Flocculant and its dosage

[zappalot]

Unfortunately our buildings new committee thought they can take care of the swimming pool by just ordering to monitor the total chlorine value and PH level. The stupid farangs warning that it is only a matter of time until the pool gets green was ignored.

 

So finally the pool became green and after they tried for more than one week without success to get it back to normal they asked me to help out.

 

Now, after emptying half the pool because the cyanuric acid level was way too high and refilling it to bring it back to normal ( it's about 30 now) taking care of that the other values are within range the pool was shocked. free chlorine level is exceeding 20 ppm.

 

The color of the water went from green to a white green color. They ordered a flocculant. It's a fluid one. On the container there aren't any labels. So we called the pool company and they said we have to add 7.5 L per 500,000 L of water.

 

Since we have a volume of about 160,000 L we added 2.4 L.

 

But overnight there was nothing much sinking to the bottom of the pool. After checking back some sites in the Internet I think maybe that was not enough of the fluid flocculant added to the pool. A lot more of this stuff would need to be added (from what I read) but of course I do not know the concentration of this chemical.

[zappalot]

actually after looking again I find some debris on the bottom of the pool, but the water is still green and certainly not all particles were coagulated/flocculated...

 

 

[zappalot]

I also want to say that we added the flocculant yesterday around 3 pm. We let the pool pump run for roughly two hours then.

 

 Unfortunately some Thai ignored the warning sign (in thai and english) not to use the pool and used it around 7:30 pm.

 

I found some spare flocculant from another company saying to add 10 ml per m3 of water, means 1 liter per 100,000 liters. So we might have added the right amount yesterday.

[BEVUP]

Hello Zappalot

I'de like to join you on this as well

What did you use to shock (I just shocked with Household Bleach ) 1200 ml for 5000 ltrs as of 6 pm last night, no change in FC yet

I discovered Ammonia in my little pool so I back washed/rinsed But when I returned to Filter a whole heap of gunk came out (I vacum with a wet & dry one ) don't use the pool system

I'm also thinking of Chlorine Lock which also comes to the same conclusion as Shocking

Will probably use my Granual shocker 

All readings are ok except no Chlorine levels at all Free & Total

 

[zappalot]

What exactly is your household bleach containing?

 

Anyway: you have a different problem. Better to open your own thread...

[sappersrest]

 

Free chlorine level is exceeding 20 ppm. 

To me this is excessively high 10ppm would have sufficed

 

The color of the water went from green to a white green color. They ordered a flocculant. It's a fluid one. On the container there aren't any labels. So we called the pool company and they said we have to add 7.5 L per 500,000 L of water.

DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN YOUR POOL OUT OF A CONTAINER THAT HAS NO LABLE TOTALY FOOLHARDY AND POSSIBLY DANGEROUS.

 

But overnight there was nothing much sinking to the bottom of the pool. After checking back some sites in the Internet I think maybe that was not enough of the fluid flocculant added to the pool. A lot more of this stuff would need to be added (from what I read) but of course I do not know the concentration of this chemical.

Or what infact the chemical was.

 

Ok you have been going up the wrong track  to tackle the problem

You need to treat with an algicide first.

Secondly a flocculant generally called a clarifier , the object is to coat all the small particles that are in suspension in the water so as they become large enough to be caught in the filter and not cause them to sink to the bottom . Hence the continual filtration and successive back washes as laid out below.

2 hours is not long enough to run the pump try 24hrs

 

 

This  is part copy of a reply to you  on a similar problem back in June.

 

Calculate the volume of your pool this ensures that you get the correct amount of chemicals required.

A  good quality algaecide and pool water clarifier, the later is important (polyaluminiumchloride based is best, PAC)

Ensure the chemical level in the pool are as required see labels on bottles very important..

Add algaecide as directed ensuring pool is circulating.

Brush vigorously the areas that are infected, use pool vac to pic up as much debris as you can, but don't worry if  you cant

Run the pool circulation for a full 24 hours to ensure even distribution of algaecide.

Backwash filter

Add pool clarifier to the water run pool circulation for say 4 hours backwash filter, repeat this process  acouple of times.

 

 

DO NOT USE ALUM AS A CLARIFIER IT WILL MESS YOUR FILTER UP.

 

As I have said before  GET A PROFFESIONAL COMPANY IN TO LOOK AFTER YOUR POOL.

 

 

[sappersrest]

3 hours ago, BEVUP said:

Hello Zappalot

I'de like to join you on this as well

What did you use to shock (I just shocked with Household Bleach ) 1200 ml for 5000 ltrs as of 6 pm last night, no change in FC yet

I discovered Ammonia in my little pool so I back washed/rinsed But when I returned to Filter a whole heap of gunk came out (I vacum with a wet & dry one ) don't use the pool system

I'm also thinking of Chlorine Lock which also comes to the same conclusion as Shocking

Will probably use my Granual shocker 

All readings are ok except no Chlorine levels at all Free & Total

 

Hi no reason to start a new thread could you supply a bit more info so as members of this forum may guide you.

what is the size of your pool.?

Do you have any readings of chemical levels?

If you have detected an ammonia type smell is the pool indoors.

for a very small kids pool  a touch of household bleach whilst not recommend won't do any lasting damage the problem it is very week in the range of 1-5 percent of sodium hypochlorite as opposed to sodium hypochlorite for pool use 10 -15 percent  i.e. liquid chlorine.

 

[zappalot]

After complaining a lot to the company delivering the container without a label they brought the label. It is NOT a flocculant. It is a clarifier.

 

So that is why nothing sank to the bottom of the pool.

 

@sappersrest thanks for the explanation. But from what I read on countless websites there is a difference between clarifier and flocculant. The latter lets the particles clog together and sink to the ground where they can be vacuum cleaned away after 8 hours.

Clarifier makes sure that the particles can be collected by the filter but do  not make the particles sink to the bottom of the pool...

 

A professional company would refuse to take care of our pool. Grout is largely damaged, in the gaps between the tiles the algae are happily growing and just today I found out the filter is damaged (already got a quotation and will order tomorrow the spare parts necessary, but regrouting? not at soon...) And the building tried many pool companies, so far none of them even new what cyanuric acid is. They think I am crazy by telling them about CA...

 

 

 

 

[BEVUP]

18 hours ago, sappersrest said:

Hi no reason to start a new thread could you supply a bit more info so as members of this forum may guide you.

what is the size of your pool.?

Do you have any readings of chemical levels?

If you have detected an ammonia type smell is the pool indoors.

for a very small kids pool  a touch of household bleach whilst not recommend won't do any lasting damage the problem it is very week in the range of 1-5 percent of sodium hypochlorite as opposed to sodium hypochlorite for pool use 10 -15 percent  i.e. liquid chlorine.

 

Hello Sappersrest

Pool is just a dunking pool & equates to 5000 ltrs being app. 1 mt deep & under cover (in Moo Baan)

Readings  0 Chlorine anywhere - Hardness 250 - PH 7 - Alk 80 - CYA maybe 10 -- I use AquaCheck 7 strip - Ammonia 2 (Red Sea ) test kit

My set up is Sparta pump (100 ) app. 9 m3 p/h & a Onga Pantera ll sand filter (LSFll-21-40)

I also run through 500mtrs of 16 mm Poly tubing on the roof (after filter)

Bleach was 6 % Vol

I plan to put 100 grms of Hy-Clor Super Shock in, But need to vacum the gunk that came out of the filter first

[Bagwain]

There is another possible reason for the green colour that hasn't been mentioned and by the look of the photo it could very likely be Magnesium. When there is enough present in the water it will react with chlorine, oxidise & turn the water green. If iron is present then the pool turns brown. Seen this many times in the Pattaya area. The only way to get it out is with filtration. Flocking helps but only a little. The media that best suits this is either "Eco Clear" recycled plate glass or Zeolite. This happened a few times with start ups at Ramayana Water Park prior opening.

[zappalot]

So after I got the right chemical, the flocculant, I got back the swimming pool to nice and sparkling clean water quickly.

I added the flocculant in the evening. In the morning all the dead algae clumped together and was sunk to the  bottom of the pool. From there it could be vacuum cleaned away quite easily. Of course we set the valve to waste. There was just one thing that might be interesting for others: we have a water balance tank with about 20,000 L. I couldn't vacuum clean anything out from there. So after we let the filter run the water became slightly cloudy again from the dead algae left over in the water balance tank.  So we let the pool rest again for one night vacuum cleaning out the remaining algae and other debris then.

 

Since they follow my advice now the pool is clean and well-balanced.