Florida pool owners: Pollen or algae?

[bizbad]

I have had my pool running for 10 months and didnt have any issues until around November with what I thought was mustard algae. I then get rid of it and it seems that after we get our once a month sprinkle during the dry season it comes right back. Its is back again but this time it doesnt seem to want to brush off the walls like before. Several people told me that pollen collects on the pool cage and then is washed in during the rain. My chlorine level never drops and my cya is kept at 50 which is low for my salt chlorinator. Anyone else deal with this on a regular basis? I am really getting tired of shocking with bleach once a month.

[chem geek]

In case this is mustard/yellow algae, what is the FC level you maintain in your SWG pool with your 50 ppm CYA level? I believe that 7.5 ppm FC will keep away mustard/yellow algae at 50 ppm CYA in a non-SWG pool so it would be interesting to try and determine if that much is also required in an SWG pool. My guess is that a combination of regular brushing plus a level of somewhere between 3.6 and 5.7 ppm FC might be sufficient. Knowing your typical FC setting would be helpful in finding the critical FC level needed to keep away this algae.

Richard

[aylad]

We have pretty much year round pollen here, but I find that it rinses off the pool side at the water line very easily, and turning on the pump for a couple of hours takes care of it. I'm leaning toward an algae problem in your pool.

Janet

[bizbad]

I keep my cya close to 50 even though they say I should run it higher. When the algae appeared though I was closer to 25 due to a drain and fill. I never let the chlorine go below 2 ppm. It doesnt seem to matter where I keep the chlorine this stuff always reappears. I am just curious if this is a regional pollen problem or not. I am very good at keeping up with pool maintenance and a friend down the road always gets it the same time I do.

[gonefishin]

Do you have a picture you could post?

Get some sort of squeeze bottle with a dropper type tip. This way you can squeeze the air out of the bottle while your above ground...and the as you carefully swim down to the bottom gently place the squeeze bottle tip near the "substance". Then suck some of the substance up into the squeeze bottle and deposit it into a glass jar.

Once it is in the jar you can let it settle for a day or so. After it settles you should be able to tell if it is pollen. If it isn't...could you get more samples?

do you have a full set of test results on your water?

thanks,
dan

[gonefishin]

We have pretty much year round pollen here, but I find that it rinses off the pool side at the water line very easily, and turning on the pump for a couple of hours takes care of it. I'm leaning toward an algae problem in your pool.

Janet

If the pollen is given enough time to get water logged it will sink to the bottom.

What type of filter do you have?

thanks,
dan

[cleancloths]

Could be pollen. My pool was crystal clear on Friday and on Saturday it was very cloudy, could barely see the main drain in the deep end. The chlorine level is fine and nothing else is abnormall. I have had this happen a couple of times in the past at this time of year. The cherry trees are just blooming and the dust that comes off them is unreal. My son's black car looked white yesterday and he washed it and a few hours later it was white again. So, I assume it is just pollen in the pool.

The problem is that I think the pore size may be smaller than what the dE filter will remove. I just threw my Blue Pearl in thinking that its filter bag may be able to help get this crap out of the water.

[cleancloths]

The Pearls is working wonders. The shallow end is crystal clear and I can see the main drain clearly in the deep end. It has been running for about 3 hours, I'll run it for another 3 and the pool should be perfect again.

[aylad]

If the pollen is given enough time to get water logged it will sink to the bottom.

What type of filter do you have?

thanks,
dan

Sand filter, 1 hp pump on 29K gallon IG pool. I don't give it enough time to get waterlogged, but even so, a quick brushing will bring it all back into the suspension again and the filter takes care of it very effeciently.

Janet

[gonefishin]

The pollen around here has been unreal too. A few weeks ago I had thought I had a mustard algae problem because it looked just like what others had taken a picture of and also called mustard algae. At first i hadn't noticed any pollen problems near my house.

But after several weeks of this problem had gone by...I had shocked at a high rate but the problem persisted. I also noticed at one point that it looked like I may be beating the problem because I didn't notice any more of the substance in the bottom of the pool. But this coincided with a rain one time (knocking down the pollen) and what I suspect being in between bloom times of the trees.

I took a sample and it was clear that the problem was pollen and not mustard algae. It wasn't until a few days after I had taken my samples that the wind was blowing while I was outside and it looked like it was raining pollen. The amount was unbelievable!

After a bit more time I also started to notice a large amount of white scale pieces in my pool. These are seed encased in a seedcaot attached to a "wing" (which is how the seed "flies" away from the tree. What I believe is happening is that the problem I have is a combination of pollen AND these seeds.

Now I vacuum my pool every two days and keep regular tabs on my chlorine levels. I also run my pump from morning to night, so it's not as if I'm neglecting my pool. But what I believe is happening (and I may be wrong) is that the pollen and seed are getting caught in my cartridge filter (which I cannot vacuum to waste). The pollen may go through immediately or it may take some time to get pushed through the filter. The seed/wing segments I'm sure are being caught in the filter but I wonder if the "wing" section deteriorates from the pollen sized seed allowing the (now) water logged seed (and water logged pollen) to pass through the filter media.

I would suspect sand filters to act in the same way unless you vacuum to waste (which is why I asked Janet what type of filter she had).

just a few thoughts...
dan