I'm a new member and this is my first post. So let me start by saying hello and thank you. I've learned a tremendous amount already by reading posts here at TroubleFreePool over the last few months. It's an impressive community of very knowledgable and helpful people. Thank you!
Next, a quick summary of my pool. I have an indoor Endless Pool swim spa. For anyone unfamiliar, this is a very small pool (7'x14' and 4' deep) with a propellor unit mounted in the front which creates a current in which to swim. When this propellor unit is on, water is cycled back to the unit through plastic benches that form channels around the perimeter of the pool. The pool is lined with vinyl and kept around 80 degrees F. Because it's indoor, there is no CYA in my pool. Thanks to what I've learned here at TFP, I've been manually maintaining good water balance testing daily via a Taylor K-2006C FAS-DPD test kit. I manage the FC with 6% Clorox bleach.
Now for my problem description and questions.
I've been battling white water mold. Using what I learned here, I did an extended shock, maintaining FC levels of >12 until there was no overnight loss in FC. Meanwhile, I brushed and vacuumed the pool daily. I also replaced the cartridge filters on a regular basis (discarding the used ones). And I placed a net in my skimmer basket to assist in collecting the debris during the shock process and regularly tossed and replaced this too.
This process appeared to work. The debris finally subsided. Then I waited weeks for the chlorine levels to reduce to a swimmable level (remember there's no sun to help breakdown the chlorine in my pool). I got back in the pool to swim once the FC was near 3ppm. During my initial swims, there was some debris that I caught in a net. It looked distinctly different from the debris I had been capturing during the previous weeks while shocking. During the shock process, the debris was grey. However, the small amount of debris I found while swimming was bluish-white. In both cases, the stuff looked like white flecks floating around the pool and I couldn't determine color until pulling the flecks out of the water and examining them on a paper towel.
Since there wasn't much of this new bluish debris, I continued to swim (I was desperate for this exercise after staying out of the pool for months while trying to diagnose and treat the problem). I maintained FC levels around 3ppm and removed any debris with a net whenever I noticed it.
Recently I had friends over and their kids went swimming in my pool. While the kids were swimming I noticed significant debris in the pool. This again was the bluish stuff. The FC level after the kids got out was 2 ppm and I immediately added more chlorine and cleaned out all of the debris I could reach. The next day the net in my skimmer basket was completely filled with grey matter.
So I assume this bluish stuff is more white water mold and it looks like it bloomed significantly with the increased pool activity. Should I assume the bluish-white color indicates live mold while the grey color indicates dead mold?
In the last few days, the problem seems to be subsiding with FC levels around 5ppm. My water levels are currently as follows:
FC = 5
CC = 0
PH = 7.4
TA = 100
CH = 190
CYA = 0
Temp = 80 degree F
Was this most likely reintroduced via floaties/toys or was it not successfully killed with the initial shock? Do I need to do another high level (i.e. FC > 10ppm) extended shock? Is there an alternative way to attack this to ensure it goes for good this time?
I've been reading about a product called Aquafinesse sold by Par Pools here in CT. Has anyone else used this, and if so, with what results? It's designed to clear up biofilms. From what I've been reading about WWM and bio films, it seems there could be many layers that would require multiple stages or rounds of treatment. Is this correct?
Unfortunately, there are many places within the pool that I cannot reach to clean, mostly the insides of the benches used to return the water from the current to the propellor unit. I assume that circulation inside these benches is reduced. I make sure to run the propellor for at least 30 min daily even when I'm not swimming to get the water to circulate through the benches. And I run the propellor right after adding chlorine to get it to spread throughout the pool quickly. My filter runs continuously.
My pool is only a year old. I got in to this mess because of my ignorance about water chemistry as a new pool owner. It's incredibly frustrating not being able to swim so I'm desperate for a solution. I'm wary, though, of throwing large amounts of chemicals at the pool if that's not necessary. Everything I've read here at TFP indicates that I should be able to resolve this with just chlorine. I'm not sure what I did wrong or if it's just typical to have to perform multiple rounds of shock treatment for this kind of problem.
I'm eager for any advice! And thanks for your patience in reading through this long post.
- Nancy
Next, a quick summary of my pool. I have an indoor Endless Pool swim spa. For anyone unfamiliar, this is a very small pool (7'x14' and 4' deep) with a propellor unit mounted in the front which creates a current in which to swim. When this propellor unit is on, water is cycled back to the unit through plastic benches that form channels around the perimeter of the pool. The pool is lined with vinyl and kept around 80 degrees F. Because it's indoor, there is no CYA in my pool. Thanks to what I've learned here at TFP, I've been manually maintaining good water balance testing daily via a Taylor K-2006C FAS-DPD test kit. I manage the FC with 6% Clorox bleach.
Now for my problem description and questions.
I've been battling white water mold. Using what I learned here, I did an extended shock, maintaining FC levels of >12 until there was no overnight loss in FC. Meanwhile, I brushed and vacuumed the pool daily. I also replaced the cartridge filters on a regular basis (discarding the used ones). And I placed a net in my skimmer basket to assist in collecting the debris during the shock process and regularly tossed and replaced this too.
This process appeared to work. The debris finally subsided. Then I waited weeks for the chlorine levels to reduce to a swimmable level (remember there's no sun to help breakdown the chlorine in my pool). I got back in the pool to swim once the FC was near 3ppm. During my initial swims, there was some debris that I caught in a net. It looked distinctly different from the debris I had been capturing during the previous weeks while shocking. During the shock process, the debris was grey. However, the small amount of debris I found while swimming was bluish-white. In both cases, the stuff looked like white flecks floating around the pool and I couldn't determine color until pulling the flecks out of the water and examining them on a paper towel.
Since there wasn't much of this new bluish debris, I continued to swim (I was desperate for this exercise after staying out of the pool for months while trying to diagnose and treat the problem). I maintained FC levels around 3ppm and removed any debris with a net whenever I noticed it.
Recently I had friends over and their kids went swimming in my pool. While the kids were swimming I noticed significant debris in the pool. This again was the bluish stuff. The FC level after the kids got out was 2 ppm and I immediately added more chlorine and cleaned out all of the debris I could reach. The next day the net in my skimmer basket was completely filled with grey matter.
So I assume this bluish stuff is more white water mold and it looks like it bloomed significantly with the increased pool activity. Should I assume the bluish-white color indicates live mold while the grey color indicates dead mold?
In the last few days, the problem seems to be subsiding with FC levels around 5ppm. My water levels are currently as follows:
FC = 5
CC = 0
PH = 7.4
TA = 100
CH = 190
CYA = 0
Temp = 80 degree F
Was this most likely reintroduced via floaties/toys or was it not successfully killed with the initial shock? Do I need to do another high level (i.e. FC > 10ppm) extended shock? Is there an alternative way to attack this to ensure it goes for good this time?
I've been reading about a product called Aquafinesse sold by Par Pools here in CT. Has anyone else used this, and if so, with what results? It's designed to clear up biofilms. From what I've been reading about WWM and bio films, it seems there could be many layers that would require multiple stages or rounds of treatment. Is this correct?
Unfortunately, there are many places within the pool that I cannot reach to clean, mostly the insides of the benches used to return the water from the current to the propellor unit. I assume that circulation inside these benches is reduced. I make sure to run the propellor for at least 30 min daily even when I'm not swimming to get the water to circulate through the benches. And I run the propellor right after adding chlorine to get it to spread throughout the pool quickly. My filter runs continuously.
My pool is only a year old. I got in to this mess because of my ignorance about water chemistry as a new pool owner. It's incredibly frustrating not being able to swim so I'm desperate for a solution. I'm wary, though, of throwing large amounts of chemicals at the pool if that's not necessary. Everything I've read here at TFP indicates that I should be able to resolve this with just chlorine. I'm not sure what I did wrong or if it's just typical to have to perform multiple rounds of shock treatment for this kind of problem.
I'm eager for any advice! And thanks for your patience in reading through this long post.
- Nancy
