Yellow/Green dust everywhere

[John Rock]

Hi,

I've opened the green pool this year tried the BBB method. I got my water levels right and at a point where I was loosing less then 1 PPM of FC at night.

However, I have this yellow/green dust pretty much everywhere on the pool floor and it doesn't go away even while running the pump 24/7 and the Polaris 9300 almost every day.

Could any of these be the issue?

- I have a lot of vines and plants around the pool. Could they be producing pollen and more than what my pool can handle? (a lot of trees too around)

- Could my pool drain not be working well so it can't suck up the pollen? There are a few leaves under the grill and they don't seem to get sucked up.

- Is my sand filter unable to capture the pollen, so it just keeps building up in the pool?

- Is my sand filter broken and letting dirty do in the pool?

- Is this not pollen but some kind of algae?

I really desperate to find the issue. Starting to feel like pouring cement in the pool!

(BTW, I have two holes in the bottom of my skimmer and always assumed one of them was for the drain, is this correct?)

 

[duraleigh]

John,

Can you post a set of current test results? That'll help us get started.

 

[John Rock]

Hi Dave,

Here are my results after testing minutes ago :

FC = 11 (was 22.5 last night after adding 4 x 5L jugs of 6% bleach)
CC = ~0
PH = 7.6
TA = 11
CYA = 43

 

[JasonLion]

Are you sure of that TA reading? Perhaps you left a zero off the end and it is actually 110?

One way to tell the difference between algae and pollen is that pollen won't go away when you are at shock level and algae will.

I suspect you are just seeing a lot of pollen that is constantly being added to the pool. The filter gets most of it, but there is always more being added.

 

[duraleigh]

John,

Your test results would indicate an overnight loss of around 10ppm of FC. That would surely be because of algae if the results are accurate.

I think you need to shock your pool. Read "How to Shock Your Pool" up in Pool School and post back any questions. You'll need to elevate your FC up to around 16ppm and then hold it there until....
1. Your pool water is sparkling
2. Your CC's are .5ppm or less
3. You can hold your FC overnight without losing more than 1ppm.

 

[John Rock]

@JasonLion:

Yes, I forgot the zero so it's indeed 110.

Indeed, the "pollen" doesn't seem to go away at shock level and also, wouldn't algae stick to the vinyl (instead of acting like dust)? If the filter is constantly picking up the pollen but more is always added, doing a daily backwash we return very yellow water correct? And if clear, this could mean that the filter isn't picking it up the pollen or reaching the skimmer/drain?

@duraleigh

I had already completed shocking as indicated. Pool wasn't sparkling (possibly because of the pollen), but I could see the drain well. If it was algae that was eating up all the chlorine, wouldn't I have some CC as a result?

 

[Cherie]

There are a couple of threads on here concerning pollen. Ours turned out to be pollen. When we started using a cleaner with a self-contained filter (Aquabot Turbo), it took removed the pollen because the bag filters down to very, very small particles -- unlike our sand filter. But we realized it was pollen when we put the solar cover on and the next morning, there was a ton of the stuff on top of the solar cover and absolutely nothing on the bottom of our pool. You can also see it floating on the water, until it gets waterlogged and sinks.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

@duraleigh

I had already completed shocking as indicated. Pool wasn't sparkling (possibly because of the pollen), but I could see the drain well. If it was algae that was eating up all the chlorine, wouldn't I have some CC as a result?

It sounds like you're not done shocking. Losing 11.5 ppm FC in one day indicates a problem. You need to hold shock level until you lose less than 1 ppm FC overnight, regardless of how clear the pool is.