Brown Gummy Sticky Stuff

[bljamison]

At the end of last swimming season, our local pool company closed our 2 year old Fiberglass pool. A few weeks later, I opened the auto cover and used the leaf rake to remove a few leaves and take a look. After, our net was super sticky and dried stuck together. When they closed the pool, I took a picture of the bottles of chemical they put in, it was Beautec and Pooltec. When they opened the pool this week, I told them to not put anything in it, yet they did put what looked like Shock and Chlorine Pucks. Their brushes were super dirty with sticky stuff after cleaning/vacumming. I got a new brush (the King Fin) which is really cool. I brushed it today and I got brown sticky stuff on the tips of the brush. Luckily, hot water and Baking Soda cleaned the brush. All last season we used liquid chlorine, occasional Muriatic Acid, and occasional Metal Out. At the very end of last swimming season when I opened the pool cover I would notice what looked like oil (probably sunscreen) floating on the top, but quickly dissipated. Any ideas what this brown sticky stuff is?

 

[kimkats]

Can you feel it with your hands by rubbing the sides of the pool? Do you have a pic of the net and brush? That would be very helpful.

 

[bljamison]

Thanks for trying to help. I disposed of the net and bought a new one before I realized a soak in Baking Soda and Water would dissolve the gunk. The walls feel pretty good. This morning I just brushed the bottom of the pool. I already started to soak in baking soda , then took the picture. It was a little worse than this.

 

[kimkats]

That is *interesting* looking and have NO idea what it is! What my gut tells me to say is to get your FC levels up to SLAM level and do a SLAM to see if that will clear lup what ever that is. Here is a link to doing a SLAM SLAM Process Also run a full set of tests and post them here for us to look over. I would be brushing every time you think about it to get what ever it is up and mixed into the water so the chlorine can help get rid of it.

What do your filter cartridges look like?

 

[bljamison]

We cleaned the cartridges at the end of the last season. I haven't looked at them since we opened the pool on Monday. During the winter we bought new cartridges and plan to put them in a few weeks after start up. As of yesterday, my Taylor kit with all brand new reagents tested: Fch 10.0, PH 7.4, TA 90, CH 340, CYA 30. The same day, the pool store had these readings: FCH 11.95, PH 7.9, TA 90, CH 188, No metals, Phosphates 4772. The discrepancies always blow my mind. When they opened the pool they put in 4 pucks (which I don't usually use, and shock). My CYA is okay, so after the pucks, I'm going to liquid chlorine. I did a SLAM last year, I thought about doing one now. I agree about brushing often, now that our rain stopped, I plan to get out there again. Thanks for the feedback!