Bubbles!

[Rollercoastr]

About 6 months ago, I doused the pool with Clorox Color Guard. I immediately noticed it, so only about 8 oz was added to the pool. The off season came and CYA was low, so I went to Clorox non-copper pucks in the floater. Life was good. I had noticed that excessive stirring/splashing of the water resulted in some bubbles on the surface. Live and learn.

CYA reached my desired limit of 30 recently, so I switched back to the generic Kroger bleach I had been using in the spring. Last night I brushed the pool and noticed more bubbles than ever, and they lasted longer than they ever had.

I know for a fact that Color Guard bottle hasn't not been near the pool since I first realized what it was.

What's going on!?!?! Is it possible that I got a hold of some mis-labeled generic bleach? I'm going to use the rest of the current bottle to clean toilets. I'll watch for sudsing.

Chems have been fine. Chlorine is holding. Water is perfectly clear.

FC 4.5
CC 0
pH 7.3
TA 90
CH 300
CYA 30
Temp 72

help!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Does the Kroger brand bleach say anything about “fabric protection” on it? All of the Clorox brand bleaches use CloroMax technology which is an additive (polyelectrolyte complex) that leaves behind a film on clothes to make them more resistant to staining (for $990 USD, you can buy this market research report if you like). Many of the generic brands have followed suit and are using additives in their bleach. If it’s from the laundry section, it would be roughly 6% bleach with wording similar to “fabric protection”.

Alternative liquid sources would be pool store liquid chlorine (if that is available in your local area), “cleaning” or “disinfecting” bleach (it’s typically 3% to 5%) or checking with local farm supply stores or industrial cleaning supply stores. Those last two typically only sell in bulk so you might have to buy the liquid chlorine in large volume, like 5 gallon carboy containiers.

 

[Rollercoastr]

These bottles don't claim to have anything extra or special, but I'm really wondering if somewhere along the line, it got some anyway...? I can't think of anything else that would explain it. It's definitely bubbling more than it did after the one dose of Clorox, which again, was relatively small.

I will update this post tonight after cleaning the toilets to see if bubbles appear.

The good news is yes, I have a local pool store that carries 10% liquid chlorine. I picked up a case of 4 gallons last night. They sell it at a decent price and make no bizarre claims about it exploding or destroying my pool!

The bad news is they're seasonal, so now that I'm getting scared of Kroger generics, I'll have to find another way to stay supplied year-round.

 

[mknauss]

Load up on the 10% before they close. If you have a cool place to store it, it will not degrade much at all, especially during the winter!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Or, if you like to experiment with low phosphates, low FC/CYA ratio and using cal-hypo .... let me know. Your pool would make for an interesting test bed to confirm or deny some on-going theories of pool care.

 

[Rollercoastr]

Load up on the 10% before they close. If you have a cool place to store it, it will not degrade much at all, especially during the winter!

I do have a cool storage space. I can probably get a deal at the end of the year too.

- - - Updated - - -

Or, if you like to experiment with low phosphates, low FC/CYA ratio and using cal-hypo .... let me know. Your pool would make for an interesting test bed to confirm or deny some on-going theories of pool care.

Curiosity piqued... My swim season won't start until the end of Oct at the earliest.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Curiosity piqued... My swim season won't start until the end of Oct at the earliest.

I’ll shoot you a PM and you can review the details. It’s nothing magical. If we can estimate some upfront costs on what the additional chemicals might cost (they’re not very expensive) and how much any additional water usage might cost (you have a sand filter so you must backwash on some regular schedule and know what that costs you), then you can see if it’s something worth doing. Anyway, I’ll send you some info later....

 

[Rollercoastr]

The generic bleach didn’t suds in the toilet, so it’s still a mystery.

 

[Rollercoastr]

Update: the bubbles got worse. A lot worse. Stirring or a disturbance in the water was creating bubbles that would last up to a week.

Since the pool is in "off-season mode", I have the pump running at low RPM's. It's enough keep the water circulated and chems balanced, but clearly skimming was suffering because the bubbles weren't getting pulled into the skimmer.

I was tired of looking at them, so ran a high-speed pump cycle until the surface was completely clean, and then some extra for good measure.

Guess what? No more bubbling! I still don't know what it is, but now at least now I know how to get rid of / prevent it.

 

[Rollercoastr]

Well apparently surface bubbles aren't something that many of you struggle with. That's good! I'm posting just in-case anyone encounters what I did. My mystery is solved, case-closed.

Last night I went to my supply closet to grab a Magic Eraser. I use them to clean the tiles. I glanced down at the package and realized that it didn't say "foam scrubber". It says "FOAMING scrubber"!!!!

I've been using FOAMING SCRUBBERS in my pool! Clearly, the foaming agent is buoyant. In times of low skimming, it gathers on the surface of the water and causes bubbles to linger. Skimming pulls it into the filter/mixes it with the water and bubbling is reduced or eliminated.

So the lesson apparently is, read labels. Who knew??