What is on the bottom of my pool and why does it come back everyday?!?!

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dejayssaleen

0
Jul 5, 2016
22
Florence, KY
PLEASE help. This is my first pool and I am a newbie. I have the Intex ultra frame 16'x48". It was the one that came with the all in one cartridge filter, pump, and salt water system. After a few posts on this forum it was clear I needed to upgrade that system. So I bought the 16" Intex Krystal 3000 gph sand filter with the salt water ECO system separate. I felt like this would keep my pool very clean. Well I just installed it 2 days ago. Everything looks pretty good but I have always got like this dirt like substance on the floor. I bought the delux Intex maintained kit with the vacuum that hooks up to one of my inlets. And yes it worked great and is very powerful with the new upgraded pump. And the outlet is much more powerful. But I vacuumed the whole pool on Saturday. Thought I had pretty much seen the last of a dirty floor but today boom it's everywhere?!?!? I don't even know what it is. Where it's coming from? But most importantly how to get rid of it for good!!! Posting pics soon. PLEASE help. I am also running the Intex hang over the edge pool skimmer that works very well.

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Is it green? Slippery? Slimy? It is probably algae. Algae grows when FC is too low. The pool is also not sanitary when FC is low. It is very important to maintain FC above minimum at all times for your CYA, [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]. When FC drops below minimum the kill rate for bacteria, viruses and pathogens is too low to assure prevention of person to person disease transmission, especially in kids.
 
I see you have trees really close to the pool. I have the same problem. I have had an algae outbreak this week, as my intex swg was blinking low salt, and I wasn't home, so when I got home, no chlorine. Anyway, I have been Slamming the pool for 5 days, and FINALLY passed the OCCT, but to my dismay, there was still some of this stuff on the bottom of the pool. Not nearly as much, but I'm wondering if it is pollen off the trees.... or something like that. Unfortunately, the trees are not on my property, or they would be gone!
 
No worries, we were all new once. I had a green Intex pool once! Or more than once.

Do you have a brush? Brush the pool to keep it stirred up.

Ditch the guess strips and get a good test kit. I use the TF-100 from TFTestkits.net. or maybe the TF-50. More here, Pool School - Test Kits Compared

You need an FAS/DPD chlorine test so that you can do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to see if that is algae or not. If it is algae then you can kill the algae following this, SLAM Process
 
gtty said:
It's Algae. I recognize it well.
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Well you're right. Today it's grown twice as bad. I put my ECO salt water system in booster mode as well as added Blast (non chlorine pool shock). I was going to go use the pool vacuum and suck it up and use the brush to break it up but now I'm kinda wanting to leave it and see what will kill it on its owe? So I know it's alge now. What next???
 
i have the same stuff on the bottom of my pool. i got my goggles on and went down and looked at it really close. i even tried to get some in between my fingers. but as soon as i touched it, it just totally dissolved. there was no slickness to it, mine was actually a brown color. i thought mine was actually a little sand that was coming out of my filter. that was not it either. i came to the conclusion that it was pollen from the trees. some days it is worse than others.
 

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dejayssaleen said:
Well you're right. Today it's grown twice as bad. I put my ECO salt water system in booster mode as well as added Blast (non chlorine pool shock). I was going to go use the pool vacuum and suck it up and use the brush to break it up but now I'm kinda wanting to leave it and see what will kill it on its owe? So I know it's alge now. What next???
Click to expand...

Here what I do. See what your CYA level in your pool is. Bring your pool up to shock level. If i remember correctly its 28 ppm chlorine for 70 ppm of cya. If it's a saltwater pool you shouldn't have your CYA below 70. Keep the free chlorine levels up according to the S.L.A.M. Method. I'm in Houston and with our oppressive heat that is what it takes. I run my Intex SWG 7 hours a day to keep Chlorine at 6ppm. Anything less and I get algae. Forget about that boost mode. It's worthless. Bleach is your friend for chlorinating your pool

Your filter won't filter that stuff out unless you have a polishing bag that filters 1 micron. You can also use a Duda diesel filter bag on your return. That's what I use and it works well. The chlorine will dissolve it too overnight.
 
gtty said:
Here what I do. See what your CYA level in your pool is. Bring your pool up to shock level. If i remember correctly its 28 ppm chlorine for 70 ppm of cya. If it's a saltwater pool you shouldn't have your CYA below 70. Keep the free chlorine levels up according to the S.L.A.M. Method. I'm in Houston and with our oppressive heat that is what it takes. I run my Intex SWG 7 hours a day to keep Chlorine at 6ppm. Anything less and I get algae. Forget about that boost mode. It's worthless. Bleach is your friend for chlorinating your pool

Your filter won't filter that stuff out unless you have a polishing bag that filters 1 micron. You can also use a Duda diesel filter bag on your return. That's what I use and it works well. The chlorine will dissolve it too overnight.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply but again I'm a total newbie. And most of that looks like Chinese to me :(
 
Pooldv above has the links to what you need to know. Read pool school and you MUST get one of the recommended full bore test kits to know where you stand regarding water chemistry. I use the Taylor K-2006 kit. Without the proper test kit you will spend multiples of what the kit costs and your water will still be green. There is basically combined chlorine which is essentially used up chlorine and free chlorine that can still sterilize your water. The el cheapo test kits test I believe for only combined. That test can read really hi in chlorine but your water will still be green.

Also the 2006 test kit will test for all the other levels you need. One of the most important levels is cyanuric acid "CYA" or what is sold as Conditioner. This chemical keeps your chlorine from being destroyed by the sun and if the level is too low you can put gallons of bleach in your pool and it will be mostly gone by that evening. Because cya keeps the chlorine from being destroyed by the sun, it also slows down the chlorines ability to treat the water. This means you will need higher chlorine levels than you would need otherwise, but you still save money on bleach.

The rest you can read about in pool school. I learned all of this the hard way, and so did almost everyone else here.

Keep asking questions and we will all help you out.

Someone correct me if I'm mistaken on my info.
 

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