Here's an overview on pool care in general with step-by-step guidelines.

Filtration — Taking Care of Your Filter

A clean filter contributes greatly to keeping your pool water clear and sparkling, and allows your sanitizer to work more effectively. And a clear, sparkling pool looks attractive, operates smoothly, and adds to your enjoyment.

Over the length of a pool season, daily filter cycles and routine vacuuming can lead to a build-up of dirt, grease, oil and scale that routine backwashing cannot remove. This kind of build-up will lead to reduced filtration efficiency of the pool filter, resulting in cloudy, murky water. Filter inefficiency can also encourage algae growth and reduce the effectiveness of your pool maintenance products.

Filters also remove debris (particles of dust, dirt, algae, etc.) that continuously enter the pool water. If the filter doesn’t operate correctly or long enough each day – or isn’t maintained properly – then it cannot remove debris from the pool. When this happens, you put a burden on maintenance products, causing extra expense. It becomes a vicious cycle of debris getting the best of the pool and the maintenance products in the water.

Here is a list of the three different types of pool filters:

Sand Filter
The filtering medium in this type of tank filter is sand. An overdrain distributes incoming water over the sand bed and debris is trapped between the layers of sand.

Cartridge Filter
This filter has a self-contained element (cartridge) that can be removed from the tank for cleaning. Surface or paper cartridges trap debris on their surfaces, while depth cartridges have a thicker media which debris penetrates.

Diatomaceous Earth (D.E.) Filter
This filter uses diatomaceous earth, a powdery substance composed of microscopic prehistoric diatom skeletons, as the filtering medium. The filter structure is composed of screens covered in septa (porous cloth). Diatomaceous earth is used to coat the septa and catch the debris as the water flows through.

The best way to avoid filtration problems is to keep the filter and its components clean and in good condition. A basic maintenance routine includes:

To remove particles too small to filter out, use Pool Time Super Water Clarifier. This product binds these small particles into larger masses that can be filtered out.

Here are instructions for cleaning each pool filter type:

Sand Filter
Backwash first. Then clean the filter sand with Pool Time Filter & Cartridge Cleaner as follows. Turn off the pump. Close the valves into and out of the filter. Add the product full-strength to the filter top through the inspection port, anode port, sand fill or pressure gauge hole (whichever is applicable). After 1 hour, open valves, turn on the pump and backwash the filter thoroughly. Resume normal operation.

Cartridge Filter
Turn off the pump. Remove cartridge from the filter housing and rinse with a strong spray of water. Then soak in Pool Time Filter & Cartridge Cleaner according to label instructions.

D.E. Filter
Backwash, then turn off the pump and drain. Remove the element and clean thoroughly with Pool Time Filter & Cartridge Cleaner to remove build-up of grease, oil and scale. Inspect the septa for tears or stretching and repair or replace if needed. Clean the inside of the filter tank, reinstall the element and re-assemble the filter. Turn on the pump, recharge the filter with fresh diatomaceous earth and resume normal operation.

(For detailed product information, go to Specialty Products.)

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This analysis is designed for use only with the Pool Time® brand products named in this computerized water analysis printout, and is correct to the best of RWP, Inc.'s knowledge. RWP is not responsible for any use of this printout with products other than the Pool Time ® brand products named in this printout, and use of this printout with other products could result in improper or incorrect treatment of the pool water.