My sand filter sucks, new filter options?

[duraleigh]

Unabomber,

I'll bet if you post where you live, someone will happily purchase that filter from you. You'll cut your losses and get what you want......it should sell easily for a fair price.

[Unabomber007]

Went to the pool store yesterday.

Bought some pH down (yes, I overpaid, but I digress) and some floc. Added the floc, but apparently I got the weak, watery stuff as the WalMart brand works MUCH better. Looks like I'll have to go to WalMart today and get the good stuff. Anyways....

The pool store guy kind of agreed with you folks that it's probably a sanitation issue more than a pump issue. So I shocked the ever living hell out of the pool. I'm sure it's over 20ppm now. I'll check it later today and add some REAL floc, recirc, and vacuum all to waste either late tonight or tomorrow.

I REALLY hope this is the cure and I just need to keep my chlorine levels higher than I have been in the past.

The pool store guy was talking and talking and talking about phosphate levels though. Having been here for awhile and absorbing everything....what the heck are phosphate levels? Sounds like the newest pool store money making scheme to me. He also looked at me funny when I told him I use WalMart bleach for chlorination.

[Spensar]

If I understand it correctly, the deal with phosphates is that they are food for the algae and the idea is to reduce the food and starve em. Pffft, quicker, cheaper and easier to just kill the algae with chlorine instead of adding another chemical to the soup. If algae is growing your sanitation level is too low for everything else anyway.

LOL. If the pool store asks about chlorine, I tell them I use sodium hypoclorite. Most stores know prefectly well bleach is a lower concentrate of the same stuff they sell.

[Unabomber007]

Update!

Thanks to you folks, I think my issue was with sanitation vs. cleaning ability. I shocked to 20 ppm (highest I've EVER gone in my pool) and now hold the chlorine between 5-10 and all is well. Chlorine level seems to drop about 5 ppm/day though, which seems kinda high???

My pool has been crystal clear for a week now and I think I just need to keep it at/above 5ppm now. Previously though.... 3 ppm used to be good for a non-green pool, but I guess maybe my stabilizer levels were lower in previous years.

[KurtV]

That does seem high; you may still have some lingering algae that's consuming your chlorine.

[waste]

(I'm begining to think that I'm Matt4X4's PR man)
There is apparently a type of algae out there that develops this time of year and is a persistent bugger. Matt posted today on it, and how he treats it, successfully. Here's the link, https://poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=5612.
(I've put this link on 3 threads now - which should help explain the intro)
I think that we all owe Matt some kudos for identifying this problem as algae, I looked at the picture linked to above and said "filter blow-by ".

[duraleigh]

Reading this thread from top to bottom is another example of what seems 90% of water quality issues posted on this forum over the years.....LACK OF CHLORINE.

Over and over, whether it gets identified correctly or not, the answer is "chlorine"................90-95% of the time.

So, when your water goes South, take a deep breath and search back to see if you have been keeping chlorine at adequate levels.....the answer is almost always "no".

P.S. Unabomber, KurtV has got a good point....5ppm daily is too much consumption. You still have organics in your water and you know the solution !