Algae, Dust or Pollen?

[HowardL]

Not sure what I have in my pool. Started opening things up 2 weeks ago and have sequentially run through a series of repair and replacement issues after a winter of neglect.

Here's last week's water settings:
Salt = 3640ppm
FC = 0
pH = 7.2
CYA = 0
TA = 60
CH = 200

I replaced my salt cell, added a bunch of bleach, and added CYA. I didn't complete a full shock however. Here's what the numbers look like this morning.

Water temp: 67 degrees
Salt = 3640ppm per strip
FC = 7
CC = 0
pH = 7.7
CYA = 70
TA = 70
CH = 200

Water looks good, except for one thing. I have this very fine yellowish dust/silt on the bottom of the pool, mostly in the shallow end. Push it with a brush and it immediately goes into a cloud in the water. Here's a picture of the bottom. Note the larger brownish tree pollen on the top of the water.


2013-04-20_12-14-00_543 by hlothrop, on Flickr

I was thinking that maybe it was time to replace my filter cartridges, but after reading more here thought I better eliminate algae as a possibility. What do you think?

Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

Howard

 

[Richard320]

It looks like dust bunnies, doesn't it? But as soon as a brush hits it - poof!

That's algae.

 

[HowardL]

OK, so I better get some bleach on it. My shock level looks like 28. Thanks for straightening me out.
Howard

 

[HowardL]

I just added what I calculated should be enough 8.25% bleach to take me to 28 for the shock. Now my question is...

What do I do with my SWG?

I'm running at 30% now.

• Do I turn it up? To what level?
  Superchlorinate?
  Do I turn it down or off?

Appreciate any helpful advice. Thanks.

Howard

 

[Richard320]

I'd leave it on. See if it can't maintain the FC level at shock for you.

 

[HowardL]

Don't think maintaining shock is going to be a problem. Earlier I had turned it up to 50% and when I just tested FC was about 35, so I turned the SWG back down to 10%. Will check again tomorrow. Thanks.
Howard

 

[Richard320]

And I'll bet the water looks great but the floor looks dirty now, too!

 

[AimeeH]

A side note.......I have pollen that looks like this. We live in the south where the pine pollen covers everything with green dust for a good part of every April. It makes a mess of the pool with a green ring and some settles too. I think I would do OCLT before shocking........but that is also because I know about the southern pine pollen dust phenomenon. It's crazy.....you can see clouds of it coming off of the trees....green clouds of dust. We can't even open our windows this time of year.