Dusty Bottom/Cloudy Water Issues

[MattTexas]

I think there is a good chance it is dirt/dust as well. I just don't know.

Do you think I should vacuum to waste or to recirculate? I've been advised before to vacuum to waste, but it seems to REALLY take a lot of water out of the pool. In fact, I may need to stop, re-fill, and then continue several times to keep the water level above the skimmer. On the other hand, if it is dirt/dust, and if it is going into suspension (and thus, I would assume, through the zeo sand filter system), vacuuming on recirculate probably isn't going to help.

Also wondering about my vacuum head. Around the edges, it is covered with bristles, but it has a hole in the middle that draws in the water. This is very counter-intuitive for me, as it would seem to stir up the gunk before it can be pulled in by the intake. I've seen vacuum heads with no brushes, and just rollers that keep the head about 1 cm above the pool surface. These seem like much more sensible items to use for a problem like this. Thoughts?

Thanks, again, Watermom for all the help!

[Watermom]

You are right that vac to waste uses a lot of water. If your filter is working properly, you should be able to vac to filter. Maybe use a skimmer sock also to see if it will catch the tiny particles you vacuum up. Watch the filter pressure, though. If the skimmer sock causes the flow to be blocked too much, your pressure will go up. By the way, if the stuff goes back into the pool when you vac to filter, then you have a problem with your filter.

Vacuum heads with rollers are for inground pools. You just need to move the vac head really slowly! The brushes may cause a little of the dirt to get into suspension but shouldn't be too much if you move it slowly. The purpose of the brushes is to disturb the debris just a little so that it can get sucked into the opening. I always get into my pool to vacuum because I think it makes it easier.

(By the way, recirculate totally bypasses the filter, so you would never want to use that setting when you are vacuuming or trying to filter stuff out of the water.)

And ...... you are welcome!

[MattTexas]

Yes, I meant "filter" not "recirculate." Having trouble getting focused today, I guess.

[BigDave]

I'm pretty sure that West Texas is known far and wide for it's dusty dirt.

[MattTexas]

Update: I have tried vac-ing to filter per @Watermom's suggestion in #27. Didn't seem to help and now I'm also noticing sand residue in the hose after I backwash. Here are the details:

First, I left my pump off for about 13 hours. After that, the pool had cleared SOME although it was still a little cloudy.

Then, I started the vac process.

To be clear, since I got confused about this yesterday, I was set to FILTER on my sand tank. I went V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. I tried to take my time to make sure that I wasn't stirring stuff up before it could get into the filtration system. I also tried to work my way around the pool so that - as I progressed - I only stepped on areas that had already been vacuumed.

There was DEFINITELY a thin layer of something on the pool floor, all across the floor. In addition, large clusters of brown-ish "gunk" had settled in various pool crevices. I slowly passed my vac over all this stuff, and it vanished.

HOWEVER, there was a problem. After I got a little way into the process, I noticed that the pool was definitely becoming a little cloudier around the return inlet on the pool. The area where I was vacuuming seemed okay, but the return area was definitely a little murkier. I didn't take this at a good sign, but I nevertheless finished vac-ing the entire pool floor. I covered every square inch of the pool floor using the technique I described above. Once I was done the pool was a less clear than it was before I started. Its all a very nice shade of blue - its just murky.

Then, I backwashed, just to see if I had caught anything. Sure enough, once the backwash started I got a stream of white, but extremely cloudy water. It even looked cloudy sitting on the ground in pools. I would describe it as milky-white. Eventually, the backwash stream cleared. I then rinsed and restarted the filter.

Thereafter, I discovered a NEW problem. When I disconnected the backwash hose, I noticed a ring of sand (zeo?) around the valve where I connect the hose. I also noticed a little sand sticking to the inside of the area of the hose where it was connected to the backwash valve. Didn't notice it anywhere else in the hose (e.g., none at the other end of the hose and didn't feel any sand in the hose as I was rolling it up.) I've never noticed this before, and I think I would remember it if it had happened.

Now that I'm sure I'm free of algae, I'm pretty sure the pool has a lot of fine particles that are just getting through the filtration system. Here are the options I'm considering, though I'm open to others:

1. Try the "DE" test by putting a cup or two of DE in my filter to see if it comes out the inlet.
2. Putting enough DE in the fliter to "help" the zeo in my tank get the smaller items.
3. Filter sock. (Anyone had luck dealing with a problem like this using a sock?)
4. Floc and vacuum. However, I'm worried about whether I won't end up with the same problem, even after flocing.
5. Let everything settle REALLY well and vacuum the floor to waste. This will be a LONG process. I'll have to stop after 10 mins of vac-ing to get the water level back up to the skimmer (which will take about 30 minutes). It will definitely be a Saturday afternoon project.
6. Honestly, it would be just as easy as #5 to just drain the pool down to about 18" and then re-fill.

I'd really like more options. Can anyone think of any?

[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