Foamy Inground Vinyl Pool

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What I read here, what I tell myself and my wife: I am using a quality test kit to determine only what my pool needs and I am saving money at the same time.

I too was very intimated by the SLAM process. My take on is it was get your CYA and PH in order. reference the CYA chart for slam levels and use the calculator to determine amounts.

My two cents: I added my CYA and MA in increments and tested periodically until I got it where I wanted it. With the bleach I went all out because i was ready to my pool clear!
 
Kiss4aFrog said:
If you vacuum to waste the water is going to go out of your pool. It does bypass the filter. If you have a lot of crud on the bottom and can afford to lose the water vacuuming to waste is the way to go. If it's fairly clean than vacuuming with the filter, filtering is the way to go.

Using extra chemicals might be what is causing your foaming. We recommend just using the basics. Mostly just bleach to clear and keep your pool clean.
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Gotcha. The new chemicals I just added (repeat chemicals actually) is baking soda to bring up my very low alkalinity, Chlorine tablets to increase my very low CYA, and Calcium Hardness for my hardness. I purposely added more water to pool in preparation of waste vacuuming but may just go the filter route. I am waiting to see the bottom so I know how bad it is. I had the portable vacuum last year that died with me at end of season but tried to consistently clean.

In the morning, if my numbers look much better but this foam is still around, suggestions on how to get rid of it from here? From now on, only adding Chlorine as my numbers should hopefully be good. ONly worried about PH rising too high but we'll see.
 
meccanoble said:
Question:
1) I'll be starting the vacuum process really soon. I will have it setup where it would drop material into skimmer. Does this mean I can keep the sand filter on filter? I was told that it is better to put it on waste so whatever is vacuumed bypasses the sand filter. I imagine thats for those who dont have a skimmer basket inbetween?
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I bought one of these and use a filter sock.

https://www.amazon.com/Hayward-W560...22877543&sr=8-2&keywords=pool+vacuum+canister
 
meccanoble said:
*.....so he doesnt feel like an idiot on this forum*.
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Nope, you can only earn that idiot tag if you continue to go to the pool store and buy their magic potions. Other than that you were just learning



meccanoble said:
1) I’ll be starting the vacuum process really soon. I will have it setup where it would drop material into skimmer. Does this mean I can keep the sand filter on filter? I was told that it is better to put it on waste so whatever is vacuumed bypasses the sand filter. I imagine thats for those who dont have a skimmer basket inbetween?
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You can vacuum through the filter unless you have added floc to the water. If you added floc then you must vacuum to waste or it will ruin the sand (gets all gooey)



meccanoble said:
2) I have blue shield crystal clear and already added double the dosage recommended to help water get clear. Does overkill = wasted money or harmful to someone/something? Tempted to add more but fighting the urge. Probably best to see what this basking soda does.
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Is the blue shield crystal clear a floc or algaecide or dichlor? I couldn’t find a product with that name. Regardless of what it is, don’t use it! Usually “blue” items contain copper and you don’t want to add copper to the water. Fight the urge! Fight it. Remember only chlorine is needed to kill your algae.
 
meccanoble, did you see my post #20 on the bottom of page 1?

You're in danger of destroying your liner while those chlorine tablets sit in your skimmer.
You should get them out of there as quickly as possible.
 
borjis said:
meccanoble, did you see my post #20 on the bottom of page 1?

You're in danger of destroying your liner while those chlorine tablets sit in your skimmer.
You should get them out of there as quickly as possible.
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Thanks for the heads up. I plan to keep the pump running all night and all day tomorrow (5 days in a row now) so the tablets wont just sit. If the tablets are still there when I stop the pump, i'll remove them. FYI, I had 2 tablets sitting in skimmer basket every week when pool was open and there were days I didnt run the pool and it didnt seem to damage my vinyl near skimmer hole but will play it safe anyway. I just did this now to try to increase cya and stabilizer as quickly as possible.

THe Blue shield is this below. I named it wrong. Its supposed to be a clarifier but I did a search on amazon for pool flock and it came up. I dont see anywhere on it saying its a flock. Someone please confirm.

https://www.amazon.com/Robarb-Clarifier-1-Quart-Crystal-Polisher/dp/B0064E8BL6/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1522878570&sr=1-1&keywords=pool+flock
 
Checking for one now and hoping things look better in the morning. Tests 3 hours later show increase in hardness but still low (90 ppm), still low alkalinity (50 ppm). pH 7.2-7.5, high total chlorine 5+. Just to verify, images are definitely foaming and not dead bacteria right?
 

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meccanoble said:
Tests 3 hours later show increase in hardness but still low (90 ppm), still low alkalinity (50 ppm). pH 7.2-7.5, high total chlorine 5+. Just to verify, images are definitely foaming and not dead bacteria right?
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CH of 90 is a bit low.
TA of 50 is reasonable enough to leave it alone for now.
pH 7.2-7.5 ?? just fine, leave it alone
TC of 5+ actually not high enough. chlorine level is based on CYA. you would need a CYA of below 10 to make a FC of 5 to be high enough. Anything above CYA of 10 and your FC is too low. see CYA/Chlorine Chart, link in my siggy.

the stuff on the surface of your water is some concoction of organic stuff, dead algae, pollen, blown in debris and maybe that clarifier all balled up coupled with low CH. But it doesn't really matter for now. your course of action is the same. Add FC to get to SLAM levels and then see if it goes away in a couple of days. I know the foam is what brought you here and I believe it will go away as your water condition improves and the filter has a chance to remove the organic stuff. Best thing to do now is chlorine, vacuum, brush and let the filter remove the gunk. Keep an eye on your filter pressures.
 
Please stop 'hoping things look better' in the morning or tomorrow or whatever. There are no questions here, what you must do is get a good test kit (appropriate ones have been recommended) and start to SLAM. While you're waiting to get the test kit study the link about SLAM. Also while you are waiting you can add a half gallon of liquid chlorine (bleach) just to maintain FC until you can actually test the water and find out what is needed.

Throw away and discontinue all use of stuff you've purchased from a pool store except bleach and muriatic acid.
 
I didnt get a kit yet. Is there a local store I can grab from? I was going to try to order from online. Looking at the water from the house, its clear!! I took the advice of teald024 and added more chlorine with the assumption that even though total chlorine is high, active chlorine was not. I'm sure the CYA, alkalinity and hardness increase all helped too but biggest difference came from chlorine add this morning. Will take measurements asap but no more foam on top surface and water is much bluer than before. I'm going to use auto vacuum this afternoon for the first time (wish me luck). Thank you all for all your help on this. I am shocked at how fast you guys respond and even though you see this same scenario of people trying to fix things without the best test equipment, still giving pointers to help get me through this. I am in shock.

Last questions:
1) If alkalinity is still low (50 ppm seems low from charts I look at), more baking soda right?
 
Really the Taylor K2006C or TF100XL are the only kits on the market that include the CYA test and more importantly FAS-DPD chlorine test. it's highly unlikely you'll find either at a local store, online is your best bet.

You probably can find a Taylor K2005 locally but it only uses has DPD chlorine test which can only measure up to 5ppm free chlorine which is inadequate to perform a SLAM. So you could buy the K2005 locally, then also order the FAS-DPD reagents from amazon separately: https://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Repla...e=UTF8&qid=1522941147&sr=8-1&keywords=FAS-DPD, if you have amazon prime it should be a 1 or 2 day delivery
 
Thanks. I checked skimmer real quick and seen most of the foam must have just went in there. Its so foamy/soapy that I cant even see the basket anymore. Will clean out and continue filter process. The water is definitely looking way better now its just that its not perfect but making progress. I know progress would be much faster, and affordable with the right test kit. On day 5 now of running the pump 24/7 :(.
 

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