I apologize in advance for novela length post. I'm a newbie to pool care. Husband had been caring for pool until late last swim season. I took over after it being a swamp most of the summer. Found TFP and thanks to Pool Math, kids and I were able to enjoy the last few weeks of summer in clear pool by significantly increasing chlorine use to compensate for off the charts CYA (per pool store tests.)
Because of crazy CYA and calcium also being off the charts we completely emptied, hose sprayed, scrubbed and chlorine washed the pool. I decided to do the chlorine wash because we had these weird white clumps that were attached all over the walls of pool (see images). I scraped these off and put in jar with pool water hoping someone knows what they are. (There's also white calcium deposit residue etc al on the bottom of the jar, pool surface is soft and crumbly but don't have budget to resurface pool yet.) These clumps look like small round cotton balls, .25 to .50 cm in size. They seem to be attached to hard crusty "root", like small calcium deposit. In the water they look soft and flow/move with the water like a tiny little sea anemone. They can not be brushed off by wiping with hand. To get these I had to scrape hard with a fingernail. Out of the water they feel slimy, like little whitish boogers (I know, EWWW!) Before deciding to empty the pool I had spent hours scrubbing the walls with a wire pool brush. Some would succumb and release others were just stubborn as heck and never did anything but flatten against the wall and re-emerge as fluffy as ever. I had thought it was white mold but it doesn't lay in sheets, like wet tissue paper. They are very district individual balls of white. With the pool emptied and chlorine treated the clumps are dried out and crumbly but still don't easily come off the walls. I'm hoping they won't "re-bloom" when we put water back in the pool.
I suspect they are a result of my dear husband completely neglecting the pool for all of fall/winter 2019 and early spring 2020 (aka no chemicals and no pump use) then shocking the heck out of it and putting chlorine pucks in skimmer per recommendation of pool store to get it clear. Pool would become swamp again quickly and then be shocked to death again. This was repeated over and over again until I took it over.
FYI I just recently got a TF- 100 XL kit so I can get the water balanced properly. Unless someone recommends doing some other sort of treatment before adding water, I will start adding water and throw in half a gallon of chlorine per day (once it's about quarter the way filled). Going to open sand filter and clean out the filter tomorrow, backwash and then add CYA in sock to skimmer (I've obviously been doing my Pool School homework!) I'll also test water coming out of hose and post results here to get input on what to do with PH and TA before doing SLAM.
So, any input/suggestions are welcome. Hoping to solve the mystery of the white slime balls. Greatly appreciate this valuable site and forum!!
Because of crazy CYA and calcium also being off the charts we completely emptied, hose sprayed, scrubbed and chlorine washed the pool. I decided to do the chlorine wash because we had these weird white clumps that were attached all over the walls of pool (see images). I scraped these off and put in jar with pool water hoping someone knows what they are. (There's also white calcium deposit residue etc al on the bottom of the jar, pool surface is soft and crumbly but don't have budget to resurface pool yet.) These clumps look like small round cotton balls, .25 to .50 cm in size. They seem to be attached to hard crusty "root", like small calcium deposit. In the water they look soft and flow/move with the water like a tiny little sea anemone. They can not be brushed off by wiping with hand. To get these I had to scrape hard with a fingernail. Out of the water they feel slimy, like little whitish boogers (I know, EWWW!) Before deciding to empty the pool I had spent hours scrubbing the walls with a wire pool brush. Some would succumb and release others were just stubborn as heck and never did anything but flatten against the wall and re-emerge as fluffy as ever. I had thought it was white mold but it doesn't lay in sheets, like wet tissue paper. They are very district individual balls of white. With the pool emptied and chlorine treated the clumps are dried out and crumbly but still don't easily come off the walls. I'm hoping they won't "re-bloom" when we put water back in the pool.
I suspect they are a result of my dear husband completely neglecting the pool for all of fall/winter 2019 and early spring 2020 (aka no chemicals and no pump use) then shocking the heck out of it and putting chlorine pucks in skimmer per recommendation of pool store to get it clear. Pool would become swamp again quickly and then be shocked to death again. This was repeated over and over again until I took it over.
FYI I just recently got a TF- 100 XL kit so I can get the water balanced properly. Unless someone recommends doing some other sort of treatment before adding water, I will start adding water and throw in half a gallon of chlorine per day (once it's about quarter the way filled). Going to open sand filter and clean out the filter tomorrow, backwash and then add CYA in sock to skimmer (I've obviously been doing my Pool School homework!) I'll also test water coming out of hose and post results here to get input on what to do with PH and TA before doing SLAM.
So, any input/suggestions are welcome. Hoping to solve the mystery of the white slime balls. Greatly appreciate this valuable site and forum!!
Last edited:
