What IS this?

[hlemon]

Give it to me straight. It's brown and puffs away when you touch it. It forms a perfect little ring all the way around our round pool. I won't have any in the morning and it will be there in the afternoon. I did go from swamp thing to swimming pool, but I tested my water last night and had FC7 no CC. Tested again this morning and had FC6 no CC.

Husband says it is dead algae...I want to make sure. I know that something blows into my pool after we turn on the pump through the returns....but this much?

 

[spishex]

Could be dead algae or just dirt. Whatever it is it's getting through your filter, so vacuum it to waste.

 

[reebok]

I had never seen anything like that in the 3 years I've had my pool, and then I added borates this year and suddenly that stuff appeared. I posted about it and waterbear said it was dead algae (and then a few days later someone else posted the same thing with the same answer). I am still amazed that I kept my chlorine/cya correct for a little while (weeks) before I added borates and the borates somehow still found and killed algae. either that or the 4+ gallons of acid burned it alive.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

To me that looks like the pollen/dirt issue that folks have been reporting for weeks. I have it in my pool and I'm not experiencing any abnormal chlorine less, less than 1ppm when the pool is covered and not used.

 

[hlemon]

And I have been wanting to add borates!!!

I'm glad that no one thinks it is live algae! Then I will stop worrying about it and order my pool rover on Tuesday. 8)

 

[dattia]

Last year I got that all the time and it seems to settle in the pattern of the water flow. I used it as an excuse to get in and vacuum everyday alone... it became Mommy's 'happy time'. My three teens have NO interest in pool maintenance at all, something that initially irritated me, but I have grown to love it!

I am anxiously waiting for the time that I can get back to that old routine this year!

 

[JasonLion]

If you have a fairly high CYA level, above 50, and your FC level is just a little bit low, it is very common to see drifts of dead algae on the bottom of the pool. The algae is growing and dying at about equal rates, it is not all getting killed because FC is too low, but FC is still high enough that it can't really get going.

If you see this once, perhaps after a storm, it really doesn't mean anything. But if you see it all the time, it means you should raise your FC level.

 

[hlemon]

My CYA is still a little low (30 or so). I know I need to raise it, but haven't gotten to the store to get more.

I've been trying to keep my FC at around 7, but I'll bet it falls during the day because of the amount of sunshine we've been getting. I do have some left over pucks (tri). Since I need to raise the cya a little anyway, I might throw some in the skimmers and see if I have less of that stuff on the pool floor. We've had a lot of breeze, but no rain recently.