White cloth in leaf trap net turns green.

[lalittle]

My pool seems totally clear and has no signs of algae OTHER than the net in the leaf trap canister, where the white cloth parts of the net have become green. This is a Hayward large leaf trap, which uses a blue net with a white "handle" on it to hold when dumping it. This handle, as well as some white stitching along the net, have turned green. I was told by a pool repair guy that this was normal as long as there were no other signs of algae in the pool. He said that the leaf canister floating at the surface, along with some organic debris in it, provided a particularly algae-prone area that could still show a little green even with proper sanitation levels. I'm still not convinced, however. I can't help feeling that proper chlorine levels should wipe it out completely.

I raised the chlorine level to around 10ppm, which took several days to come back down to 4 or so. I also took the net out and tried soaking it for a little while in a solution of 1 part liquid chlorine to 3 parts water (i.e very, VERY strong chlorine.) The cloth got a bit whiter, but even this did not fully remove the green, and it just came back again after several days.

Note that through all this, my combined chlorine levels are always 0 (i.e. undetectable), so it does not appear that my chlorine is working all that hard.

Is it true that it's normal to see what I'm describing even with proper sanitation levels, or is ANY green on the net a sign of a problem?

Thanks,

Larry

 

[duraleigh]

or is ANY green on the net a sign of a problem?

Green means algae. It certainly can be a problem if not kept in check. Do you have an FAS/DPD chlorine test so you can perform the OCLT test (pool School)?

That said, there are certain areas in most any pool that are troublesome and will harbor algae because the circulation isn't complete.

I would perform the OCLT to make sure you don't have a larger problem and, if you pass that test, you can devise some methods to get more chlorine to the "green" areas

 

[lalittle]

I do have an FAS/DPD chlorine test, so I'll do the overnight test tomorrow, but with zero CC showing up in my daily tests, it seems doubtful that it will show a problem. I would think that if there was a larger issue, I would be seeing at least a small amount of CC being produced.

Regarding areas of low circulation, the green is IN the leaf tap canister, so there is no way of getting any more circulation at this location.

I'm still wondering if this is possibly "normal" in my situation -- i.e. a leaf trap with a little debris in it, enough air to float at the surface, and plenty of sunlight. Once again, a pool repair guy that said that this was not uncommon. It does strike me that the soak in ultra-high chlorine solution did not "fully" eliminate the green last time, so maybe the material is just prone to algae growth. I'll take the debris out tomorrow and soak the net in a 3 to 1 chlorine solution again, but I'm betting that it will come back again after a few days.

I'd love to hear from other people using the Hayward leaf trap canister with the blue net. Does the white handle on the net turn green for others as well, or is this totally unique to me?

Thanks again,

Larry

 

[CUTiger78]

Larry,

I'm a little unclear on the concept. What's a "Hayward large leaf trap" or the "leaf tap canister" that you mention?

My first thought was that you were talking about the pole-mounted skimmer used to get stuff off the surface of the water, but I think I was wrong.

 

[anonapersona]

Once in awhile the seam on my Polaris leaf bag turn green. I consider that a tip off that the pool chlorine has been getting low and that I have not been testing enough. I test every other day and sometimes I do forget and it goes 3 or 4 days with no test and no bleach added. That bit of green is a good reminder.

 

[lalittle]

Larry,

I'm a little unclear on the concept. What's a "Hayward large leaf trap" or the "leaf tap canister" that you mention?

My first thought was that you were talking about the pole-mounted skimmer used to get stuff off the surface of the water, but I think I was wrong.

I couldn't find a picture of it on the Hayward site, but this amazon page has a small picture where you can see the white "handle" at the bottom of the mesh bag.

http://www.amazon.com/Hayward-Capac...2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1314210435&sr=1-2

It's basically just a clear canister that connects in the suction line of a cleaner and traps larger debris, preventing it from going all the way into the skimmer.

Larry

 

[Beamup]

If a 1.5% chlorine mixture didn't get rid of it completely, that suggests to me it isn't algae. (3% if you started with 12% instead of bleach at 6%.) I wonder whether the material that was used just naturally turns that color.

 

[Optica]

Before I found this site and converted to BBB practices, I had occasional slight algae problems due to unknowingly high CYA levels and too low of FC based on CYA. I always saw it first in the leaf canister net as you describe before I saw it anywhere else in the pool.

I think the enviroment inside the canister compared to the rest of the pool is very favorable to algae growth..lots of sunshine near/on the surface and still water when the pump is off.

I soaked my canister net bag in bleach solution (probably much stronger than your 4:1 dilution) and it got rid of the all the green and went back to pure blue color.

I have not had that problem at all since going to BBB and keeping proper minimum FC based on CYA.

 

[frogabog]

I think it depends on how long the soak was. If it lightened the green, it's algae. It probably needed to soak long enough to completely clear the green.

OR... the soak depleted the solution of active chlorine and needed to be re-mixed. If it can take weeks to clear a pool, it stands to reason it might take a while to kill all the algae in the basket as well.

My take on green is that it's algae/organic if chlorine lightens it. What else really could it be other than copper (chlorine does nothing for copper so...)?

 

[lalittle]

Once in awhile the seam on my Polaris leaf bag turn green. I consider that a tip off that the pool chlorine has been getting low and that I have not been testing enough. I test every other day and sometimes I do forget and it goes 3 or 4 days with no test and no bleach added. That bit of green is a good reminder.

So when this happens, does the green go away as soon as the chlorine comes back up?

I'm wondering if the clear leaf trap canister is creating a sort of "greenhouse" when the pump is off. It's a clear, enclosed environment that floats at the surfaced due to the air trapped in it, so it gets plenty of sunlight, higher heat, and without any flow for long periods of time (I run the pump about 8 hours a day), perhaps the chlorine in the immediate vicinity of the handle gets used up by the tapped debris (which is right next to the handle.)

Larry

 

[frogabog]

Buy a dollar store umbrella, take the handle off and stick it in the ground over your pump. See if things change? (after soaking enough to clear all the green of course)

 

[lalittle]

I'm confident that it is algae -- it does get lighter with the chlorine soak -- so the real question is whether or not it constitutes a "problem."

While I was typing my last response, Optica noted the same thing that I did, which is that the canister creates an environment particularly suited to algae growth when the pump is off. He was able to get it to stop, but I'm wondering if this is necessarily possible in all situations, or if it's even warranted.

Thanks again for all the responses,

Larry

 

[lalittle]

Just to update, I spoke with Hayward, and they said that the greenhouse theory was a valid one -- i.e. that the canister provides an environment where algae might be able to get started in between pumping even with proper chemical levels, and that this does not necessarily point to a problem.

I took the net out and rather than soaking it in a chlorine solution right away, I just blasted it with the hose. Much to my surprise, this completely cleaned it (unlike the last time I soaked it.) I went ahead and soaked it for a little while in a 3 to 1 water/chlorine solution just to be safe, but there was really no green left on it when I did this.

I'm not sure what this means, or if it's significant. Would active green algae be this easy to rinse out of a cloth material, or is it possible that the green coloration is just the remnants of algae that gets started once in a while in between pumping, and then gets killed when the pump runs?

I "think" that the green color only shows up after there is some debris in the net, so I'll try to empty it out much more often and see if this effects the pattern.

Larry