff was sticking together and sinking, my water was sparkling, I could put the vacuum pole in the water and couldnt see any debri in the water going by it. Like I said yesterday I think I stirred up more than I vacuumed out, but this morning it has all settled nicely on the bottom again. I think Im going to try and maybe just hover over the debri and try not to push it around. Wish I would have took pics of this whole process, I have a couple of how green the pool was but wasnt sure either how to post them or if I could lol.