Help! Big Time!

[PoolKid]

What do you mean by pressure ?

[Ohm_Boy]

What do you mean by pressure ?

This refers to the water pressure at the inlet side of the filter. It's basically like holding your thumb over the end of a garden hose and building up pressure in the hose. As the filter becomes clogged, the supply side pressure goes up as the pump continues to pump into it and the flow through it is restricted by the clogging. Larger gartridge filters, most sand and DE filters have a gauge (or at least a place for a gauge) installed so that this can be monitored.
Smaller units, like the ones on the Easy-Set pools don't usually have gauges. You have to basically observe the flow at the return and notice when it seems diminished, and listen for the sound of the pump, and/or just pop the cartridge and check it.

As for why your filter isn't clogged yet, that's a good question. I would guess that either 1) you need to brush the pool to get the dead algae circulating towards the filter, or B) the algae particle size is too small to catch in the filter. I guess there is the possibility of 3) the filter isn't properly installed or seated, or is the wrong size, allowing a bypass around it, but that should have been immediately obvious when you pulled it out.

[ChuckD]

Kid,
Just to let you know I didn't drop out of this, was out of town where there wasn't any internet.

Looks like you're in good hands and making good progress.
But Cheeze Louise, get the Leslie's FAS-DPD! the best $22 you'll spend on this thing and make your life a whole lot easier!

C.

[PoolKid]

Hey, No worries Chuck :P

Question, Now when do i start using the floater for chlorine?

The pool in clear now, so am i good to stop using the bleach?

[ChuckD]

Hey, No worries Chuck :P

Question, Now when do i start using the floater for chlorine?

The pool in clear now, so am i good to stop using the bleach?

Big No to both.
The pucks you put in the floater contain CYA (stabilizer). If we're to believe the numbers you got from the pool store, you've got plenty of CYA (70) and shouldn't add any more. You can't easily reduce it if you get too much. No floater, and no pucks.

Chlorine (Clorox) is your friend for life. This goes back to the need for the FAS-DPD test. It's the only one that'll measure both components, Free Chlorine (FC) and Combined Chloromines (CC). You'll want to know your FC by testing regularly (daily, until you know your pool's needs better) and add Clorox to maintain a certain level.

You'll want to know CC because that tells whether the chlorine's actively fighting something, and whether you may need to shock it.

I haven't run the numbers but I'll ballpark that you're going to need one of those 1.48 gallon jugs of Clorox a week in the summer. But that's just a guess. You need to test to find out what you really need. I just want to give you some idea of the costs.

C.

[PoolKid]

Awsome so, just bleach from now on. Im going to get the Leslie's FAS-DPD soon, but first im going to run the pool store tommorow and get my test done, and see what my levels are and post here and see what i should do.

and can i start cutting down the filter to like 4 hours a day?

[ChuckD]

I'd keep the filter going 24/7 for a couple days. You should be brushing the sides and bottom to loosen up the dead algae and getting it into the water where it'll be filtered out. It may cloud up again but that's good, the filter will get it out.

Watch the pressure guage for it to rise which will tell you the pump's working harder to push water thru the cartridge. That's when you should pull the cartridge and clean it.

Once it's all cleaned out you can cut back the time it's on.