Clean Mud from the Swimming Pool

Did you get mud in your swimming pool after this recent downpour in Durban? As pool owners, we spend so much time making sure our swimming pools are crystal clear and inviting to dive into.

After staying perfectly clear during the months we don’t use our pool, the weather warms up and…voila! A flash flood. Dumping all the beautiful top soil from our garden beds into our swimming pool!

The best thing to do when you suspect you have mud in your pool is to disconnect the APC (Automatic Pool Cleaner) or ‘Kreepy’, as some of us like to refer to all pool cleaners. 

If the pool is overflowing then backwash the filter. Make sure you’re not touching the circuit breaker on the pool DB with both of your feet submerged in water. You could get a tingle in your arm, or you could get a lights-out situation. For good.

If it’s safe to do so, backwash some water out of your pool, and make sure the Automatic Pool Cleaner (Kreepy) isn’t connected to the vacuum lid in the weir. If it is connected, you’ll just be sucking mud into your filter.

So, now you have a muddy pool. Even the Labrador is turning his nose up at it. Below is my step-by-step procedure to flocculate and vacuum your own pool. I use this to train my staff on how to vacuum customers’ pools. 

Flocculation is the process by which individual particles of suspended matter in water coagulate into clot-like masses or precipitate into small lumps. Flocculation occurs as a result of a chemical reaction between the particles and another substance, usually alum powder – in the case of swimming pool treatment.

A few things to take note of:

This soil and rain water has rendered your pool water totally out of balance. You’ll need to get it checked at a competent pool shop, preferably with a water test station that can test, calcium, stabilizer, TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and Total alkalinity. (I’m not trying to scare you with these big words, but these simple factors of your water balance will be the difference between a well behaved pool and a pool you’ll want to fill in with sand.)

Flocculate and Vacuum a swimming pool

1. Raise the water in the pool to its highest level and clear all leaf trapping devices. 

2. Select ‘Bypass’ or ‘Circulate’ on the Multi-Port Valve

3. Add 1kg Alum Powder per 20kl of pool water. (If the pool is green, add an algaecide and chlorine to the water too.)

4. Run the pool pump and filter on bypass for two to four hours, then turn off the pump and allow the sediment to settle overnight. (Or longer if needs be).

5. Connect one end of the pool vacuum (Kreepy) hose to an 8-wheel vacuum device or a hollow brush and the other end to the vacuum lid in the weir.

6. Turn the filter Multi-port Valve to ‘Waste”

7. Turn on the pump and vacuum the sediment off the bottom of the pool. Take care not to stir up the sediment into the water as you are vacuuming. (The trick here is to be quick enough not to run out of water in the pool but slow enough not to agitate the water.) Perhaps run a hose pipe into the weir whilst doing this to ensure you have enough water to complete the task.

8. Turn off the pump and set the filter valve to the “Filter” position. Disconnect the pool vacuum.

9. Replace the water lost through vacuuming and bring the water level in the pool back to normal.

10. Backwash the pool filter.

11. Set the Multi-port valve to “Filter” for normal operation. 

NB: Balance pool water

I hope you have found this article helpful. We can offer you this service if you live in the Durban North area.