Can find cause of all the dirt/sand in the pool

[nicole12]

I vacuumed the pool yesterday and it was spotless all day yesterday and today. I had put the panty hose back on the return. I took it off tonight and the filter will run through 2 cycles like that and tomorrow afternoon the grass gets cut again. I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow and have it be clean and then after the grass gets cut see some dust at the bottom of the pool. Even though it's a pain to vacuum at least I'll have my answer.

I'll post back tomorrow with what happened.

[nicole12]

Well to my dismay the pool had the dust/dirt in it this am. The only thing I did was to take off the panty hose. What I don't get is that the panty hose when I take them off have nothing in them. I've used regular color, nude, white. Nothing not even a feeling of grit. Wouldn't there be something in them?

This is my 4th season with the pool if it was the pump being too powerful for the filter why would I be seeing this just now? I used to only have to vacuum my pool once a week and everything would be in the middle would take 5 minutes.

I guess I'll just succumb to the fact that I'll have to vacuum everyday or throw the kids in the pool first thing in the morning to have them stir it up so I don't have to look at it.

[matt4x4]

Nicole - so, by the sounds of it, you're down to one of two possible issues.

1. Sand needs to flush out the fine dust created through shipping, one way to do that is to vac to waste, possible way to save water is to make jet circulate water in a circle, at which point, most deposits should happen in center, so just vac THAT area to waste.
Another way to do that (or at least get it out faster) is to add DE to filter through skimmer until pressure rises 1 lb (1-2 cups), wait 5-10 minutes and vacuum SLOWLY, once vacuuming is done, backwash immediately.

2. You have a broken lateral or stand pipe and the sand is washing through that.
Only way to find out is empty filter and inspect - repair or replace as necessary.

[nicole12]

I'll try the vacuum with DE then backwash.

It's not filter sand, may be filter dust but not sand. I had a broken part in the filter last year and this isn't the same at all. When you pick this stuff up there is nothing to it, not even graining. The sand in the pool last year you could physically see the little white and tan grandules of sand.

I'll post back the results in a couple of days.

[denanbob]

Nicole, I have the EXACT same thing. We vacuumed last night and it all came up fine (although I think it just disintegrated into a puff which made me think I vacuumed it), but this morning it is back!!!!! Not as heavy as last night, but it's back for sure. I am going out right now to take a picture of it. You can see it clearly because my water is so clear it's like liquid glass. I'll report back with the picture in 10 minutes!

[denanbob]

Ok, here are some pictures:


And here is just a picture of the overall pool just because I would be surprised if this were algae seeing as the water is so clear:


Is this what you have?

[matt4x4]

it may also be some type of pollen - yours sure looks like it, it's too light to be clay dust.
Do you have tiny specs floating on the surface ocasionally too? that would likely be pollen too. The stuff may just be too fine for the sand filter, so it's recirculating, and of course, over time, your pool surface is picking up more and more of it.

[nicole12]

Mine looks a little bit darker than that...not much though. We are pretty much done with the pollen here well as should say the filter sock doesn't pick up any, a month ago it would be green with all the pollen.

I'll take a picture of mine when it accumulates next.

[denanbob]

Matt ~ we have a DE filter, not a sand filter. We started up the system on Sunday for the first time and we put 4lbs. of DE into the skimmer as recommended in the instructions. That's why I initially thought it was "overflow" DE that got pushed through filter and into the pool. Since there is a smaller amount down there now than before we vacuumed, I'm still wondering if that is what it is. I'm wondering if it will slowly disappear over the next week. I'm keeping an eye on it.

[nicole12]

Pool bottom was clear today. Not sand/dust. I vacuumed yesterday am the regular way, didn't backwash. That info was received after I had already vacuumed, I was going to do that this am with the DE and backwash. The only other correlation that I can make is that it also seems to happen when it rains. Would that be possible that the rain is causing this dust somehow? Either pushing it from the surface to the bottom so the filter can't get it out or brings down more pollen from trees. Sounds extreme to me but I guess anything could be possible.