Cloudy Return Water

[Phanes]

So I just opened up my pool and this year we installed a salt cell and a propane pool heater. It has been running for 24 hours to mix the salt and I fired up the pool heater and salt cell this morning and set it to super cholorinate as per the instructions. It has been running for about 4 hours now. The water temp is up from 47 to 60 F and the salt cell is reading 3200. So everything seems fine but the water coming from my closest return is shooting out a white cloud of water that is actually looking like sea suds on the top of my pool.

So when you think of the type of suds you see at the beach that is what it looks like. Is this normal?

I could not find anything about it in the trouble shooting.

I noticed when I turn off the heater the suds seems to lessen but are still shooting out.

The cell and the heater are brand new.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

There is no reason to run on super chlorinate. A SWG is much better at maintaining the FC level than raising it. Just use bleach.
Also what is your CYA? That determines your required FC level. What are you testing with?
What is your CH? Too low could contribute to foaming.

Have you discovered Pool School yet? Start with these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
Water Balance for SWGs

 

[Phanes]

I just did a quick test and when I turned off the salt cell the clouds stopped. It started up again on generate and super chlorinate. The pool is not balanced right now I am in a catch 22 I have to patch the liner to be able to top it off before I can balance it. I am just getting the water up to temp right now so I can patch it tomorrow. Should I just turn off the salt cell for now and keep shock in it? I opened it up with 4 gallons of shock yesterday.

 

[duraleigh]

Tell us the ingredients in that "shock"

 

[jblizzle]

Having a few bubbles when the SWG is generating is fairly normal, but it should not really be a cloud or foaming. The foaming is likely from something that has been put in the water.

I do recall from years ago that someone else was seeing a cloud enter the pool and believe it was due to the SWG, but I am not sure I could every find the thread in the 100k posts we now have.

Again, what are you testing the water with? Have one of the Recommended Test Kits is the cornerstone of what we teach.

 

[Phanes]

Having a few bubbles when the SWG is generating is fairly normal, but it should not really be a cloud or foaming. The foaming is likely from something that has been put in the water.

I do recall from years ago that someone else was seeing a cloud enter the pool and believe it was due to the SWG, but I am not sure I could every find the thread in the 100k posts we now have.

Again, what are you testing the water with? Have one of the Recommended Test Kits is the cornerstone of what we teach.

So taking your advice I just set it to generate and the clouds stopped within about 15 minutes. I did some more searching and found out seeing a cloud on supercholorinate with an SWG is not all that uncommon. I have to patch the liner tomorrow and add about 3k gallons to the pool. After that I take a sample to my pool guys and they tell me what to toss into it. I know the salt will be low but I have salt bags here ready to go. Thanks for the tips.

 

[jblizzle]

Phanes, do yourself a favor and read the methods we teach. The cornerstone of TFP is using one of the Recommended Test Kits to test your own water and add only what the pool needs and not what someone want to sell you. It is by far easier and cheaper to maintain your pool than you can imagine right now.