Brown sediment and Green Water after Metal Treatment

[mbar]

You can leave the filter off for the night, then in the morning vacuum to waste, moving the vacuum head really slowly. You can also try a filter sock - they sell them in pool stores, or you can cut the leg of pantyhose or tights and put the foot in the skimmer basket and roll the top over the skimmer basket - it will catch really small particles. You may need to take your pool up to shock to break down the particles. With a cya of 30, you can take your chlorine up to 15ppms. If you have a DE or sand filter you can put a trichlor puck in the skimmer basket, to help if there is any metal that isn't sequestered to hit the chlorine puck in the skimmer basket and fall out in the filter instead of in the pool. Do not use the puck in the skimmer if you have a cartridge filter. If you have any questions, please ask. Welcome to the forum!

[mariella]

Thanks for the response, Marie!

Before I got your reply, we did vacuum the pool yesterday. We tried traditional vacuuming, but the filter just spit everything back into the pool. (Yes, we did clean the filter first). So, we vacuumed to waste.

Unfortunately, no matter how slowly you move and vacuum, the stuff is so fine, that it clouds up. So, we now have a very cloudy pool again. Fortunately, we did get a lot of nasty, tan, milky-looking water full of crud OUT of the pool, though.

I figure that this will be the process: vacuum, wait for the dust to settle, vacuum, wait again, etc. until we get all of this nasty stuff out of the pool.

My new question: Do you know of anything that will make the stuff settle to the bottom of the pool faster? I am guessing that turning the filter off at night will do this, right? Do you think a flocculant would help, too? Would raising the chlorine to 15ppm help as well?

Oh, by the way, we have a cartridge filter, so I can't put the puck in the skimmer.

I know I should be patient, but our swim season is already half over here in CT, and we haven't been in the pool once!
I don't know who is more impatient, me or my kids

[mbar]

Yes, you can try a flocculant, or even a clarifier. The clarifier will grab onto the small particles and make them clump together more so they can be filtered out. Also a skimmer sock, or the leg of tights really does catch a lot of little particles. I would also take it up to shock for a while, consistant high clorine levels most often is the answer to cleaing up cloudy water.

[mariella]

We did put in a bottle of clarifier this past Monday. Would it screw things up to put more in?

I will definitely bring up the chlorine to shock levels today.

[mbar]

I wouldn't put anymore clarifier in. I would just be very consistant with keeping the chlorine level at shock for a couple of days. You should see your start to improve. If after a couple of days you don't see improvement, then you can use a floc.

[mariella]

Thanks so much Marie! I will follow that course of action, bringing the chlorine up, and turning off the filter at night, and vacuuming. I will let you know how things look in a few days!!

[sw_stupid]

Please keep posting your status. I have the EXACT same problem. "Dirt" settles to the bottom of my pool, but my chemistry seems okay. No algae seems to be growing anywhere so I think it's just sediment too. So, keep posting - I'm kinda following in your lead.