Lots of "Floaties" Near Light at Night

[BlueCoug]

So, I have been doing TFP method for about a month and have been loving the results. Stable chemical levels and amazingly clear water.

The one thing I have noticed is I have a ton of "floaties" that I can only see at night only around the pool light. Are these the phosphates that my pool stores wants me to buy chemicals to get rid of? Could this be an indication that I am not running my pump enough? Is there any reason to do anything about this if all my other levels are spot on?

Any other thoughts or ideas?

 

[pooldv]

It is not phosphates, you can't see phosphates. I think every pool has a little bit of stuff floating in it, especially at night around the light. Mine certainly does. Running the filter some more might help. Depends how much stuff is blowing around outside too though.

 

[Wildcat]

I have had the same issue for a few years. They just seem to float in place and are slowly, if at all,drawn into the skimmer,just a few feet away. Running the filter 4 or 5 hours a day more seems to improve it. I do it at night when electric rates are lower.

 

[chem geek]

No, it's not phosphates. Those are soluble and not visible and nothing to worry about if you are following the Chlorine / CYA chart. Are the floaties on the surface of the water or in the water below the surface? They are most likely just flakes of skin or pollen or other organic matter that got into the pool and needs to get filtered out. You can check your circulation pattern to make sure that floaties on the surface get into the skimmer. Those in the pool should either float or drop so may get picked up in a pool cleaner bag.

So it is possible you need to circulate more but some number of floaties is normal when a pool is used is normal. But you said a "ton" so that does sound like you need to raise your circulation time. If increasing circulation time does not help, then you could check your cartridge filter to make sure there aren't any tears or holes in any of the cartridges.

Also, if you get a lot of debris on the surface of the pool (such as pollen) you can use a skimmer sock which is easier to clean than a filter.

 

[JayBauman]

Same thing going on with me...but upon closer inspection, most of my floaties appear to be dog hair. I should think my doggies should be bald by now! I definitely notice a reduction in the amount of floaties when I run my filter a few hours longer for a week or so. However, the extra electricity expense doesn't really justify the fewer floaties for our normal every day activities.

 

[BlueCoug]

Re: Lots of "Floaties" Near Light at Night

So here it is...They are all underwater and maybe 1-3 mm in size. As soon as they move away from the light you don't see them. During the day the pool is crystal clear and all my levels have been spot on and stable for weeks.

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So here it is...They are all underwater and maybe 1-3 mm in size. As soon as they move away from the light you don't see them. During the day the pool is crystal clear and all my levels have been spot on and stable for weeks.

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sorry about that...not sure how I posted the pic three times.

 

[Mike1162]

Re: Lots of "Floaties" Near Light at Night

That looks like a lot. How many hours a day do you run the filter? Can you post a daytime picture?

 

[chem geek]

That is a lot of floaties. When I said that some are normal, see this post where I show what it looks like in my pool at night near the light. There are a few floaties that drift by, but not many. I have an oversized cartridge filter and a little more than one turnover of water per day, mostly due to the solar that needs to be running.

If they are really 1-3 mm in size, your filter (no matter what type) should have no trouble at all removing them so you either have a circulation problem where some section of pool water is moving but not getting into the skimmer or drains or you've got a problem in the filter such as tears or holes in a cartridge filter (though it'd have to be a lot of them because a few just results in slower filtration, not no filtration) or you aren't running your pump long enough. OR you've got something deteriorating or dumping debris in the pool faster than filtration is able to remove it.

 

[BlueCoug]

Re: Lots of "Floaties" Near Light at Night

Here is the pool during the day. I can read a quarter at 8 ft.

I appreciate the differential Chem Geek. Any suggestions on how to work my way through it?

My pool is less than a year old so I hope nothing is deteriorating. I've cleaned my filter cartridges a couple of weeks ago and they were in good shape. I run my pump 4 hours at night and 4 hours during the day. By my calculation I am turing my water over a little more once every time I run my pool for 4 hours.

That leave me with poor circulation. I won't bore you with the long story, but lets just say I was less than happy with my pool builder. One of the issues that came about was we were supposed to have two skimmers, but ended up with only one. I wasn't thrilled about this, but in my mind I don't think this is my current problem. Correct me if I am wrong, but the skimmer only helps with surface debris, most of these floaties are below surface. My pool is about 20 x 40 with an 8 x 8 hot tub in one corner. I have three returns on each side of the pool, two intakes at the bottom of the deep end and one in the spa. How can I know if this is producing adequate circulation?

Thanks

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At least it only posted the pic twice this time...not sure why that is happening.