So much rain !!!

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
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And yes, i know its the rainny season.

But even so, its been raining every single day.
Not that I mind, though. Garden and conuco looks great.

But...........

Water ( mains ) is dirty !!! And i mean really, really dirty.*
Open the tap, fill *mug, leave it out on the table, wife will drink it thinking it is weak coffee. ;) ;)
I kid you not.
It comes out cleaner, but not clean ( not that the mains water is*ever clean ), so lets say clearer.

Problem #1. How to wash clothes ? Especially white clothes. Dirty whites are stacking up :(

Problem #2. How to stop alguae from growing on the bottom of cement thingys ( like flower beds, etc....) ?
Of course they are all white so that doesnt help.
Wifey scrubs with bleach and*ace ( ? cheap soap powder ? ) and pi?on ( nice smelly thing used to wash floors and stuff ).
But then it rains ( pours really, thats not drizzle or even rain, its more like end of the world stuff ) and we have to start over again. ( yes,*we, cos the new cleaning lady she hired wasnt to my liking, so got rid of her......hence wifey excerts vengeance by getting me to help her :( ).
I proposed painting everything green to solve the problem :). I thought it was a good idea. She didnt. She gets the last word. ( well I didnt argue too much, since it would be me painting the 15 tree beds and the 90 or so meters of flower beds, mind you ).

Problem #3. If you dont maintain the pool clean every single day, the alguaes creep out at night and smother one in his sleep.
And even when cleaned, the water still has a*murky look to it. I doubled everything, cloro, acid and soda . And tripled anti-alguae ( and got 2 diffrent brands to be on the safe side ).
There again no evaporation problem.
Thank God, cos I cant top it up with dirty mains water :(.
Any ideas ?


So how long will this weather last ?
 

the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
33,997
83
0
And yes, i know its the rainny season.

But even so, its been raining every single day.
Not that I mind, though. Garden and conuco looks great.

But...........

Water ( mains ) is dirty !!! And i mean really, really dirty.*
Open the tap, fill *mug, leave it out on the table, wife will drink it thinking it is weak coffee. ;) ;)
I kid you not.
It comes out cleaner, but not clean ( not that the mains water is*ever clean ), so lets say clearer.

Problem #1. How to wash clothes ? Especially white clothes. Dirty whites are stacking up :(

Problem #2. How to stop alguae from growing on the bottom of cement thingys ( like flower beds, etc....) ?
Of course they are all white so that doesnt help.
Wifey scrubs with bleach and*ace ( ? cheap soap powder ? ) and pi?on ( nice smelly thing used to wash floors and stuff ).
But then it rains ( pours really, thats not drizzle or even rain, its more like end of the world stuff ) and we have to start over again. ( yes,*we, cos the new cleaning lady she hired wasnt to my liking, so got rid of her......hence wifey excerts vengeance by getting me to help her :( ).
I proposed painting everything green to solve the problem :). I thought it was a good idea. She didnt. She gets the last word. ( well I didnt argue too much, since it would be me painting the 15 tree beds and the 90 or so meters of flower beds, mind you ).

Problem #3. If you dont maintain the pool clean every single day, the alguaes creep out at night and smother one in his sleep.
And even when cleaned, the water still has a*murky look to it. I doubled everything, cloro, acid and soda . And tripled anti-alguae ( and got 2 diffrent brands to be on the safe side ).
There again no evaporation problem.
Thank God, cos I cant top it up with dirty mains water :(.
Any ideas ?


So how long will this weather last ?

it is the caribbean rainy season. it is not going to be over next week, i can assure you.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
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i was wondering when you were going to say something :) local news report that guananico area is royally f**ked...

anyways, where does your water come from? well? tinaco? cistern? direct from coraaplata system? it's been raining in POP as well but our water is clean. coraaplata delivers to the cistern, we drop a cloro pill inside, never had an issue. maybe it's worth to revise your water delivery system?

i swim every day in my SILs pool and i don't really see any issues with the quality of the water. apart from it being apocalyptically cold.
 

wuarhat

I am a out of touch hippie.
Nov 13, 2006
1,378
89
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Wasn't it you who invested in a tower for your tinaco? For a few (thousand) pesos more you can catch the water coming off your roof, and any other fairly clean surface, during the rain and use it to fill that tinaco with some of the cleanest water you're likely to find.
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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Problem #3. If you dont maintain the pool clean every single day, the alguaes creep out at night and smother one in his sleep.
And even when cleaned, the water still has a*murky look to it. I doubled everything, cloro, acid and soda . And tripled anti-alguae ( and got 2 diffrent brands to be on the safe side ).
There again no evaporation problem.
Thank God, cos I cant top it up with dirty mains water :(.
Any ideas ?


So how long will this weather last ?
I feel your pain.

Several things:

1) You need to shock your pool. That means rqising the chlorine levels to at least 11ppm for 3 days while running the filter 24/7. Because the water you put in the pool, unlike the country from which you came, comes untreated it has a lot of organic material in it. You need to keep the pool chlorine levels at least not falling below 5ppm.

2) There are algaecide agents that work well. I found one called "3 Month Algaecide" at Ochoa in Saniago that works, very, very well.

3) The pool pump needs to be run at least, at a minimum, 4 hours a day.

4) There are clarifying agents that take particles too small to filter and more or less "coagulate" them to be better filterable.

5) The sand filter on my pool is terrible. Awful. But I found a way to more than make up it's inefficiency using some ingenuity. I bought a package of 5 1 micron diesel fuel filters. I fashioned four to attach to the filter outlet nozzles with stainless steel hose clamps, and use one to filter the water coming into the pool when the level gets low. This has worked excellently and my pool is crystal clear. These are the filter bags found on ebay, 5 for $23: 1 Micron diesel filter bags on ebay

If you search, I did a thread on these bags.

6) VERY IMPORTANT! What is the condition of your pool surface, whether paint or marcite? If the surface is nor really smooth, algae will stick to it and be very difficult to control. Last spring we drained and painted the pool with two coats of oil-based pool paint, and the appearance of algae has been almost non-existent.

My pool went from yuck to pristine using the above suggestions.
 

Fulano2

Bronze
Jun 5, 2011
3,289
621
113
Europe
Wasn't it you who invested in a tower for your tinaco? For a few (thousand) pesos more you can catch the water coming off your roof, and any other fairly clean surface, during the rain and use it to fill that tinaco with some of the cleanest water you're likely to find.


Agua de zinc you mean, it's not rainwater ...
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,545
1,327
113
i was wondering when you were going to say something :) local news report that guananico area is royally f**ked...

anyways, where does your water come from? well? tinaco? cistern? direct from coraaplata system? it's been raining in POP as well but our water is clean. coraaplata delivers to the cistern, we drop a cloro pill inside, never had an issue. maybe it's worth to revise your water delivery system?

i swim every day in my SILs pool and i don't really see any issues with the quality of the water. apart from it being apocalyptically cold.

water comes from the mains, mainly. I think it is corraplata.
One pipe goes directly into the pool ( yes bad idea, but it does have improvised filter ),
Another pipe comes into either 1) *the house circuit and tinaco or 2) into underground cistern. There is a "switch"/check thing on the incoming pipe to go from #1 to #2.
Problem, which is actually a problem and an advantage,*
When I am on #2, if we are lucky enough to have a lot of pressure on the mains, the sur-plus goes to #1.*

Advantage: if I forget ( or my better half ) forgets to switch the switch/check then u still have half a chance that the tinaco is filling up. Also uncan leave the house unattended ( or attended by a half-wit ), leave the system on #2 , when the cistern is full the water goes to #1.

PROBLEM : and it is a first, and I wouldnt have thought complaining about*too much water in my campo. There is so much mains water that on position #2 the water is still coming as well theough # 1.

Solution. Close the whole damn mains off ( which I did ), but one can only go for a couple of days/weeks with tinaco and cistern reserve.
Other solution is to shut off tinaco water entry valve and then juggle between cistern + bomba.

As it is I am totally fukcked anyhow as both tinaco and cistern will need yet another cleaning/scrubbing.

Oh and yes I use cloro thingys, same ones as pool, in cistern, and smaller ones in tinaco.

And yes !!!! The pool water is cold !!
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,545
1,327
113
Wasn't it you who invested in a tower for your tinaco? For a few (thousand) pesos more you can catch the water coming off your roof, and any other fairly clean surface, during the rain and use it to fill that tinaco with some of the cleanest water you're likely to find.

I actually do catch lots of rain water from roof. Mainly from the evacuation pipes off the flat roof into huge plastic barrel thingys. But we mainly use as source for cleaning patio, watering garden ( hardly needed now :) ) and as drinking water for the animals.
The problem is the water tower + tinaco is higher than the roofs. So as to have some pressure for showers and stuff.
So how would I get it up into tinaco ?
( *the mains water forces water up throught the pipes to fill it or cistern + pump if long time without mains ).
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,545
1,327
113
I feel your pain.

Several things:

1) You need to shock your pool. That means rqising the chlorine levels to at least 11ppm for 3 days while running the filter 24/7. Because the water you put in the pool, unlike the country from which you came, comes untreated it has a lot of organic material in it. You need to keep the pool chlorine levels at least not falling below 5ppm.

2) There are algaecide agents that work well. I found one called "3 Month Algaecide" at Ochoa in Saniago that works, very, very well.

3) The pool pump needs to be run at least, at a minimum, 4 hours a day.

4) There are clarifying agents that take particles too small to filter and more or less "coagulate" them to be better filterable.

5) The sand filter on my pool is terrible. Awful. But I found a way to more than make up it's inefficiency using some ingenuity. I bought a package of 5 1 micron diesel fuel filters. I fashioned four to attach to the filter outlet nozzles with stainless steel hose clamps, and use one to filter the water coming into the pool when the level gets low. This has worked excellently and my pool is crystal clear. These are the filter bags found on ebay, 5 for $23: 1 Micron diesel filter bags on ebay

If you search, I did a thread on these bags.

6) VERY IMPORTANT! What is the condition of your pool surface, whether paint or marcite? If the surface is nor really smooth, algae will stick to it and be very difficult to control. Last spring we drained and painted the pool with two coats of oil-based pool paint, and the appearance of algae has been almost non-existent.

My pool went from yuck to pristine using the above suggestions.

1 ) yeah shocked it 3 days ago and hoovered the following 2 days. Got it clean !!* even without running 24 hours ( cos its a 220v pump, and doesnt run on inversor, and even though its getting better, we still dont have more than 12 hours electricity a day :(*
Poured all night long, last night, green is creeping into it again :(

2) i use alguae-kill , purple liquid comes in gallons, from ochoa santiago. *( the one they have on linear display ).
I also use algae-destroy, concentrated, blue colour. Also from ochoa santiago.

3) i am running pump as much as possible. Maybe 6-8 hours a day, luz allowing

4) also use those. Clarifying and agglomarate particule thingy. Concentrate, blue liquid, also from ochoa santiago.
I also use a clear looking liquid a friend brings to me. He works at a hotel in POP and thats what they use.

5) i will try that !! Thanks. I cut out the pump-entry pipe. Installed a tube directly from a seperate mains. ( cos otherwise i was draining tinaco dry when filling up pool. See complicated previous post ;) ). I do have a home made filter for that.

6) same again, lol. Last year, or year before, drained pool and painted with special pool paint. The kind u mix a small tin with a big tin. I went from blue bottom to white bottom and it helped a lot.
Its a cement pool.
Had a problem with one of the underwater lights recently ( was leaking bad, bad ) and had to dig it out and cement over :(.*

Thanks for the detailled answer . :)
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
our water system for the house is simple: coraaplata delivers to a large underground cistern and from there the water is distributed by the piping directly into the house. we had a tinaco on the roof but we decided to get rid of it. there was always some minor leakage in the piping or the tinaco itself (all exposed to the elements) and we are better off without it. the pump does turn on/off depending on how much water is used. some water always remains in the pipes, enough to, say, flush the loo or wash the hands. if the tap is on for longer time the pump kicks in. it's never on for a considerable amount of time, as much as it takes to shower or do the dishes, whatever. pump is connected to the inversor so it works even during blackouts. our monthly power bill is pretty low so it does not use a lot of electricity.

water is always plentiful (we are conscious of any waste) and clean thanks to cloro pill dropped into the cistern every now and then (the same used for pools).

now, mind you, all this is for two adults, there are no dimwitted birdbrains around who would forget to close the taps, turn off the lights and generate waste. it may not work for more crowded and less self aware households.
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,545
1,327
113
Agua de zinc you mean, it's not rainwater ...

Meaning zinc is in the rain water ?*
Or meaning off zinc roof ? In which case its a mix of ciment-tar-and-tiles water ;)*

Lots of people in my campo*drink the rain water. Agua de dios. Yeah right..... not for me !!!
 

wuarhat

I am a out of touch hippie.
Nov 13, 2006
1,378
89
48
I actually do catch lots of rain water from roof. Mainly from the evacuation pipes off the flat roof into huge plastic barrel thingys. But we mainly use as source for cleaning patio, watering garden ( hardly needed now :) ) and as drinking water for the animals.
The problem is the water tower + tinaco is higher than the roofs. So as to have some pressure for showers and stuff.
So how would I get it up into tinaco ?
( *the mains water forces water up throught the pipes to fill it or cistern + pump if long time without mains ).

You'd need a small pump for that. They call them ladrones and they sell for $1000-$1500 DOP. I thought you might have had one because where I've been staying lately, that is the only means of elevating water from the cistern to the tinaco. Maybe you could rig some mini towers right under the down spouts that are capable of feeding your laundry area by gravity. Just be careful. It doesn't take much water to crush an ill conceived water tower.
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,545
1,327
113
Wasn't it you who invested in a tower for your tinaco? For a few (thousand) pesos more you can catch the water coming off your roof, and any other fairly clean surface, during the rain and use it to fill that tinaco with some of the cleanest water you're likely to find.

Used some of that rain water, which*is very clear ( not to sure about clean though ), *to do clothes washing. Which solved one of the problems.
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,545
1,327
113
You'd need a small pump for that. They call them ladrones and they sell for $1000-$1500 DOP. I thought you might have had one because where I've been staying lately, that is the only means of elevating water from the cistern to the tinaco. Maybe you could rig some mini towers right under the down spouts that are capable of feeding your laundry area by gravity. Just be careful. It doesn't take much water to crush an ill conceived water tower.

I actually do have a ladrones to fill pool, while " stealing " more than my fair share of mains water, if u see what I mean.
The 2 other pumps, cistern one and pool ones, work off 220V. *And are closed circuits, and I'd problably never get them working again if i fiddeled with the installation :)

Great minds think alike !! Was thinking of installing one of those square-caged-in-metal tinaco thingys, on a " shelve " on tower under main tinaco. Which conviently, said tower, is next to my laundry/second kitchen/ gas bottle room . So good idea for the laundry. Its a seperate edifice from the house and gives over the conuco. ( *so if it goes, i wont die drowned in my sleep ;) )
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,545
1,327
113
our water system for the house is simple: coraaplata delivers to a large underground cistern and from there the water is distributed by the piping directly into the house. we had a tinaco on the roof but we decided to get rid of it. there was always some minor leakage in the piping or the tinaco itself (all exposed to the elements) and we are better off without it. the pump does turn on/off depending on how much water is used. some water always remains in the pipes, enough to, say, flush the loo or wash the hands. if the tap is on for longer time the pump kicks in. it's never on for a considerable amount of time, as much as it takes to shower or do the dishes, whatever. pump is connected to the inversor so it works even during blackouts. our monthly power bill is pretty low so it does not use a lot of electricity.

water is always plentiful (we are conscious of any waste) and clean thanks to cloro pill dropped into the cistern every now and then (the same used for pools).

now, mind you, all this is for two adults, there are no dimwitted birdbrains around who would forget to close the taps, turn off the lights and generate waste. it may not work for more crowded and less self aware households.

That was the same system as mine, when i first arrived here.
#1. We had like 6 hours of electricity a day. And the pump is 220v, so doesnt work with inversor.
#2. No electricity, no automatic pump kick in. And me fresh from 1st world still showered, flushed toilets....... pipes ran dry. Electrity comes back on, pump runs dry, need to go and prime pump. ( which is built in a small cave under the house. I would mumble and mutter going to prime pump. Then bang my head 9 times on the ceiling of the cave built to dominican campo proportions, ie if u under 165 cm u are ok----- i am not. Coming back from primming pump i would be swearing and kicking things :) ).
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
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6) same again, lol. Last year, or year before, drained pool and painted with special pool paint. The kind u mix a small tin with a big tin. I went from blue bottom to white bottom and it helped a lot.
Its a cement pool.
Had a problem with one of the underwater lights recently ( was leaking bad, bad ) and had to dig it out and cement over :(.*

Thanks for the detailled answer . :)
Keep in mind that rainwater & street water has organic matter in it, algae included.

Check the ph. If it's out of whack get it in range or you'll have a continuous problem.

I'd also suggest those diesel fuel filters. 1 micron is pretty dang tiny. You'd be appalled at how much crap in is what seems to be "clear" water. It's nasty. And attaching those filter bags to the exit nozzles can make a world of difference in 72 hours as the water circulates. And, once again, you'd be amazed at the amount of crap your filter is missing.

FWIW, I learned about diesel filters at my business as we had to use them in fuel trucks for Jet A fuel pumped into jets. Oddly enough, organic matter can grow in jet fuel.
 

chico bill

Dogs Better than People
May 6, 2016
12,577
6,333
113
Keep in mind that rainwater & street water has organic matter in it, algae included.

Check the ph. If it's out of whack get it in range or you'll have a continuous problem.

I'd also suggest those diesel fuel filters. 1 micron is pretty dang tiny. You'd be appalled at how much crap in is what seems to be "clear" water. It's nasty. And attaching those filter bags to the exit nozzles can make a world of difference in 72 hours as the water circulates. And, once again, you'd be amazed at the amount of crap your filter is missing.

FWIW, I learned about diesel filters at my business as we had to use them in fuel trucks for Jet A fuel pumped into jets. Oddly enough, organic matter can grow in jet fuel.


Use also an Algaecide and Phosphate prevention additives to help control algae. Modern pool equipment might help as many older homes have antiquated pool equipment and it is seldom maintained.
 

Drperson

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2008
1,061
290
83
I use a water filter for all the water in the house and pool. The are cheap. Stop by I have one u can try