So, the ongoing fight against the waxy film on the surface goes on. Today, after having been absent from pool care duties for two days, I observed a beautiful azure powdery substance on the bottom of the pool. Although quite pretty, I vacuumed it up and then cleaned the filters. It was essentially the same stuff that I was able to skim off the surface. So, blue to me means copper. But there are no copper components in the pool. Any ideas?
All of this started after adding a large quantity of soda ash in divided doses to treat a pH of less than 7.0 (measured to be 6.8 by Hanna pHEP meter). Sounds like the process of Saponification, like when you add lye to oil and get soap.
This is frustrating because I have owned the pool for 15 years and done nothing but add 3" tablets and an occasional shock when green algae got a start. Never had a problem with waxy film, blue precipitate, and grey/blue stained bottom. Only thing different is that we "skipped" last season, the cover stayed on from September 2011 until May 2013.
All of this started after adding a large quantity of soda ash in divided doses to treat a pH of less than 7.0 (measured to be 6.8 by Hanna pHEP meter). Sounds like the process of Saponification, like when you add lye to oil and get soap.
This is frustrating because I have owned the pool for 15 years and done nothing but add 3" tablets and an occasional shock when green algae got a start. Never had a problem with waxy film, blue precipitate, and grey/blue stained bottom. Only thing different is that we "skipped" last season, the cover stayed on from September 2011 until May 2013.
