Yellow Mustard and/or Pollen
I have owned this house/pool for almost 4 years. The pool has a large ornamental bush/tree that provides privacy and aesthetics that extends over the pool. For 2-4 weeks each year (around May) the pollen and seed pods from this tree are bad enough to cause me to run the pump 24/7 and clean the cartridge filter daily. We had a mild winter here in NE Florida so this year the pollen drop started early (in March) and was not as intense as years past. A second pollen drop started in late May, again not intense, but enough to yellow the water. Besides running the pump and frequent cleanout of the traps/filter, I have previously had luck clearing up the pool with a product called Natural Chemistry's Pool First Aid. I treated the pool and it cleared up for a few days but became cloudy again. A second treatment cleared the pool up for a few days and then the cloudiness returned. A 3rd treatment had no impact. Like I mentioned, I have experienced the pollen drop enough to know that 24/7 filtering, frequent filter rinses and occasionally using this first aid stuff has worked well for 4 years, thus after the 3rd regiment I started to research other possibilities.
Speculating that I may have Yellow Mustard, I began to shock the pool using ‘lots’ of liquid chlorine in 2.5 gallon jugs.
After stumbling onto this forum, I quickly surmised that the test kit I had was too basic to determine CYA and higher levels of Chlorine. Yesterday, I picked up what I thought was the Leslie’s FAS-DPD only to find out it was an expensive DPD (only) kit which maxed out at 25ppm for chlorine. I am heading back to Leslie’s at lunch to see if they will swap the kit for the FAS-DPD. I don’t think they have it in stock, so may have to order one.
For the past 5 days, I have been brushing the pool twice daily, cleaning the cartridge filter twice daily, and added socks to the skimmer baskets. The pool is improving and no longer yellow/green but it is still cloudy, though I can easily see the drain cover in the deep end (my test for cloudiness).
I have read enough to know that I really need to have accurate chem readings to help determine next steps. As soon as I get the right kit, I’ll be able to effectively manage the shock levels , but wanted to type up a summary while I had an opportunity. Thanks for a great forum, I have learned a lot from reading the many posts.
Reading taken with DPD kit after shocking:
FC 25+
TC 25+
CYA 85
Reading before shocking and with older basic chem set:
pH 7.2
FC 3.0
21,000 gallons in ground, kidney shape
Polaris 280
Cartridge filter
I have owned this house/pool for almost 4 years. The pool has a large ornamental bush/tree that provides privacy and aesthetics that extends over the pool. For 2-4 weeks each year (around May) the pollen and seed pods from this tree are bad enough to cause me to run the pump 24/7 and clean the cartridge filter daily. We had a mild winter here in NE Florida so this year the pollen drop started early (in March) and was not as intense as years past. A second pollen drop started in late May, again not intense, but enough to yellow the water. Besides running the pump and frequent cleanout of the traps/filter, I have previously had luck clearing up the pool with a product called Natural Chemistry's Pool First Aid. I treated the pool and it cleared up for a few days but became cloudy again. A second treatment cleared the pool up for a few days and then the cloudiness returned. A 3rd treatment had no impact. Like I mentioned, I have experienced the pollen drop enough to know that 24/7 filtering, frequent filter rinses and occasionally using this first aid stuff has worked well for 4 years, thus after the 3rd regiment I started to research other possibilities.
Speculating that I may have Yellow Mustard, I began to shock the pool using ‘lots’ of liquid chlorine in 2.5 gallon jugs.
After stumbling onto this forum, I quickly surmised that the test kit I had was too basic to determine CYA and higher levels of Chlorine. Yesterday, I picked up what I thought was the Leslie’s FAS-DPD only to find out it was an expensive DPD (only) kit which maxed out at 25ppm for chlorine. I am heading back to Leslie’s at lunch to see if they will swap the kit for the FAS-DPD. I don’t think they have it in stock, so may have to order one.
For the past 5 days, I have been brushing the pool twice daily, cleaning the cartridge filter twice daily, and added socks to the skimmer baskets. The pool is improving and no longer yellow/green but it is still cloudy, though I can easily see the drain cover in the deep end (my test for cloudiness).
I have read enough to know that I really need to have accurate chem readings to help determine next steps. As soon as I get the right kit, I’ll be able to effectively manage the shock levels , but wanted to type up a summary while I had an opportunity. Thanks for a great forum, I have learned a lot from reading the many posts.
Reading taken with DPD kit after shocking:
FC 25+
TC 25+
CYA 85
Reading before shocking and with older basic chem set:
pH 7.2
FC 3.0
21,000 gallons in ground, kidney shape
Polaris 280
Cartridge filter
