Brown/Light Grey substance keep appearing on the bottom of my pool

[mariane]

By "my pool is empty now" i meant there is nothing in there but water

Oh good. I was afraid you drained it.
High chlorine will fade a liner. Very low pH will wrinkle it.
Not sure what the brown spots would be. It's not from regular liquid chlorine and the algae would not stain it.
Do you have trees nearby, dropping stuff in the pool?
Did you pour salt in the pool? Some people have complained of staining from the Clorox brand.
Have you added anything else besides plain-old no-additives liquid chlorine?
How often are you cleaning the filter? Is the pump running 24/7? Is the SWG running (should not be)?
Are you keeping the water at SLAM levels all day and night (as best you can)?
How many days have you been in this level of the SLAM where the water is almost clear and mounds of dead algae accumulate on the bottom?

You might be at the place where you need "P.O.P" (pool owner patience)

 

[Mshepels]

I was keeping chlorine at Slam level for about 4-5 days. I than got busy with work and was not able to check it as often but was adding liquid 10% chlorine from time to time. No I am running very low on chlorine testing reagent. The new one will only come on Monday. Maybe my filter is not filtering all the dead algae. I was vacuuming cleaning the cartridge and brushing the pool daily for about a week now.

 

[mariane]

I've found when I can't keep the SLAM levels up, it takes longer for the algae to die and not settle to the bottom

Following the SLAM Process. If you continue to get dead algae, it was killed by the chlorine. Patience.

Add each day the chlorine you have been adding. I would not swim during this time.

Are you able to follow this ^^^^^ until the regents come in?

 

[game]

I feel your frustration. I am having a small amount of brownish looking stuff in my pool, too. No matter what I do it keeps coming back, only less now. I feel like I should have invested in pool bleach stock. I brush and vaccum, brush and vaccum. Still have not been swimming yet this summer. I have decided to let my chlorine levels go back to normal tomorrow and just try to get some enjoyment out of the pool. What a pain! I have passed the OCLT with flying colors and the CC is 0. Water is good except for the stupid itty but of light brown looking sand on the same place . I have kept the bleach up according to my CYA and then some. This stuff will not leave. It has beaten me.

 

[Mshepels]

I feel your frustration. I am having a small amount of brownish looking stuff in my pool, too. No matter what I do it keeps coming back, only less now. I feel like I should have invested in pool bleach stock. I brush and vaccum, brush and vaccum. Still have not been swimming yet this summer. I have decided to let my chlorine levels go back to normal tomorrow and just try to get some enjoyment out of the pool. What a pain! I have passed the OCLT with flying colors and the CC is 0. Water is good except for the stupid itty but of light brown looking sand on the same place . I have kept the bleach up according to my CYA and then some. This stuff will not leave. It has beaten me.

Yes, I am almost at that point. My 11 year old is itching to go to the pool. I'll give it 2 more days...

 

[mknauss]

@game @Mshepels
You can safely swim in a pool as long as the FC is above the minimum and at or below SLAM level based on your CYA. You must also be able to see the bottom of the pool in the deep end of the pool.

 

[game]

Were you able to get rid of the dead algae? Ours still keeps getting the dead algae on the bottom. I just vacuumed this morning and it is already back. Slammed for about a week. Passed everything. FRUSTRATING!Have not been able to swim!

 

[game]

We decided to go ahead and change our filter sand. I will let you know how it goes in the morning. Just in case I am starting a slam again today, even with the new sand. Water is clear and I pray it stays that way.

 

[Mshepels]

Hi. The dead algae, keeps coming back. I got it to a point that it was very minimal and decided to stop. I want my kid to have a pool with all this social distancing. The dead algae have gotten more, the water is clear though. I might resume the SLAM in the future.

 

[mknauss]

I want my kid to have a pool with all this social distancing.

The pool is perfectly safe to use during the SLAM Process

 

[game]

Hi. The dead algae, keeps coming back. I got it to a point that it was very minimal and decided to stop. I want my kid to have a pool with all this social distancing. The dead algae have gotten more, the water is clear though. I might resume the SLAM in the future.

Since we have changed our sand in our filter all is good! We are going swimming! Dead algae gone!

 

[game]

Since we have changed our sand in our filter all is good! We are going swimming! Dead algae gone! We vacuumed and then shut the pool off and then changed the sand. It worked.

 

[Mshepels]

That's great. Congrats!!

 

[kellyfair]

Folks, the dead algae isn’t coming back. What you are seeing is newly killed algae, settling. This means there is still algae in the water, and you need to keep up the SLAM. Backing off of the SLAM too early will drag out the process.

When no more dead algae appears (because there is nothing left in the water to kill) that’s when you consider doing the OCLT.

 

[Mshepels]

Hello,
I am still struggling with the dead algae. It has been so frustrating. I am working during the day and can’t monitor the FC during the day. The dead algae (which is black in color) keeps coming back. I vacuum it out at night and brush with no results. I maintained the chlorine level during the 4 days I was off but I guess it was not enough. It seems like I’m dealing with this all summer. I don’t know what to do at this point.

 

[MITBeta]

Have you passed all 3 SLAM Process exit criteria?

 

[wireform]

I think you can benefit a lot by tearing open the filter and cleaning it out very well. What you're experiencing is possibly the crud in the filter not letting you advance.

 

[MaggieMiller]

Mshepels,

The reason you need to follow the SLAM process is that the grey residue at the bottom of your pool looks like dead algae. If that is the case, then when you have been shocking the pool, you are killing a small amount of suspended algae that is collecting at the bottom. Performing the SLAM process as described by Marty in his post will ensure that you kill ALL the algae in your pool and bring your water back to a sparkling, trouble-free state. This will accomplish a few vital things:

1. Teach you how to correctly SLAM your pool to rid it of contaminants
2. Prevent you from ever having to "drain your pool and start over"
3. Introduce you to the Trouble-free Pool (TFP) way of maintaining your pool so that this will never happen again.

Good Luck!

I just happen to be in that same spot with my SLAM. My overnight test was only 1ppm drop in FC, but there are still light brown spots of dead algae appearing (not much, but it's there) on the bottom of my pool. I have to vacuum by hand and it seems to dessiminate as much into the water as it vacuums. It's so small, I'm not sure the large filter or the sock basket filter will remove it. I even tried using the leaf collector (with the attached hose) because it's net is fine, but it's not catching this algae - just spitting it back into the water. I wonder if my pool vacuum is not good enough? It's not exactly like that one in the picture, but almost. It's really flimsy.