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

[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.

[poolrx]

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?

This is exactly how mine looked after shocking with the Calcium hypo shock, only worse. Did you try vacuuming and using just bleach? I don't know if it is just the calcium falling out of suspension or some precipitate from an interaction with something else in the water. What I find interesting is that it didn't happen the 1st year with the pool. But once I got the mustard algae I was going through bags of shock to try and kill it. Finally killed the algae but from then on (and even this year) I would get a whitish gray fine sediment anytime I use the Cal Hypo Shock. I have used bleach since then but just to prove out my theory I bought a couple bags of lithium hypo shock and they also dissolved instantly with no residual. My only guess is maybe it has something to do with TDS as that is the only number that is high from my pool water.