New pool. Green, cloudy water. Minimal data. What next?

[Monomial]

So I've got a nearly completed house and was cheated by my contractor who stole a bunch of money not only from me but also from most of the subcontractors.

The end result of that is that I have a mostly completed pool with a few problems and no support or training (pool contractor walked off the job). The filtering system of my pool appears less than ideal, but I need to work with what I have. At the moment what I have is an overflow swimming pool filled with green, cloudy water, and at least the vacuum port and water return on the pool seems to work reliably.

I have been through a couple of iterations trying to clear this water, but still have problems. The most recent attempt was as follows:

1. Previous day, one of the Thai construction workers who claimed to know about pools had added nearly half a bag of aluminum sulphate without my consent. I checked the pH a few hours after I found out he did it. It was off the scale, above 8.2 on the cheap test kit. It did result in precipitate on the pool floor, but the water was still green and cloudy. I added nearly 10 liters of 35% HCl to bring the pH down to 7.2. Running the pool filter for 48 hours had no effect.

2. Last night, filter off. Added 15 liters of unscented Haiter to shock the pool. (Pool is about 90 m3).

3. Woke up this morning. Water was still green, but there was a good amount of precipitate on the floor. pH is around 7.3 and chlorine levels are off the chart above 3.0.

4. Attempted to vacuum up the precipitate on the bottom of the pool, but any kind of motion results in the pool becoming cloudy very fast.

Question: what is the next step? Do I add more aluminum sulphate? There is no way algae could have survived the chlorine shock, so the green color must be from suspended particulate matter. I am just afraid to add more aluminum sulphate because so much has been added already.

Also, turning the pool filter on seems counter productive at this point. Agitating the water just makes it cloudy. It will clear slightly if left perfectly still overnight.

Any thoughts on where I should go from here? The pool is in the Rangsit area of northern Bangkok. Water comes from the tessebahn, and is sent through a large filter before reaching the pool, but it is still likely somewhat high in mineral impurities and metal contaminants. If anyone is close by and wants to take a look at it let me know. While money is tight right now, I could pay a reasonable consulting fee.

[sappersrest]

Sorry could you quantify half a bag 25Kg, 5Kg? 2kg

If it was a large quantity Aluminium sulphate basically your pool is worse than useless if he put half a bag in, are sure it was that? Aluminium sulphate is dangerous in the levels you describe as it is only 90 cubic meters you will have to empty it and refill with fresh water.

Warning to others do not use Aluminium sulphate in your pools especially home pool filters which are high rate. you will clog your filter up in no time even worse if you use dry acid, as it will form a plaster of paris in the bottom of the filter.

If you do need to clarify your water contact your pool supplier who will be able to supply you with a suitable product. PAC is fine poly alumium chloride not to be confused with Alum, or aluminium sulphate

Alum is banned in most of europe for use in public pool facilities.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/mar/14/camelford-water-poisoning-timeline-cornwall

Edited March 15, 2016 by sappersrest

[Monomial]

Thank you for your response. I don't have a pool supplier unfortunately. The only pool shop in the area is a small kiosk outside the local Thai Watsadu of a Thai company called Bellagio. There is only 1 girl who works there and has very little knowledge, and they have only an extremely limited selection of chemicals. Aluminum sulphate (san som) is about the only flocculant they have.

Can you offer a specific Thai name of a chemical generally available that they would know about and that you think I should try?

Another thing that I was just noticing, there are definitely clouds of dust around the water return ports (return ports are in the floor of the pool). At first I thought this was just agitation of the dust already in the water in this area, but I am now wondering if the return water itself could be full of particulate matter. E.g. I am not sure there is any filter material in the filter.

Does anyone know how I can verify if there is any sand or other filter material in the filter tank, and if not, how do I add it?

Again, I have no support, the pool contractor is long gone, and there is nobody else I can contact. My knowledge is limited to what I can glean off of YouTube.

[Monomial]

Sorry could you quantify half a bag 25Kg, 5Kg? 2kg

Sorry, as you correctly guessed, 25kg.

[IMHO]

If it's a sand filter, just unbolt the valve/lid and have a look inside

As for the chemical soup that's been created - I agree with sappersrest - empty the pool, clean it, and start again.

[Monomial]

If it's a sand filter, just unbolt the valve/lid and have a look inside

The filter is an Emaux MFS side mount.

I assume when you say "have a look inside" that means place the filter in the "Closed" position, open the pressure valve, and open it.

Are there any water valves I need to shut off before I do that?

And what should I expect to see? How much sand is enough? To restore it, do I simply bolt it back together and move the handle back to "Fillter"?

[sappersrest]

You have no choice dump all the water clean pool/ balance tank refill with fresh water , then start again,You will also need to change your filter media as well or clean it then put it back and top up with fresh media.

Once you have emptied and refilled the pool. contact me by PM and I will talk you through the process of getting it back to shape . Also will let you know what chemicals you will need and how much.

Remember do not empty or refill at a rate of more than 35 mm per hour.

[sappersrest]

Instruction book for your filter.

http://www.emauxgroup.com/MFS%20Series%20Eng%20Version.pdf

[Monomial]

You have no choice dump all the water clean pool/ balance tank refill with fresh water , then start again,You will also need to change your filter media as well or clean it then put it back and top up with fresh media.

Once you have emptied and refilled the pool. contact me by PM and I will talk you through the process of getting it back to shape . Also will let you know what chemicals you will need and how much.

Remember do not empty or refill at a rate of more than 35 mm per hour.

Is there anyone in Thailand who can test the level of sulphates in the water right now to know how bad it is? I really hate to waste water right now given the current drought if I could achieve the same thing just by diluting it. While I accept that a complete change is likely the simplest solution, draining and refilling the entire pool will take 9 days and waste a very large amount of water. I just have a moral problem with that if there is another solution that would work and not be so harmful.

Do I really have absolutely no choice?

[NickJ]

Good luck....I dont know how many times I thought about filling mine in.......Many Thais just dump tons of chorline in and walk away. I bought a floculating agent and then vacumed. Kept my filter on for 30 hours. I bouht hydrochoric acid from the shrimp farm suppliers and the proper chorine and. went from there.....In the future remember to backwash on a very regular basis to prevent chanelling in the sand. .......

[sappersrest]

You have no choice dump all the water clean pool/ balance tank refill with fresh water , then start again,You will also need to change your filter media as well or clean it then put it back and top up with fresh media.

Once you have emptied and refilled the pool. contact me by PM and I will talk you through the process of getting it back to shape . Also will let you know what chemicals you will need and how much.

Remember do not empty or refill at a rate of more than 35 mm per hour.

Is there anyone in Thailand who can test the level of sulphates in the water right now to know how bad it is? I really hate to waste water right now given the current drought if I could achieve the same thing just by diluting it. While I accept that a complete change is likely the simplest solution, draining and refilling the entire pool will take 9 days and waste a very large amount of water. I just have a moral problem with that if there is another solution that would work and not be so harmful.

Do I really have absolutely no choice?

It is not the testing of sulphates , it is the level of aluminium that is the worrying bit. Sulphates will exist in the pool any how as by products from chemical reactions taking place within the pool water, that is why pools should be built using sulphate resistant cement.

If you have young kids or venerable adults using the pool you must empty and clean, you will have to clean everything walls floor sumps sand filter balance tank etc. It is up to yo early onset memory loss is no fun.

In my working career I would have advised that you would have no choice but to empty

[sappersrest]

"Can you offer a specific Thai name of a chemical generally available that they would know about and that you think I should try?"

The forum sponsor has a list of clarifiers on their web site but a bit late for you now.

Looking back at some old notes when Alum was allowed , for a 750m/3 pool the dose rate was 350 grams put into the strainer box of the pump, for a 1.8 m dia filter so 12kg in a pool of your size has overcooked it some what.

[Chaichara]

Well, Monomial, it's a shame you phone is broken.

In your situation I would have got straight on to one of our sponsors and got the right professional advice first hand and free to boot. They have native English, French, German, Swedish, and Thai genuine pool experts and the last thing they do is try to sell you anything. They tell you what you can do and what to buy if you need anything and the rest is up to you.

The main thing to bear in mind however is that chlorine may kill off algae, but it won't clarify the water. Some chemicals are very expensive, some are relatively cheap, but in some cases you can save money by simply draining and refilling the pool and doing the job properly.

[SantiSuk]

Don't worry too much about the drought/environmental thing OP. In the scheme of things 90cu.m. looks a lot but is not really so, unless there is some sort of drought order about. Many of us put that and more on our gardens in an average month and Thais even more so.

Get a well bored if it really irks you, though the average well delivers more problems than an average village supply in my (very limited) experience. I was wondering why my TDS readings for salt levels were going up and up this dry season and was shocked to discover that my well is delivering at over 2,000 ppm (village supply from a much deeper well (I assume) is about 900). You don't have to worry about that with no salt chlorination - just added it as a seasonal caution to other readers who do use that method)