I did lots of reading, I did some cleaning and I even ran my hand across this stuff and I cant figure out what it is! Sorry for the long post but after lots of searching I cant figure this out and I am very new to pool ownership.
I had a green-ish pool to start the year. I let my FC levels drop to near zero over the winter not knowing better (first winter with pool) and once things started warming up a month or so ago water started getting weird on me. I went ahead and SLAM'd the pool back then when my CYA was also zero (raised it to 20 first) and water was crystal clear. I was happy.
We are now in the height of pollen season here in the upstate of SC and its been a BAD year. My truck is yellow within hours and the pool has this yellow sheen to it. I have been adding a little DE to my sand filter and that seems to help a bit, I was using skimmer socks but they clogged so fast with the pollen fronds that I gave up.
My water is now at 76 degrees, I went ahead and raised my CYA to 70 since I thought I was in the clear and I have this nasty yellow/bright green stuff all over my pool bottom and the slopes. Not too much on the vertical sides, its on the flat bottom and the slopes to the deep end. If I brush it it just clouds up in a big bloom and if I brush the full pool I cant see the bottom for a short bit! I know some of it is pollen fronds that have sank since I see those vacuuming (I manually vacuum right now). The rest is this thin layer of something that is in big, wide patches all over the pool. Some of it is greener vs. yellow but its all that yellowish/green color. Some areas also have it worse as I will show in my photos.
So how do I know what this stuff is? It doesnt feel slimey, it doesnt really feel like anything at all! If I try and SLAM now my CYA is too high, correct? I hate to dump all that bleach in if its not needed and my wife will really kill me if I need to drain a bunch of water to get the CYA lower. No clue how much I would need to drain either. That also means adding salt again, rebalancing, etc...
My FC stays at 3.0 daily but that is with my SWG running. PH is 7.6, TA is a little low at 80. Water temp is 74-76F
These pics are from the inlet to one of my skimmers that is in pretty much full shade all day. This is brighter green vs. what I can see at the bottom of the pool and a little thicker. It doesnt feel like anything, it just wipes clean with no residue feeling left behind on my fingers. Last pic is a cropped close up and you can see where I easily wiped some away.
- - - Updated - - -
I was looking at the photos more and it looks like two substances in my skimmer. The front that sees some sun looks to have something more orange-ish and finer in texture vs. the nasty green stuff in the back. I have to think that green stuff is algae of some sort. The stuff on the bottom of my pool is more of a mix between those colors. I couldnt get a good photo of it and I just brushed/vac'd my pool today and am running my filter 24 hrs with some DE to see if it helps. I went ahead and flipped the switch on my Aqua-Rite to "Super Chlorinate" as well. Not sure if that really does much but thought it couldnt hurt.
I had a green-ish pool to start the year. I let my FC levels drop to near zero over the winter not knowing better (first winter with pool) and once things started warming up a month or so ago water started getting weird on me. I went ahead and SLAM'd the pool back then when my CYA was also zero (raised it to 20 first) and water was crystal clear. I was happy.
We are now in the height of pollen season here in the upstate of SC and its been a BAD year. My truck is yellow within hours and the pool has this yellow sheen to it. I have been adding a little DE to my sand filter and that seems to help a bit, I was using skimmer socks but they clogged so fast with the pollen fronds that I gave up.
My water is now at 76 degrees, I went ahead and raised my CYA to 70 since I thought I was in the clear and I have this nasty yellow/bright green stuff all over my pool bottom and the slopes. Not too much on the vertical sides, its on the flat bottom and the slopes to the deep end. If I brush it it just clouds up in a big bloom and if I brush the full pool I cant see the bottom for a short bit! I know some of it is pollen fronds that have sank since I see those vacuuming (I manually vacuum right now). The rest is this thin layer of something that is in big, wide patches all over the pool. Some of it is greener vs. yellow but its all that yellowish/green color. Some areas also have it worse as I will show in my photos.
So how do I know what this stuff is? It doesnt feel slimey, it doesnt really feel like anything at all! If I try and SLAM now my CYA is too high, correct? I hate to dump all that bleach in if its not needed and my wife will really kill me if I need to drain a bunch of water to get the CYA lower. No clue how much I would need to drain either. That also means adding salt again, rebalancing, etc...
My FC stays at 3.0 daily but that is with my SWG running. PH is 7.6, TA is a little low at 80. Water temp is 74-76F
These pics are from the inlet to one of my skimmers that is in pretty much full shade all day. This is brighter green vs. what I can see at the bottom of the pool and a little thicker. It doesnt feel like anything, it just wipes clean with no residue feeling left behind on my fingers. Last pic is a cropped close up and you can see where I easily wiped some away.
- - - Updated - - -
I was looking at the photos more and it looks like two substances in my skimmer. The front that sees some sun looks to have something more orange-ish and finer in texture vs. the nasty green stuff in the back. I have to think that green stuff is algae of some sort. The stuff on the bottom of my pool is more of a mix between those colors. I couldnt get a good photo of it and I just brushed/vac'd my pool today and am running my filter 24 hrs with some DE to see if it helps. I went ahead and flipped the switch on my Aqua-Rite to "Super Chlorinate" as well. Not sure if that really does much but thought it couldnt hurt.