I have no clue what to do

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It's ok to stop vacuuming and backwash. Especially when clearing a pool. We don't recommend it on a normal basis but clearing a pool is different. Now toward the end when things are clearing up you want to wait till the pressure rises about 25% above the clean pressure.

Here's something to try while waiting on your kit to get there. Fill the pool up fairly high with water and then backwash the filter really well. Then rinse the sand pretty good and put the valve back on filter and run the pump. Hold a stocking, etc. over the return and see if you get any sand out of it. If you don't then the laterals are good and you can rest easy about that part. Then vacuum while still holding the stocking over the return and see if you get anything coming back into the pool. If you do then the problem is in the multiport and it's probably the spider gasket.
 
After I backwash, the pressure is usually on 8.
Anymore bad new about my equipment? lol :) I am realizing real quick how much I shouldn't have listened to pool stores.
I did re-vacuum my pool and I can't believe it, but so far so good. There is a little bit that seems to have come back in or else it is stuff I stirred up and it settled again.
I talked to a guy who cares for commercial pools and he said he doesn't think I should do anything else to the pool until someone looks at it. He told me to call him the next time it is all over the bottom of the pool and he would come out and see if he knows what it is. THAT he will do for free. I am cool with that. It will be the first time someone with some knowledge about pools will see it. He is not a big fan of adding all these chemicals, he says it is so unnecessary - I liked hearing that. I also heard back from a rep. from Natural Chemistry and she said it is white water mold.

Hi Hope,

After Reviewing the video that you had sent to me along with the information for your pool, I feel as though you are dealing with one of two things or quite possibly a combination of the both. The first thing I feel is a water mold which we have discussed. The Sheet I have attached gives information for dealing with water mold and how to get rid of it. The sheet also instructs you to use a product called Pool Purge. Pool purge is designed to help clear out the gunk that builds up over the seasons in our piping, (the areas we cannot reach or clean.) What it will do is flush out your pipes and break down the organic contaminants that are loose within there. I feel as though you may also be dealing with dirty piping underneath your pool system and this is getting flushed through your pool when the filtration is on. Following the directions on the sheet I have sent you should rectify the situation you are facing. Please call me at your convenience and I would be more than happy to further discuss the treatment and any questions or concerns you may have.

Kind Regards,


I am not sure what she means by "dirty piping underneath your pool system" because there is no piping underneath, so for some reason she must think I have an inground pool. ( sigh)

Thanks for all the help!
 
Hope said:
After I backwash, the pressure is usually on 8.
Click to expand...
So you should backwash your filter when it goes over 10 psi in the future.

Hope said:
He is not a big fan of adding all these chemicals, he says it is so unnecessary - I liked hearing that.
Click to expand...
What chemicals is he refering to? What are you adding to the pool?

Hope said:
I also heard back from a rep. from Natural Chemistry and she said it is white water mold.
Click to expand...
I would not rely on a chemical company diagnosing you pool, they are in the business of selling chemicals. Regardless, you are going to have to choose if you will follow the advice on this forum or from somewhere else. Past experiences have shown us that trying to do both is a recipe for failure.

Once you have your test kit, then we most likely have you do a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test (OCLT). See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/overnight_fc_test
 
Oh, I am not listening to anyone at the chemical store. I am awaiting my test kit and I will look for help from you guys. I just posted it here so you all know what I have been told. I do not want to pay for anything else. I have done a lot of chemicals over the years trying to fix this - to no avail. I now have a new liner and water that hasn't been treated with a gazillion chemicals.
I am interested in this pool guy just seeing what I see, to hear if he has seen it before and if he knows what it is.

The chemicals that I am referring to is a commercial grade phos-free product that the pool store insists that I need to treat water mold. The chemical store said I need Pool Purge, then sanitizer and shock, and then to treat it with first aid. After all that, I need to treat it weekly with Phos-Free.

I turned my filter off because I started to see more of "it" on the bottom of the pool and I want the water to settle to see how much more I am dealing with. I am not sure what to do while waiting for the testing kit to come, so if I get a lot more of "it" I am going to vacuum as quick as possible on waste. If you looked at the video link I posted, you can see what I use to vacuum up this stuff. It takes hours, but I go real slow and am really careful not to stir it up. I surely can't vacuum like that on waste, or I would drain the pool. All in all, the filter seemed to run longer today without dumping so much back in. It WAS all over the entire bottom, but not in such huge clumps.
 
Okay, I finally got my Taylor test kit. This is what I got thus far and it doesn't seem to be great.
My FC is off the charts and so is the TC.
The CYA, if we did it right, was at 70. You keep adding drops until you cannot see the black dot.
The pH has dropped to 7.0
Total Alkalinity was just barely 80
Calcium Hardness was 200.

Now, I must read this booklet and figure out what all this means. I want to do an overnight chlorine test, but the chlorine level is high and has been high without adding anymore chlorine. I am assuming this is because the CYA is so high.
I just turned the filter back on since Monday. On Monday, I ran it only for about 4 to 5 hours because what ever IT is came back into the pool. I vacuumed it out on Tuesday and backwashed when I was done. Left it alone on Wednesday. Took the cover off today, the water and floor looked perfect - no IT in sight. We just backwashed and rinsed really well before turning the pump on and within 1/2, you can already see it settled on the bottom of the pool - so I am sure within the the next few hours it will be covered! I am so frustrated!

Any suggestion or ideas are so appreciated!
 
A lot make that same mistake so don't feel too bad. You can buy a FAS-DPD test from tftestkits (see sig) or you can buy the individual components.

The Pool Calc has had problems the last couple of days. There are a few threads about it with links to a copy you can use till they get it fixed.

Your numbers don't look bad I wouldn't adjust anything except the pH. I'd raise it a little to the mid 7's.

Once you get the FAS-DPD kit you can test the FC/CC. You can dilute the pool water sample 50/50 with chlorine free water and multiply the result by 2 to get an idea of what the FC is.
 

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Thanks. It is on the way. We ran the filter on recirculate after vacuuming very well. Hours later, the bottom was covered again. I re-vacuumed the pool last night and shut the filter off and put the solar cover on. This morning I woke up to crystal clear water and a clear bottom. My husband bought a solar heater awhile ago and decided to bypass the filter all together and just run the pump. Well, now the stuff is showing up on the bottom of the pool again. This pretty much shows me that it is not the filter. Every time I turn the pump on, this stuff that looks like sand starts to coat the bottom of the pool. I just do not get it. It ONLY shows up after running the pump. I can vacuum and then shut the pump/filter off for a week and there will be nothing!! I am so frustrated right now. I know I am repeating myself, but no one has seemed to ever deal with something like this!
 
Exactly how did he bypass the filter?
Even if he did bypass the filter, there could still be stuff in the lines that need time to clear out.

What you're describing sounds exactly like a broken lateral in the filter.
 
The hose from the skimmer goes to the pump and then the hose that should go into the filter from the pump is replaced by a longer hose that goes right to the solar panel. The water goes through the panel and comes out through another hose directly through the return. So the filter is totally disconnected. I thought it was a broken lateral years ago but the laterals were said to be fine but I still replaced them. Still had this problem. I replaced the whole filter system, still had a problem. Took the new laterals to the pool store to be inspected and I was told they were fine.

If it is a lateral problem, why did the bottom of the pool get completely covered with the filter on recirculate? This wasn't residual - it was pretty bad.
 
I have a similar issue, but I live on a dirt road with field crops all around. I have determined that my problem is silt/dust from the road mixed with pollen. Just thought I would mention this just in case.
 
savdoc2 - does this silt/dust show up only when the pump is running? I have trees around the pool - an oak, a maple, and a mulberry but nothing directly hovering over the pool. I also have hosta plants all the way around the pool. It just baffles me that it only shows up when the pump/filter is on and how quickly it covers the bottom of the pool.

My thinking was that there was a hole or were holes that I could not find - despite draining the pool a couple of times and looking on my hands and knees. I thought maybe it was possible that when I turned the pump on that it was pulling sand up from the bottom. When I replaced the liner at the end of last summer, there were some small holes under the ladder and a small hole in the seam I guess - so I was told. The guy who replaced the liner didn't notice anything unusual under the liner. I was also told by the pool store if it is mustard algae, replacing the liner will not solve the problem and it didn't. Now I am worried that there is a rip in this new liner.

Is the water coming in from the return suppose to be angled to create a whirlpool effect?

I don't have a picture - I have a video. These last few times I vacuumed, the pockets seemed to be darker looking - almost black, but looking at it reminds me of sand. If I wave my foot over it, it dissipates. I put a debris shield cloth on the other end of the pipe I use to vacuum - as you will see in the video - trying to catch whatever it is, but it doesn't collect in the cloth.
http://youtu.be/qOrMugZlHBc
 
I did watch your video, and it appears similar to the issue I have. The color of mine is usually sand colored but sometimes green - especially when the crops across the road are pollinating. I don't know about the use of the pump/filter or not. I have mine on a timer to come on early morning and turn off in the evening. I don't lose any free chlorine with it. It does appear even when I have the solar cover on, but the prevailing winds send the road dust right to my pool. At times I have seen it returning through my return line as well. I bought a robot cleaner the beginning of last year and it does seem to pick it up and it doesn't blow back in right after vacuuming like it did using the suction side vacuum. It does re-accumulate within a day or two, especially this year with lack of rain.
 
I decided to use the Super Floc. When I went outside this morning, I was expected the bottom to be covered with all kinds of stuff. I did have all those pockets of whatever it is that I am fighting, but the bottom looked like clouds, or smoke. It was the weirdest thing I have ever saw. I vacuumed as much as I could on waste, so we will see.
Also, no matter how many time I backwash and rinse, the water coming back into the return and out in the pool is never clear. It looks whitish yellowish brownish. Hard to describe, but you can definitely make out the water coming in compared to the pool water itself.

I am adding water now, and then will probably floc and vacuum again - can't hurt right?
 
Hope,

I'm having the exact same problem and I've bought several hundreds of dollars of chem, valve, sand, etc.....

From what I'm seeing on your post, no-one seems to have a good answer, just asking questions that you've answered several times. Is your's under control now or are you still having problem? If controlled, please tell me what you did.

Thanks and good luck.

Curtis
 
cmaglinger said:
Hope,

From what I'm seeing on your post, no-one seems to have a good answer, just asking questions that you've answered several times.
Click to expand...

I must be reading a different post.

The ***BIG*** question that needs to be answered before anyone can assist with a water chemistry question,
is what are the current levels. No data has been provided yet so it is not surprising that there are not more specific answers.

At best, you might hope for a few good guesses, but as you personally know, these guesses can cost hundreds of dollars and still not reach a solution.

Good Luck with your particular issue, but please be prepared provide specific answers when asked.
These guys are good, but they are not mind readers.
 

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