bleach spots after opening

[dawnterese]

I have an inground 50,000 vinyl liner pool. Four years ago, I purchased and installed a new liner. The pool was open that year and the next, then I did not open it for the next two years due to moving out of town. This year, I began by spending hours removing leaves as it had not been covered. It was a green mess with frogs hatching out in it. I called some professionals, as it seemed too much for me. After about a week of work, the pool is clear. They just finished vacuuming the silt off of the bottom, but now I noticed there are very large, white bleach stains all over the bottom of the shallow end and on the slope going into the deep end. I don't know if they are at the bottom of the deep end as it is still a little murky there. I called the pool people, as these stains were NOT here before. They told me that they had been concerned when they saw the stains as well, but that they had not caused them as they predissolved the shock, and this was the only chemical they used that could cause this. They did tell me previously that they had used about 20 pounds of shock. My question is: could these bleach stains have been caused by the shock even if it was predissolved? If not, what could have caused this? Also, will this weaken the liner? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, as I spent ALOT of money on this liner a few years ago.

Dawn

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

It is certainly possible for pre-dissolved shock to cause those stains, especially if they are fairly spread out, but I would only expect that to happen with pre-dissolved shock if it was added while the pump was off. If the pump was running, it should not have been possible for the chlorine to sit in one place long enough to cause stains like that.

Was the pump running the entire time? If so it is unlikely those stains are from anything they did.

 

[dawnterese]

Thanks so much for the response. Yes, the pool was running when it was added; however, the skimmer on the shallow end was not operating properly, so they had turned it off and the pool was only running on the skimmer on the deep end. Would that make it possible for the stains to form on the shallow end? Also, could they form that fast, such as a week's time?

Dawn

 

[JasonLion]

Yes, you can get bleaching of the liner in only a few hours of concentrated chlorine sits in a "puddle" on the bottom of the pool for too long. Normally that is not possible when the pump is running.

Having a skimmer that isn't working would not make any difference.

 

[dawnterese]

Thanks again for responding. What do you supposed could have caused this then? There are huge white spots all over

 

[zea3]

Test the circulation of the pool to see if the water in the shallow end is mixing with the rest of the pool water. Turn off the shallow end skimmer and turn on the pump. Put a few ping pong balls in the shallow end (preferably over the stain area) and watch to see how they move. If they are staying in the shallow end try adjusting the angle of the return eyes to see if that improves circulation.

 

[boon4376]

Test the circulation of the pool to see if the water in the shallow end is mixing with the rest of the pool water. Turn off the shallow end skimmer and turn on the pump. Put a few ping pong balls in the shallow end (preferably over the stain area) and watch to see how they move. If they are staying in the shallow end try adjusting the angle of the return eyes to see if that improves circulation.

I'd say its also possible that if your jets are pointing up too much, just causing surface slow but not mixing underneath, there's certainly an ability for a "dead zone" to appear..

Still seem's strange to me. I'd assume what probably happened is that SOMETHING in your swamp was growing and producing some sort of natural substance eating away at your liner... Or at least decomposing the dye in your liner, and when you scrubbed it off and cleaned the pool the dye had a chance to escape or react with chlorinated water and faded quickly.

Your liner probably has some sort of chemical film from the manufacturing process designed to protect the dye and itself from chemicals.. An organic creature / plant / fungus (Or any of those's excretions) growing in your swamp could easily eat away at any protective barriers and cause your die to be susceptible to fading. 2 years is a LONG time for stuff to grow and stick to and eat away at your liner. Organics can do a LOT of harm.

It probably says in the liner's warranty or guide that it should be kept clean at all times.

You'd be hard pressed to have perfect enough of conditions for a "puddle" of bleach to sit in one spot on the bottom of your pool without dissolving into any moving water enough to cause a stain. Your skimmers are not what mix the pool, the returns do that.

I do not even have a bottom drain in my pool, so I would think that would be a huge "dead zone" but over 10 years (Estimate of its age by the pool company) have not caused any more fading down there than any of the other liner.