backwashing

[paul western australia]

Its the very hot time of year here 40c plus and a lot of sugar cane ash falls into pool..Need to vac twice a day. 60,000 ltr pool. How often should I backwash..or would it be easier to vac on waste..Spending heaps on acid to get ph back to normal

[Ickle]

Yea if your getting alot of dust you can try vac'ing to waste, then you could backwash as normal, see how that goes. The vac'ing to waste you would also find a difference in the water, the pH you may find easier to control with a little more fresh water going in.

[Pool Owner]

Wow! Is there any chance of getting a cover on your pool during your “ash season”? If the season last very long, you may want to consider investing in an automatic cover to make things easier. If you are not doing so, clean your deck before the pool is used to prevent tracking in more dust.

Another idea would be to look into one of the newer robot cleaners that skims as well as cleans the bottom. If you can clean its filter frequently, you will keep the dust out of your pool filter and maybe keep some of the ash from dissolving into your water (helping with the Ph).

One more idea would be to get a second small pool pump and cartridge filter. Attached them to a platform so you a separate system for vacuuming. This would let you put the water back in the pool but get the ash out of the water system quickly. I would wash the filter out after each use. You can even send the water back into your primary filter system through the skimmer.

Ickle has given you some good ideas. However, a lot of fresh water could create other problems as you balance the fresh water.

[Ickle]

yea i understand what Pool Owner has said, and totally agree, as you say the addition of fresh water may be a problem but generally, once you are in routine during the season, the time taken to manually vac your pool drops dramatically and in a generally would only take 10 minutes, or in terms of water 1". This amount may be a problem on a small size pool.
I was speaking to someone recently who has aslo had this very same problem, he has made him self a settling tank, pumping water off the skimmer for so many hours a day into a tank, then letting the tank settle, and pumping the dust free water back into the main body of the pool. Im not suggesting this, its alot of hassle.
Be carefull that an automatic cleaner doesnt stir the water and so dust up to much to quick.

[JD_KY]

I am having to backwash more often than I did the last 3 years. I am having to do it every other day if not every day to reduce pressure and keep the skimmer skimming. All I did was replace the sand with sand from the pool store. Did I do something wrong?