something on the bottom of the pool

[bjaeram]

I bought the HTH kit last night and tested this morning. I have a really hard time reading the color differences on the yellow so I'm not sure how accurate I am. They just all kind of look the same to me. I had my 8 year old help for a second opinion...

CL 5 (however I did a strip too just to double check myself at I only got 2 on that, I'm not sure what that means)

Ph 8.2

Alk 190

Hardness 390

CYA 40

I have been using liquid sodium hypochlorite 10% (2gallons every week to shock) and trichlor 92.4% pucks floating.

That is all I had been putting in for a few weeks.

The one pool store gave me some algae stuff (Biogauard copper 3.3%) and I put a bottle of that in yesterday. It's supposed to stay in for 24 hours then I'm supposed to vaccum. Today the pool looks about the same if not a little bit cloudy which I'm assuming is from the Biogaurd.

As far as it the question about it being just sand.....I'm not sure it could be. I initially thought that is what it was honestly. I haven't had this problem until recently and I've not damaged the filter. Could a lateral go bad if nothing has happened to it? After I backwashed the return water was clear so that is another reason I thought it probably wasn't sand.....I really don't know though.

I'll go fill out those charts. I really appreciate any help! Thank you so
much!

How do I find my PF user ID. It's required for the chart and I can't find it. I tried to click on profile at the top and got a message that says I don't have permission.

[Watermom]

Your PF user ID is just your forum user name.

If you get a chlorine reading of 5 from the HTH kit (which is an OTO chlorine test), then that means your chlorine is at 5 or higher. Dilute your sample and test again to see if you can get a closer reading. Info about dilution here: Testing Without a Good Kit

A pH of 8.2 is too high but, if your chlorine was high when you tested it, you may have gotten a falsely high pH reading. Retest it when your chlorine drops below 5ppm.

Your TA is also high. Info about lowering alk and using muriatic acid safely can be found in these links:

Lowering Alkalinity Step-by-Step

Using Muriatic Acid Safely

Your CYA is good at 40 so I would discontinue the pucks. (If you have some in the floater, go ahead and let those finish dissolving.) By the way, what are the ingredients on those trichlor tabs?

Don't put any thing else in the pool right now other than the liquid chlorine and the muriatic acid. No more algaecide.

Have you been using any cal-hypo to chlorinate with? Why is your calcium hardness so high? Run the TA and CH test on your fill water.

As far as the lateral in the filter --- I'm going to let someone else answer that part of your question. Hope this helps.

[bjaeram]

Thank you!

I have well water so the PH, alkalinity, and hardness are always high. I got them down initially but I've topped off the pool a couple of times and need to work on that again. I have not added anything calcium.

Did you look at my pictures? do you think that is algae? Do you recommend just adding lots of chlorine to get rid of it if it is?

[aylad]

The most reliable way to tell if it's algae is to measure your chlorine at night, and again in the morning, and compare the two readings. If you've lost more than 1 ppm of chlorine during the night, then you probably have algae. It's hard for me to tell from looking at your pics, but if you have brown stuff blowing from the returns I'm betting that you have sand blowing back into the pool, not algae. This can happen if the laterals are damaged, if your pump is oversized for your filter (take a look at that label on the side of the motor and see what horsepower it says it is), if you've gone too long without backwashing, or if your multiport gasket needs replacing. Do you have a working pressure gauge on your filter? Does it rise when the pump is running? When is the last time you backwashed the filter? After you backwash, do you run it for a minute or so in "rinse" mode before going back to "filter"?

Janet

[bjaeram]

I swept it all out today, backwashed the filter, added acid and two gallons of chlorine...It's looks good now but we'll see in the morning. It was hard to sweep because if I didn't do it very slowly the stuff on the bottom turned to a cloud of dust and dispersed in the water. I think part of my problem is the stuff gets stirred up in the water then settles over night so I'm not actually getting it all out of the pool when I vaccum. I have wedding cake steps and I moved those to clean under them and it was a huge cloud of brown under there.

I do not having a working pressure guage. It looks like it has water in it. How do you know if the multiport gasket is bad? I do know the little clear thing on it where you can see the color of the water when you backwash leaks really bad when I backwash. After I backwashed and rinsed I did not see any brown blowing back in from the return.

[aylad]

If you look at the top of the multiport handle, sometimes water will leak out around the handle if the gasket is bad. It also only takes a few minutes to take the handle and top off the multiport and actually look at the gasket--it will be obvious if it has twisting or tearing and needs to be replaced.

If you had a "huge cloud of brown" under your steps when you moved them, then the brown settling you see might just be dirt or dead algae. Again, the only way to tell for sure would be the overnight chlorine test, as I described above. Do you see any of this on the sides of the pool, or just on the bottom? Do the sides of your pool feel slippery?


Janet

[bjaeram]

It's all back this morning. I don't know if it grew back or just settled. I kind of think just settled.

So if it is just dirt or even dead algae how do I get it out? Vaccuming even as carefully as I can stirs it up into the water.

It is only on the bottom and the steps. None on the sides of the pool. It does not feel sllimy at all. I tried to get some off of the steps to put in a container so I could look at it better and take a picture of it and I couldn't get any. I barely touch it and it just disolves. I tried to get it under my finger nail too and just can't get it.

I'm getting ready to go out of town for the day but I'll do the chlorine test tonight. I'll also see about checking the gasket. I put two gallons of chlorine in last night but I didn't put it in the skimmer. I'll do that tonight.

Thank you for your help!

[PoolDoc]

Bjaeram pics:

[PoolDoc]

Looks like it might be algae -- take a picture with the pump off, and the water still, if you want us to make a better guess.

Meanwhile, post another set of test results, after all that acid.

And, finally, remove ALL chemicals from the skimmer, if present, and begin adding 2 gallons of plain 6% bleach to your pools skimmer each evening. That will help your pool, AND clean any live algae out of your filter.