What is this brownish dust at the bottom of my clear pool

Re: What is this brownish dust at the bottom of my clear poo

My pool store tells me it is the diamond brite breaking down, could that be true?

My pool store told me the brown silt was probably an indicator that the sand in my filter needed to be replaced. I have an in ground vinyl pool and I have a problem with the brown silt, so I would really question it being the diamond brite.
 
I doubt if it is Diamond Brite breaking down, and it may be a sign of a broken lateral in a sand filter if (it was more like sand).

In both cases it is probably dust & dirt blown into the pool. To see if you may have an algae problem you could conduct an Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT) test to see if something is growing in the water.
 
More often than not, what many folks see as "brownish dirt" is dead algae. You may have clear water but invisible algae in your pool and when you add chlorine, some (but not all) of that algae is killed and becomes debris on the bottom of your pool floor. If you vacuum it up, it often returns the next day in the same spots.

Invariably, these pools have inadequate chlorine and the solution is a SLAM. The SLAM usually goes very quickly and it rids your pool of ALL the algae and the "brownish dust" disappears.

Most people search for answers other than that (filtration, nearby fields, pollen, etc.) but time and again we see inadequate chlorine as the culprit and the SLAM as the cure.

If you decide you are not in the mood for a full blown SLAM or that your "dust" problem is VERY minimal, then elevate your chlorine to twice it's normal level for 48 hours and see if that doesn't cure it. It's the same idea but with a lot less formality and rules to follow but, of course, it is not as effective. I would hazard a guess and say that chlorine elevation (x2) would probably work 50% of the time.
 
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