Water cleanliness

[BriT56]

This year I am having real problems getting my water clear after the winter. At some point over the winter we had a failure, as its outside and not bothered with for those months we have only discovered it recently.

We thought the pump had failed somehow as water pressure into the pool was low. It was replaced and still the same. Further investigation revealed the inlet pipe inside the sand filter had sheared off, thereby not filtering the water, just swirling it around inside. This has now been replaces with new pipework and new filter sand. But the problem remains. The problem being very cloudy water.

So far in the last 3 weeks we have introduced, 20 kilos of granulated chlorine, 4 litres of algaecide and 4 litres of liquied flocculant - overboard with the chemicals I know! Yet after all of this and the pump running 24 hours a day for the last 9 days, the pool is no clearer. The bottom is not visible through the cloudiness, and on the steps you can see the clumps of detritus the floc has collected. Using the pool vacumn all that happens is it sucks it up and a short time later you can see the inlet water jets re-introducing it back to the pool! Its as though it is not being filtered out.

 

Short of emptying the pool and refilling is there anything else I can try please? Refilling really is not an option as it has to be brought to the house by road tanker at a cost of around 600€ the house supply is such that it takes 30 hours to put in around 2000litres...its a 70,000 litre pool.

[waterbear]

post a set of test results so we have a better idea of what is doing on in your water. Several things could be going on and only by having an idea of the water balance can we narrow them down.

Also, specifically what form of granulated chlorine (dichloir, triclor, or calcium hypochlorite) and what type of algaecide (linear quat, polyquat, copper, or silver)?

On 5/9/2025 at 6:21 AM, BriT56 said:

Using the pool vacumn all that happens is it sucks it up and a short time later you can see the inlet water jets re-introducing it back to the pool! Its as though it is not being filtered out.

Have you checked the spider gasket in the multi-port valve (if it is damaged or unseated it could cause problems such as you describe)  and have you checked the lats (lateral assembly) for damage?

[waterbear]

On 5/9/2025 at 6:21 AM, BriT56 said:

Further investigation revealed the inlet pipe inside the sand filter had sheared off, thereby not filtering the water, just swirling it around inside

Do you by any chance mean the  standpipe? That is not the inlet, it is the outlet. The inlet goes to a diffuser on the top of the filter that "rains' the water on to the top of the sand where it trickles  through the sand (the filtering action) to the lats and up the standpipe and back into the pool (assuming the multi-port valve is in the filter position and the spider gasket is seated properly and not worn or broken).