Salt System Just Installed -- White Film on Top Of Pool?

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NullQwerty

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Apr 23, 2008
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Hey folks,

I just a Salt System in my pool.

Background - Pool is green. In the opening phase.

Timeline is as follows:
Saturday - Added 6 lbs of 100% CYA because my CYA was very low
Sunday - Added 680 lbs of Salt
Monday - Shock and Brush
Tuesday Evening - Turned On Salt System For The First Time - 50% output. Replaced DE in Filter. Another Shock and Brush.
Wednesday Morning - Pool is still green. Water Not Flowing Because Filter Pressure High (expected). Bump Filter, all is good.
Wednesday Late Morning (shortly after) - White Film on top of pool
Wednesday Evening - White Film Is Gone. Pool is still green, Dead Algae Floating. Water Not Flowing Because Filter Pressure High (expected). Bump Filter, all is good. Scoop Off Dead Algae
Wednesday Evening, 15 Minutes Later - White Film Is Present.

What is this White Film? It literally appeared within 15 minutes of when I got the water flowing again. At first I thought maybe DE, but if you lean down and listen, it's sizzling like tiny bubbles/suds. I've never had it before, but then again I've never had a salt water system before. Although, I've also never added CYA before. Compupool reads 3900 ppm for the salt. Chlorine 1 ppm, PH 7.1. Any ideas?

See Pic.

Thanks!

**UPDATE** Just went out there again (so now 40 minutes after getting water flowing again) and the film is now thicker. Then I looked at the Salt Cell. The right side of it where the outlet is has a collection of suds. See the pic I attached. Although, granted, it is possible that it's just coming in from the skimmer and collecting there in the cell, rather than the cell just producing it.
 

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I guess the thing to know is, should I be concerned that there is something wrong with the salt system and I should possibly pursue a warranty exchange? Or is this more likely an indication of an imbalance with the chemicals? Do we all agree that it's definitely not DE?

Once the filter pressure built up and the flow stopped, the suds disappeared within 15 minutes. But, if I bump it and get it flowing well again, they'll reappear within 15 minutes. Is 50% output too high maybe?
 
You should not have an air pocket in the cell. Is that photo with the pump running? If so, you have a flow issue and the salt system should have a warning light indicating insufficient flow. If the cell is being energized with this little amount of water in it, you've got a problem with the salt system, and a potential for damage to the cell due to excessive hydrogen gas and heat within the cell.
 
The air pocket is because this is still summer startup. My pool is green and my DE filter gets clogged quickly. I bump the filter, there's no air pocket, runs for an hour, pressure builds, water flow decreases, air pocket develops. When the air pocket gets large enough and the water flow decreases enough, the Salt system turns itself off with a light indicating not enough water present in the cell. I bump the filter or change the DE and the cycle repeats itself.

Could the suds be due to the hydrogen gas build up maybe? I mean, I had started up the pool equipment this spring before getting the Salt System and this wasn't occurring.
 
I'll try when I get home tonight. My prediction is that the suds will go away. If it does, then my only hope will be that once the pool is balanced and cleared up, the problem will correct itself. I'm surprised though that this isn't a common problem. Seems like my situation would be fairly typical. I'm confused because wouldn't this happen to all owners of salt systems during spring startup? Or do salt system owners keep their system off during the spring startup?

Thanks!
 
Hi! So the answer is yep. It's definitely the salt system that's doing it. When I got home, the salt system was off as expected because pressure was built up in the filter causing low water flow. I bumped the filter, turned it back on. Within 1-2 minutes the suds starting building up in the salt cell like you saw in the picture. I went to the pool and looked at the return lines flow. The water coming out of it was a shade of white, and the beginnings of the white film was starting on the surface. I then turned off the salt system. Within 10 seconds, the suds in the salt cell disappeared and then the returns stopped sending out white-ish water.

So I left the salt system off. Guess I'll just give Compupool a call tomorrow and see if they think it's normal. Thanks
 

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Just to pile on! :wink: Normally we advise folks to turn off the SWG during the shock process. It preserves the cell by interfering with the temptation to crank production all the way up, and it prevents skewing the test results during the shock process, such as by artificially passing the overnight test.
 
Looks like sea foam. Ever go to the ocean and see it collect on shore after a storm? Thats nature taking doc's out of the water. (dissolved organic compounds) Since salt water is much better then fresh water at doing this because of its density there's a chance that it is happening here. For one i would leave the cell off till you can keep the filter running without it getting clogged. 2 I would look for a leak on the suction side. Salt water and air mixing creates sea foam.

Not that i am an expert here i am not. Just my 2 cents.
 
Not cool, but an interesting picture. I've got the same unit. My water was clear when I installed it. So nothing like that happened to me.
Do you have your test numbers. Compupool tech support was good when I talked on the phone with them.
 
Yeah I talked to them on the phone because I had some basic questions. They were very cool and very helpful. While I had them on the phone I described the situation with the foam and asked if that should be expected. He said yeah definitely. He said if it's low water flow with air pockets, that should be anticipated before the unit finally turns itself off (which it did). I didn't ask what it was, although I wish I had, but I bet Poolsean was onto something when he brought up the hydrogen gas. I ran some tests though because I wanted to be certain of all this. If the unit has low flow, the suds start up 100% of the time. If it's got good flow, the suds don't occur 100% of the time. So, all is good. Just trying to get rid of the green pool so that I could start using the unit.
 
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