Can Spring Sludge Ruin My Filter?

[CoffeeBean]

Thanks Dave for your replys.

I have a sand filter. I was reading another person's post about cleaning up the algae mess and he was saying how his pump got clogged every 30 minutes or so. I, like him, can't stay up 24/7 to tend to it.

Do you think I've got irrepairable damage to the liner or will the staining disappear once I get some CL into it? I'd hate to think I'd have to buy a new liner since this one is only 2.5 years old.

CoffeeBean

[duraleigh]

I don't know about your liner.....time will tell but my money is on the Clorox.

Your Sand Filter is the most forgiving for taking in junk. I doubt you'll have to backwash very much.....but you'll have to backwash.....less and less as your water clears.

[CoffeeBean]

Thank you for your help. I dumped in 12 of the 3 quart jugs of Clorox tonight (that's all I had time to buy and dump - spent 9.5 hours on the road today). Tomorrow I'll start washing it out.

[waterbear]

If you CYA has dropped to 0 while the pool was closed expect to go through a LOT of bleach before the chlorine is holding!

[duraleigh]

Hmmm. Well, I have always been pretty aggressive with Cl but 9 gallons is a pretty big hit.....somewhere around 32-36ppm depending on how many gallons in your pool.

Did you calculate that prior to putting it in?

My bet is you'll still be fine because you've got so much junk in your pool. However, I think I'd back off that big of a dose next time....maybe cut that in half.....around 15ppm max.

On a positive note, that'll sure kill a lot of algae!! Don't be surprised if your filter pressure is waay up tomorrow. (and most of that Cl gone!) Just backwash it out and start again. As I posted earlier, the need to backwash will lessen as you clean out the goo.

Keep us posted as you progress. Add chlorine as often as you can....just don't add so much

[CoffeeBean]

I must confess that I didn't do any calculations re: the CL dump for 2 reasons; 1) I figured that I have so much "stuff" in there and 0 CL that it couldn't hurt especially if I was careful about not getting it on the liner and 2) although I'm a fairly smart woman I can't seem to deduct from Ben's table just how much ppm = on the CL test nor just how much a gallon of CL is = to in raising PPM. If you have any quick & dirty helpfuls on that I'd be eternally grateful. The pool place estimated my pool around 16,000 gal, give or take. I have a 52" with a 6'5" deep end with an 18" "ledge" surrounding that. (Doughboy never answered my e-mail or returned my calls)

I never dreamed that I'd need so much chem & math someday when I was slogging through the courses.

Thanks for the encouragement.

CoffeeBean

[duraleigh]

Bean,

Download bleachcalc from any of mwsmith2's posts....I use it constantly.