Hi and thanks to all the good people here. I don't post much, but I somehow found this site 2 years ago as we were having our inground built. I have had great success with the methods taught here and because of this forum, when people ask me if having a pool is a lot of work...I can honestly say, "no". 
That said, I have a quick question. I don't think its much of a problem, but since I haven't seen it before, I thought I'd ask. I have a 16'x32' inground liner pool. It holds 13k-15k gallons of water, has a sand filter, a 1hp pump, 2 skimmers, main drain, and 2 returns. I also have an auto cover. I live in Columbus, Ohio and the fall was very wet and there was almost no snow this winter.....average temps were much higher than normal and there was very little freezing.
When I opened the pool this year a couple of weeks ago, the water was fairly clear with a few leaves and worms...nothing major and actually better than last year. At the bottom I noticed a lot of large clumps of some sort of white solid. I vacuumed and ran the pump for a week or so, then this past weekend I vacuumed again. The clumps at the bottom were even more "clumpy". This stirred things up and the water became cloudy, but I backwashed the filter, cleaned all the baskets, and started shocking the pool. For three days now we've been running the pool over 20ppm FC. When I got home from work this morning, the pool actually looked pretty good. I'm going to have to vacuum a couple of more times and the shocking process isn't done, but I believe we'll get there shortly. Today's numbers were FC- 31 CC-4 (my wife put the bleach in yesterday morning while I was at work, because the levels were so high...I didn't add any this morning).
Ok....here's the question, sorry it took so long to get here, but from what I've read....its easier to get help if you give more info! As I was looking at the skimmer boxes, I noticed a lot of that white "clumpy" stuff had accumulated around the box.
Here's a pic:
Any ideas as to what it is and what I should do about it? My strategy right now is to keep vacuuming, shocking, and cleaning the pool as per normal and as I'm able....get a brush in there to get that stuff into the skimmer and out of the pool. I don't see any build up anywhere else (other than the bottom, which really isn't "buildup"...just settling), so I believe its just dead algae or something else that has made its way to the skimmer, but not quite completed the journey yet. I'm not getting in the pool for a couple of weeks anyway because the temps still aren't there and the chemistry isn't quite right either, but I'm curious about this nasty stuff in my water.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Here's some more pics of the pool:
That said, I have a quick question. I don't think its much of a problem, but since I haven't seen it before, I thought I'd ask. I have a 16'x32' inground liner pool. It holds 13k-15k gallons of water, has a sand filter, a 1hp pump, 2 skimmers, main drain, and 2 returns. I also have an auto cover. I live in Columbus, Ohio and the fall was very wet and there was almost no snow this winter.....average temps were much higher than normal and there was very little freezing.
When I opened the pool this year a couple of weeks ago, the water was fairly clear with a few leaves and worms...nothing major and actually better than last year. At the bottom I noticed a lot of large clumps of some sort of white solid. I vacuumed and ran the pump for a week or so, then this past weekend I vacuumed again. The clumps at the bottom were even more "clumpy". This stirred things up and the water became cloudy, but I backwashed the filter, cleaned all the baskets, and started shocking the pool. For three days now we've been running the pool over 20ppm FC. When I got home from work this morning, the pool actually looked pretty good. I'm going to have to vacuum a couple of more times and the shocking process isn't done, but I believe we'll get there shortly. Today's numbers were FC- 31 CC-4 (my wife put the bleach in yesterday morning while I was at work, because the levels were so high...I didn't add any this morning).
Ok....here's the question, sorry it took so long to get here, but from what I've read....its easier to get help if you give more info! As I was looking at the skimmer boxes, I noticed a lot of that white "clumpy" stuff had accumulated around the box.
Here's a pic:
Any ideas as to what it is and what I should do about it? My strategy right now is to keep vacuuming, shocking, and cleaning the pool as per normal and as I'm able....get a brush in there to get that stuff into the skimmer and out of the pool. I don't see any build up anywhere else (other than the bottom, which really isn't "buildup"...just settling), so I believe its just dead algae or something else that has made its way to the skimmer, but not quite completed the journey yet. I'm not getting in the pool for a couple of weeks anyway because the temps still aren't there and the chemistry isn't quite right either, but I'm curious about this nasty stuff in my water.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Here's some more pics of the pool:
