Our well water has high levels of calcium and some rust. So, while the pool is clean and chemically stabilized, still water overnight reveals next morning ultra-fine yellowish powder on the bottom. It is so fine it goes straight through the sand filter and back into the pool, making the water cloudy and greenish. Is there any cure for this, perhaps by causing the dust to agglomerate so that the sand filter holds it?
I don't know nuthink about pools, really, but I'd think best bet would be to install 10 micron filters on supply line to minimize the amount introduced.
As for collection of what's there, no real idea other than also filtering the recycle altho don't know what that capacity might entail.
I'd presume a pool service company of any competence could respond appropriately.
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You might find a flocculent that will stick the "dust" together so your sand filter will grab it, but that's the problem with sand filters. The real solution is to replace your sand filter with a DE filter. That solved a bunch of problems for us.
It is hard beat a paper cartridge filter for keeping your pool clean. DE is pretty good but where do you dispose of the DE? Dumping it in the sewer is not really appreciated by the utility and you certainly don't want it in a septic system.
DE works very well and is cheap to operate. I put it on the lawn for quite a while. There isn't that much of it over a year. If you're concerned about that, just throw it in the trash like kitty litter. Again, there isn't that much of it.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote the following:
I backwash DE from my 26,000 gallon inground pool onto the back lawn, and have been doing so for 24 years. It has no negative effect on the lawn and the rain spreads it out even further. It kinda gets absorbed into the ground, so that year to year, you can't locate where it had been dumped.
What floc is made for. :-) If you want it cleaned up fast used the vacuum method.
Jim
A flocculent might help, but the long term solution is to install a DE filter (and perhaps use Fiber Clear rather than DE). A cartridge filter would also work, and is less of a hassle than DE, especially with the addition of Fiber Clear (yes, you can add it to cartridge filters to decrease the particle size it filters from around 10 microns to 2 microns). Sand filters do not filter small particles, which is likely what's causing your problem.
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I've got a 4 cartridge PentAir filter and it works really well. It causes very little back pressure on the pump, in fact unless it's really dirty the pressure is close to zero. The instructions suggested adding Fiber Clear to increase the effectiveness of the cartridges.
Depending on the size of your pool, you might even put a single cartridge filter in series with the sand filter and let the cartridge filter trap the finer particles. I originally had a single cartridge filter but it was sized way too small for the size of my pool (40,000 gallons) and I had to clean it much too frequently.
Finally, you might just want to fill the pool with non-well water if you also have piped in water. Too much calcium is not good for the pool.
Your problem is not a pool filtering problem... It is a water chemistry issue...
If you put crappy water into your pool, it can have all sorts of fun chemical reactions with the chemicals in your pool...
Your particular situation is resulting in a fine rusty precipitate settling out of the water...
Solve the problem where it is, namely the water source, rather than the visible symptom by trying to filter the problem out of the pool water after it is already in the pool...
Sounds like a water softener and reverse osmosis water filtration setup to filter out the fine dissolved solids from your well water would do you more than trying to filter crap out of the pool after it is causing problems...
Do you have problems in the house, specifically in the dishwasher and washing machine ?
~~ Evan
Your problem is not a pool filtering problem... It is a water chemistry issue...
If you put crappy water into your pool, it can have all sorts of fun chemical reactions with the chemicals in your pool...
Your particular situation is resulting in a fine rusty precipitate settling out of the water...
Solve the problem where it is, namely the water source, rather than the visible symptom by trying to filter the problem out of the pool water after it is already in the pool...
Sounds like a water softener and reverse osmosis water filtration setup to filter out the fine dissolved solids from your well water would do you more than trying to filter crap out of the pool after it is causing problems...
Do you have problems in the house, specifically in the dishwasher and washing machine ?
~~ Evan
I've read all the responses for filtering the water first but it seems to me he puts in the initial amount of water, say 35,000 gal, and adds maybe a
1000 to 2000 every 1 to 2 weeks if there isn't much rain. So he's really only using floc with the vast majority of water one time. With a touch up every 4 to 6 months. Which wouldn't hurt anyway to keep other particulates out. From personal experience floc is the cheaper way to go. He wouldn't want to use RO water because with some RO system you burn 4 gallons for every gallon of filtered water. Even if he could find one that was 1 gal for every gallon I'd think it was a huge waste of water. Just my opinion.Jim
Fail.
Softened water will actually damage the pool surface -- plaster.
Best I can tell.
An RO for 30,000 gallon pool? Please? Cost for a softener, add that up real fast.
RO could produce some hefty water bills.
Thanks for the soft water tip. It never occurred to me. I'm going to get my supply water tested tomorrow.
I don't know if the OP is following this but no one asked him how old the sand is in his filter yet?
Sorry, I thought you wanted a solution... If you are going to play with a toy filtration unit then you are correct... Even a small industrial unit is 2:1 or 2 gallons consumed for every 1 gallon of filtered water...
If the OP used filtration for filling his pool using consumer systems it would take weeks...
In his situation with fouled water from a well, I would consider having clean water delivered by a tanker truck...
~~ Evan
Umm... Not a fail... You are perhaps only familiar with the sodium water softeners, there are other types out there which can be used with other salts that cost more money...
If your pool's plaster is so fragile that a little bit of salt in the water (which there wouldn't BE if the OP softened the water and then filtered it with an RO system) then the acid in the rain water must really do a number on it...
~~ Evan
Umm... Not a fail... You are perhaps only familiar with the sodium water softeners, there are other types out there which can be used with other salts that cost more money...
If your pool's plaster is so fragile that a little bit of salt in the water (which there wouldn't BE if the OP softened the water and then filtered it with an RO system) then the acid in the rain water must really do a number on it...
~~ Evan
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The reason you shouldn't use sw in a swimming pool is sw leaches minerals which destroys plaster. If the OP has a vinyl pool then it may not matter. The reason you don't use RO is RO systems use water to make pure water. Mine uses 4 gal for every gal of filtered water. Not practical for swimming pools. :) You want the minerals in the water, particularly calcium, to keep the plaster healthy. That's why I suggested periodic floc. Or maybe the sand in the OP's filter needs replacing. There is specialized sand for cleaning finer particles, or maybe the sand in his filter is just old. It's supposed to be changed every 4-5 years.
Sorry, I thought you wanted a solution... If you are going to play with a toy filtration unit then you are correct... Even a small industrial unit is 2:1 or 2 gallons consumed for every 1 gallon of filtered water...
If the OP used filtration for filling his pool using consumer systems it would take weeks...
In his situation with fouled water from a well, I would consider having clean water delivered by a tanker truck...
~~ Evan
Gee...lets see. Waste tons of money on delivered water, or waste water, or spend a couple of bucks on floc that is designed to take care of the OP's exact problem?
Even if it did use 2 to 1 that would be 70,000 gals of wasted water to fill the pool. I gotta ask: Do you even own a pool?
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