Debris on bottom of pool

bojangels

Member
Jul 26, 2024
17
snowhill nc
Pool Size
259000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
After seeing algae, slammed the pool (inground pool), after two days FC level was staying at the target (19) low would be 15 during the day, early morning we checked (19) at sunset,(18.5) at sunrise, check. Pool clear, check then we saw some type of debris in a couple of spots on the bottom of pool, we vacuumed it up and continued the slam all day today and tonight. Going to look at it in the morning. Where can this be coming from ? The filter? We use wastewater to vacuumed all ages so I’m lost.
 
Welcome to TFP!!!

Likely dead algae that you are killing. Keep the slam up until you have no more debris.

Did you:
Scrub the skimmers?
Remove lights and scrub behind lights?
Remove any ladders and scrub under steps and inside tubes?
Did you check the weir doors for algae in the foam?
Did you remove main drain covers and scrub inside main drains?
If you have an autofill, did you scrub in there?
 
7/31/24- update:
Still have debris showing up on the bottom. I did take ladder out and scrubbed everything, still have not reinstalled it. No light to clean. (What are weir doors?) can’t answer that one.
Ok this morning we still have debris on the bottom of the pool. Yesterday we saw an increase in the amount of debris collected on the bottom before we vacuumed it up. I am expecting that to happen today as well. Again we can not tell what this is, I’ll include a pic
We did recheck pool levels this morning and they are as follows
Fc- 16.5
CC- 0
PH- 8.0
T/A- 120
CYA-30
CH- 140
I figured our reading may not be 100 percent dead on with our clorine running so high but we wanted to make sure we were in the ball park until we figure this out. We began the slam 07/26/24. How long should it take. Even though our FC is seemingly holding up overnight with 1.0 or less loss. There is some more debris in the bottom of the pool in the corners thank you for any suggestion
Bo
 

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Weir doors are the doors in the skimmer.

Post a wider picture of the entire pool from a couple angle so we can see everything.

Slam can take a few days to a couple weeks. Lots of dependencies.
 
Pic taken in the deep end shows better image of debris
Weir doors are the doors in the skimmer.

Post a wider picture of the entire pool from a couple angle so we can see everything.

Slam can take a few days to a couple weeks. Lots of dependencies.
 

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Have not scrubbed the skimmer door but they appear clean. I also have not taken the bottom drain off to scrub it. I don’t know if I can hold my breath long enough to do that. But I will if you say it’s a necessity. Thanks,
Bo
 
You need to remove the main drain cover and scrub. You can use a dumbbell to hold you down. NO WEIGHT TIED TO YOUR PERSON. Ensure the pump is OFF.
 
I zoomed in on picture #6 of the main drain and it looks to like there's too much dark area between the openings which may be you algae source. That need a good brushing at minimum from close by wit a hand brush and if you can remove it would be best to get it all cleaned out of there.
 
Took apart and brushed the main drain cover. It is stained or discolored, but not slick feeling like algae. Brushed inside of drain as well. It too has some discoloration , best I could tell no slick feel to it. While I was down there I took a syringe got a couple of samples. Sample one looked like sand. Sample 2 looked fluffy, powdery, could be dead algae
As I was in the pool the liner did not feel slick, and I scrubbed the skimmer doors as well.
With the information I have shared thus far, do you recommend to keep the slam going?
 

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Ok 7:30 pm here now. Just went out to vacuumed the pool. Lo and behold there is this debris all along the bottom again. Took some pics to show. This is begining to get on my last nerve. The same thing happened last night. Chlorine level was at 16.5 @ 4 pm. Slam level is 19 so if the chlorine is staying high, the CC is 0 , where is this Crud coming from?
Plan going forward- vacuumed pool, backwash the sand filter, just because I don’t know what else to try. Any suggestion would be appriciated
Bo
 

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On the ladders yes but we have not reinstalled the ladder since we took it out yesterday evening. Seems like the last two hrs of the day is when we see this build up on the bottom
Bo
 
Inspect the area around the steps where the plastic frame is holding the liner. I found algae in the channel and between the channel and the liner where you can see the liner was cut.

You are doing everything right.
 
That area has been scrubbed each day with the pool brush and a hand brush. It was one of the areas that took on a stain and we r trying to brush that stain off. It has got lighter but it’s still there. It just doesn’t make sense to me to get this debris the last two hrs of light each day. We originally thought it was algae, hence the slam was started. But I’m not sure any more.
Plan going forward:
1) got the FC to 22 tonight, target is 29
2) when I get up in the morning, back wash the sand filter, see how cloudy it is. I back washed it today, very cloudy, no pressure drop , just cloudy . Currently @ 10psi
3) check FC levels. It has been with-in 1 ppm for two days now.
4) see if I can find somebody else to solve this issue
There is nothing else but the filter. To look at
We have had this pool for 25 years. Never run into this before. It has beat the breath out of me. Have I missed anything?
 

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