We bought the house late last year, and it came with the pool, including clear water and a K-2005 kit. After closing last year with shock and Polyquat, we opened this year to clear water, some gray spots on the bottom, two small sets of black spots on the bottom, and an order for a K-2006 kit (which has since arrived). Due to trees, we're getting a very few leaves, a lot of small flowers, and a lot of helicopters in the pool (or on the solar cover, whichever is exposed).
I do not know the age of any of the equipment.
With the eyeball pointed sharply to the right (away from the skimmer entrace; the eyeball is a few feet to the right of the skimmer), a strong counterclockwise water rotation forms when the pump is on.
Given the gray spots, with the K-2005 I brought the pool up to approximate shock and kept it there, and vacuumed the gray spots up regularly; I was hoping they'd quit forming. This has not happened.
Current status, per K-2006:
FC 25.5 (at 0.5 accuracy)
CC <=.5 (at 0.5 accuracy)
pH 7.8 (false reading from high FC)
TA 90
CH 160
CyA 60
Water temperature 67
Automatic feeder set at 0.5 until it runs out (I just want to run it dry, rather than deal with the pucks)
DE filter PSI 17 (it opened at 16 with fresh DE).
Locally heavy rainfall raised the water just above the skimmer basket yesterday, I pumped out 1.5" of water, and the really nasty surface Crud is gone again.
My questions:
A) Can I actually use the overnight FC loss method when new Crud is constantly landing in the pool?
B) What are those #$%#$ gray spots on the bottom; they accumulate in the same location most of the time, and along the creases in the bottom of the vinyl liner (there are 3 such parallel creases). I've brush/vacuumed those from multiple angles repeatedly. The grey spots keep coming back.
C) Upon putting a skimmer sock in the skimmer, it quickly gets coated with a slightly gritty, sandy substance, whether I've vacuumed or not. What is that? I did notice that when the pool water was above the skimmer, in addition to a couple leaves and a lot of helicopters and small flowers, there was a good speckling of small particles on the surface.
C1) Is the skimmer sock picking up that substance good for my DE filter in general?
D) A flashlight underwater at night showed that the bottom of the pool is most definitely not smoothly even, particularly where the grey spots show up. Is the flat blue plastic vacuum head I have the best choice to clean up stuff that may be in the depressions?
I do not know the age of any of the equipment.
With the eyeball pointed sharply to the right (away from the skimmer entrace; the eyeball is a few feet to the right of the skimmer), a strong counterclockwise water rotation forms when the pump is on.
Given the gray spots, with the K-2005 I brought the pool up to approximate shock and kept it there, and vacuumed the gray spots up regularly; I was hoping they'd quit forming. This has not happened.
Current status, per K-2006:
FC 25.5 (at 0.5 accuracy)
CC <=.5 (at 0.5 accuracy)
pH 7.8 (false reading from high FC)
TA 90
CH 160
CyA 60
Water temperature 67
Automatic feeder set at 0.5 until it runs out (I just want to run it dry, rather than deal with the pucks)
DE filter PSI 17 (it opened at 16 with fresh DE).
Locally heavy rainfall raised the water just above the skimmer basket yesterday, I pumped out 1.5" of water, and the really nasty surface Crud is gone again.
My questions:
A) Can I actually use the overnight FC loss method when new Crud is constantly landing in the pool?
B) What are those #$%#$ gray spots on the bottom; they accumulate in the same location most of the time, and along the creases in the bottom of the vinyl liner (there are 3 such parallel creases). I've brush/vacuumed those from multiple angles repeatedly. The grey spots keep coming back.
C) Upon putting a skimmer sock in the skimmer, it quickly gets coated with a slightly gritty, sandy substance, whether I've vacuumed or not. What is that? I did notice that when the pool water was above the skimmer, in addition to a couple leaves and a lot of helicopters and small flowers, there was a good speckling of small particles on the surface.
C1) Is the skimmer sock picking up that substance good for my DE filter in general?
D) A flashlight underwater at night showed that the bottom of the pool is most definitely not smoothly even, particularly where the grey spots show up. Is the flat blue plastic vacuum head I have the best choice to clean up stuff that may be in the depressions?