Dusty Bottom/Cloudy Water Issues

[MattTexas]

Re #30. Another possibility I've been reading about here is that my 1.5 HP pump is blowing some finer materials through instead of filtering it. Is that a possibility?

[aylad]

Yes, that's a possibility. That's why I asked in the first post in this thread whether or not your pressure gauge is rising. You indicated that when you backwash you're getting brown and green stuff washing out--is that still true, or is your backwash water clear? How does your water look at this point?

If your pressure gauge isn't rising, and you're no longer washing out brown/green stuff with your backwash, then I would suggest keeping the pump on recirculate until you're completely finished shocking the pool and it all is dead, and then shutting the pump off and letting it all settle to see if you can vac it out to waste.

[MattTexas]

@aylad (#32)- No pressure rise. I've NEVER had a pressure rise with this pump since I got it last Summer, which is why I'm starting to suspect that the pump is just pushing water through the filter faster than the filter can handle it. I DO get some backwash. Green if I'm fighting algae, brown if its been running several days/weeks, milky-white if I recently backwashed it. But my working theory is that the finer stuff just pushes right on through due to the amount of pressure in the tank.

[aylad]

Does your gauge stay at zero all the time? If it moves, then does it go back to zero when you turn the pump off?

I tend to agree with your working theory--and in that case, I stand by my recommendation in the last two lines of my above post.It's what I would do in my own pool in your situation, anyway.

Janet

[MattTexas]

No. It moves up when I turn the pump on. But it doesn't rise over time.

[MattTexas]

Update: the pool is looking slightly clearer today. I want to try adding some DE (see #30 above) just to see if its getting some of the finer particles. I loathe the thought of vac-ing to waste because of the amount of water it will take.

Still convinced I've got a problem with an over-powered pump creating too much pressure for good filtration, but I also think it is catching SOME of the stuff.

Anyone have experience using a handful of DE with zeo sand?

[MattTexas]

Well, folks, the DE trick just may have done it. I put a couple of handfulls in last night, and this morning, I had a very clean looking pool.

I had some dust settle on the floor, but it was all clumped together in 3-4 spots, so I just set the vac to waste and sucked that stuff right now.

Feels nice to have something that resembles a clean pool again. Many thanks to Watermom, Janet, and PoolDoc for all the help!

[Watermom]

Great news! Now time to enjoy that pool! And, you are very welcome. We are all very glad to help!

[aylad]

That's good to hear--and you're the first that I know of to try the DE trick with zeosand. Now we know that it probably works with zeo, too....did you by any chance open your filter up and see if it gunked the zeo up?

[MattTexas]

No. I really didn't want to open up my filter unless absolutely necessary - especially after it seemed (finally!) to be doing something. I did have *some* DE blow through the filter and into the pool after I added it, but it wasn't much at all. Most of it is presumably somewhere in the tank.