HELP, Brown sediment in bottom of above ground Pool

[JDB]

Has anyone found an answer on this, i have been dealing with a similar problem for a few yrs now. Starts as a brown dirt & some even clumps together like a hair ball but swishes away easily, I have a sand filter & even changed to zeolite approx. 3 yrs ago to see if it would help with no avale. This yr same as before except a little worse, It started with pool opening which it stayed in middle pretty much vacuumed to waste, reappeared, repeat, reappeared,etc. I even shocked for days which seemed like it turned it grey then vacuumed to waste again which even that evening it came back, it is pretty much spread around on bottom of pool, a pool supply store even gave me an algaecide to try about 5 days ago that was suppose to kill & prevent think it was something like Seaclear but did not do anything & this was right after i shocked for days. I read something about pool owners putting a sock on their return line which helped but could not get it to stay attached with rubberband or ziptie to see if this would help.
I also have problems with keeping any chlorine levels in water even with 5 3' chlorine tabs, when i superchlorinated (used liquid chlorine then used bleach 2nd time) it raised above 15ppm or more with my test kit but within a couple days "0".
I am about to give up can someone PLEASE HELP, because this continuous vacuuming and refilling is getting old & costly with water change & readjusting levels.
P.S. I usually only backwash when it raises around 5 lbs. or water return seems low pressure but have done a few extra times while trying to get rid of whatever this is.

Vinyl liner
sand filter-zeolite 50lbs (20'inch filter)
1hp motor
17,500 gal.
Leslies DPD Test kit 18-547
PH 7.2-7.6
Alk. 100
cya 40
Phos 0
CHL 2-4
TC 2-4
3" tabs
Crystal Clear water
Full Sun
No trees near

 

[AftonJeeper]

My guess would be algae of some sort. With a CYA of 40 you should keep your pool in the 5-7 range for FC (Free Chlorine). A proper FAS-DPD chlorine test kit can tell you your exact numbers down to .2. You might want to consider a better test kit to accurately treat your water.

Read up on how to chlorinate you pool and the ABC's of pool water chem to get a good idea what the 3" tabs are really adding to your pool.

 

[JDB]

Thanks ordered the TF-100 test kit with speedster so guess i will wait a day or 2 before i would do this anyway.

 

[AftonJeeper]

Congrats on the test kit. I still feel like I'm missing out because I didn't buy the speed stir.

I saw your other thread about the test kit. You can go ahead and start adding a gallon of regular old bleach (6-8.25% stuff) each day until your test kit shows up. Assuming your current test kit is close you would still need 4 gallons of 6% to get the the shock level for a CYA of 40.

The pool is safe to swim in when you can see the bottom and FC is between your minimum of 3 and shock level of 16. Make sure the pH stays between 7.2 and 7.8.

 

[JDB]

If i have metal top side rails on my pool would that rule out me being able to use a SWG?

 

[JDB]

Thanks for the help adding shock tonight

 

[AftonJeeper]

If i have metal top side rails on my pool would that rule out me being able to use a SWG?

I'm not sure as I haven't read a lot on SWG pools. Might be wise to check with the pool manufacturer especially if it is still under warranty.

Check in the SWG sub forum, they should be able to off some advice.

 

[JDB]

I may have somewhat figured out my issue with dirt look in bottom.
I have been using nylons for the skimmer & the return seems to be stopping 99% of stuff on bottom the problem is the nylons rip through about half a day to a day so i need to find something more suitable for my return.
I have approx 17200 gallon pool that i have a 20 inch filter & a 1.5 H.P. pump which water comes through pretty good on the return line, I replaced my sand maybe 3 yrs ago with zeolite because I was having same issue with sand, hence the try but still have had same issue.
replaced ALL laterals and stand pipe put in water 1st in filter then 100# zeobrite which is what that size filter called for, back washed & rinsed a few times which they direct to do, at the beginning of this yr was right in the middle then about 3 weeks after opening it started to get more in scattered around pool even tried to use a phosphate remover & stuff for algae (mentioned earlier post) so now don't know why bypassing filter media & going back to pool.
I use to use the white skimmer socks but by themselves didn't stop it all so that is why i went with nylons on basket & return, also getting sticky feel on skin when swim but also have just realized my hands get sticky when i wash them inside in sink also so probably unrelated.
Any other thoughts would be helpful, going to test chemistry tonight with my new kit the Tf-100 with speedster.
Thanks.

 

[JDB]

Quick update, I just changed nylon on return that was ripped & there seemed like more sandy pebbles in end of stocking ( I guess zeobrite than debri which it had just a bit, so how could this be returning back through return, would a spider gasket do this?
It does it on filter & recirculate settings.