First test readings of season

[michael3]

just brushed the walls and floor again, I vacuumed earlier and all I got in the skimmer basket was a few pine needles and a couple dead looking snails lol. water had dipped down to a FC of 19. I added 1/2 gallon of 10% bleach. CC was.5 ph still good at 7.2 It appears the depth I can see down is slowly increasing, but were hanging on to the very light green/ cloudy water. Has anyone ever kept there filter on recirculate while they keep there FC so high? or would that work to kill the algae and it then settle on bottom? or is the filtering of the bleach minimal when pump is on filter?

[michael3]

water is maintaining the light green/cloudy look, been trying to keep my FC in the low to mid 20s, lowest test I got it dropped to 19, but mostly around 20 to 22. CC fluctuates from .5 to 1.0 PH staying steady at 7.2, When I did my CYA test sunday it looked to me to be between 55-60. FC been in 20s since friday. Theres just been very little to no improvement, I know I need patience cause the water was very nasty, but with my CYA test being borderline 55-60 is there a chance the low 20s for FC just isnt quite enough? this afternoon I bumped it up to 30, think it will be ok to keep it there? and also theres just been no change in pressure on my gauge, water flow is very strong

[Watermom]

To answer another question you asked the other day, yes, you can put your filter on recirculate while you chlorine is high. One thing I am wondering about in your pool is your pump size. A 1.5hp pump with a 200 lb. sand filter for a 24ft AG is way too big and a mismatch between pump and filter size. In the case of pool pumps, bigger is not better. A too powerful pump can push debris and algae right through the filter media and right back into the pool without filtering it out. I'm wondering if that is happening in your pool. Go ahead and put it on recirculate and see if you can kill the algae before trying to filter it out. Continue to keep the chlorine high. See if that helps any.

[michael3]

Thanks, watermom will try that, we ended up with that size pump and filter because our setup started out as a rec warehouse pool and the big blue sand fliter cracked, and our pump died, we the pump on ebay for a great price and found the sand filter on craigslist for an even better price. This is our 3rd season running this setup and although this is the first starting with this nasty of water, we have never had an issue. What would be better a smaller pump or filter? maybe 1 hp tops?

[Watermom]

I used to have a 24ft AG. I had a full-rated 1/2hp inground pump and it was plenty big enough. In fact, I am still using that pump on my current pool which is a 27ft AG. I have it paired with a 300lb. sand filter. (I went with an inground pump because they are made better. One of my co-moderators who knows a lot about pumps picked it out for me when I needed a replacement years ago.)

[michael3]

I read some posts about people changing there impeller to slow the water flow, is that a good option? right now replacing the pump really isnt doable financially. could I maybe go with a 1 hp impeller?

[BigDave]

I share Watermom's suspicion that the pump may be too big for the filter. Would you please (and if you already have , I'm sorry for asking again) give us exact manf. and model for pump motor and filter?
Recirc is fine if you want to - I don't see that it matters much if you don't have to backwash your filter very often. I'd like to hear that the pool water has gone from greenish to blue /gray. Once the algae is dead, I'd try to let it settle if possible and vac to waste.
Last year we saw several instances of oversize pumps pushing dead algae right through undersized sand filters.

Are you comfortable installing a valve between the pump and the filter to throttle flow and make the filter more effective?

[michael3]

Thanks BigDave, No problem with giving you that info again, its a Hayward Powerflo LX pump 1.5 hp says (70GPM) on it. Sand filter is a Hayward S200 and for the first time I read the filtration is 44 GPM ? Yikes so the pump is way way to big. Every since we paired these 2, 3 seasons ago we have always had great water but we started with good water, never tried to clean a swamp before. The pressure valve runs pretty constant at about 17psi on filter or recirculate, and about 10 on backwash. I of course run pvc plumbing and I do have a manual shutoff valve between the skimmer and pump, would that work or do I want it between pump and filter. I tested the water a few minutes ago and my FC was 32 and CC less than.5