Help I cant identify white substance

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R

rcook21

0
Jun 15, 2013
3
I need help to identify a white almost bubble like substance on the bottom of my pool. It seems to gather in the low lying nooks crannys dips. I can touch it and it dissipates instantly. I have an above ground 24ft round chlorine, i use a de filter and when i vacuum the substance up it clogs my filter and i bump it and its ok for a while. Also my chlorine is dissipating at a extremely fast rate. Test result 24 hrs after super shocking with 3lbs of calcium hypochlorite 70% and 15oz of algaecide.


Ph 7.0
Tc .5
Fc 0
Hardness 500ppm
Alkalinity 80ppm
Cyan acid 0 (added 2lbs 48 hrs ago)
Any all help would be greatly appreciated thanks
 
Ok let me retract all my test results, ( in hurry used strips, now in garbage) now retested using a taylor k-2005 test kit i have:
Fc 1.5 ppm
Tc
Ph 7.4
Ta 90ppm
Ch 200 ppm
Cya 14ppm


Sorry for the previous test using idiot strips. Still have problem thanks
 
Fill small cap tube with black dot until black dot not visible. O ok, I meant 140ppm.lol this is my third season with a pool and its been a struggle ever since. 1st season leaks, liner sags, 2nd season pink algae, burnt pump, this year dumped winter cover with a ton of leaves in pool, 1st year with hayward de filter (love it so far) now this white substance. Nothing floating crystal clear water, im ocd with keeping the pool vacuumed. Thank you so much for responding.
 
Welcome! :wave:

The stuff looks like waterborne dust bunnies, right?

That's algae.

FC is waaaaaaay too low for 140 CYA. And sadly, your estimate of 140 means it's probably more like 180, because the scale marks are not equidistant. There are directions for measuring CYA when it's really high in extended-test-kit-directions-t25081.html

Get some chlorine bleach in there ASAP. Figure at least 4 jugs of 8.25% Chlorox -if CYA is only 140!!

Then settle in and study pool school.
 
im ocd with keeping the pool vacuumed.
Click to expand...
If you will transfer a bit of that OCD over to managing and understanding your pool water chemistry, the vacuuming will become completely painless and your pool will be crystal clear.

As others have posted, start up in pool school and learn to understand what your test results are telling you.
 
Cya is the problem. I cant swear by his science, but I once had a chemical engineer, who also owns a pool, tell me that F.C. for sanitizing purposes should be maintained at 11.7% of your CYA. Of course the disclaimer to that was "regardless of CYA level, never let F.C. drop below 1.5." In theory, if your CYA is 140, your F.C. should be 16.1 at minimum. For all practical purposes, the only way you can truly oxidize anything at that CYA level is with an Oxi shock.
Even though it is not necessary in a properly maintained pool, you might want to use polyquat until you can get your CYA level down.
 
@ reynolds357....
reynolds357 said:
Cya is the problem. I cant swear by his science, but I once had a chemical engineer, who also owns a pool, tell me that F.C. for sanitizing purposes should be maintained at 11.7% of your CYA.
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The experience on this board and others has shown that 7.5% (not 11.7%) of cya level is what is generally required to keep pools that don't have algae, algae free. See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/chlorine-cya-chart-t2346.html

reynolds357 said:
For all practical purposes, the only way you can truly oxidize anything at that CYA level is with an Oxi shock.
Click to expand...
I am assuming Oxi shock means Potassium Monopersulfate (mps)? Even at high cya levels, chlorine will still oxidize. MPS does oxidizes some stuff more efficiently, but in the typical residential pool, chlorine does the job for cheaper. See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/opening-a-pool-to-high-chlorine-demand-ammonia-t6711.html#p54096
 

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Linen, I looked at the link you provided and "Target F.C." is 11.5%. That seems to harmonize pretty well with what the Chemical enginer's number of 11.7%.

Chlorine will most definitely oxidize as long as there is enough of it free for the chemical reaction to occur. In high concentrations of Cyanuric Acid, it is definitely not operating in an efficient manner. What it all boils down to is the level of F.C. will have to be kept high for a much longer period of time than is convenient for most pool operators. Oxi Shock, or MPS can do in 30 minutes what Chlorine can take a couple of days to accomplish. I actually pay the same for MPS that I pay for Chlorine. I buy it in bulk when a supplier I know has it on sale. I do not like it good enough to use at $6.90 a pound, but its pretty good stuff for $2.80 per pound. I will conceed to you that MPS could definitely be seen as a short cut, but sometimes it is much easier to throw 2 lbs of MPS in the water than it is to go through a proper shocking procedure.
 
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