Pool problem

The cover we bought doesn't keep the muck out so periodically during the winter I have to roll the cover off and clean the pool.

Normally I vacuum the bottom through the filter which takes out the dust. Then I backwash the filter to remove the waste the filter has trapped. That way I'm not draining lots of water from the pool.

When I tried that yesterday though the dust was just passing through the filter and coming back into the pool making the water grey.

Apart from the fact that it is freezing, nobody would want to swim in grey water.

I'm not sure what the best answer to the problem is:-

• I could add flocculant which should bind the dust particles together making them easier for the filter to trap.
  
• I could vacuum to waste once the dust has settled again. Then top up with fresh water.
  
• I could call in John Reed (the pool man) on the basis that there may be a problem with the filter.

Since there is already flocculant in the chlorine I use, the first plan would probably not work. Vacuuming to waste should solve the problem for now but if the filter isn't trapping dust then this could be an ongoing problem.

I think I'll try plan two and then resort to plan three if that fails.

....and you thought that living in Spain was easy!!!