New to site - foam problem

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M

mmartin028

0
May 17, 2016
7
Hendersonville, TN
Hello,

I'm new to the site and I'm very grateful that I found it.

I have a 39,000 gal in-ground pool that has some sort of foam bubbles on the top. When I opened it a few weeks ago, I used some algaecide (recommended by pool store) and I believe that was the cause of the foam. However, it's been 3 weeks and it won't go away. If I stop the pump, it slowly disappears, but then shows up again once I start the pump. I've cleaned my filter (power wash only) multiple times as well as vacuumed the pool while flushing the water out to the sewer. We've also had a bunch of rain as well as adding my own fresh water hoping it would dilute whatever is causing the bubbles. But nothing is working.

Here's a photo of what it looks like.

pool-foam.jpg

The water is crystal clear and the tests are fine except for the free chlorine and the combined chlorine. The free chlorine is 1.0 and the combined is 10.

The pool store recommended using either 45 pounds of Shock or 3 buckets (not sure the amount) of Flocculant. He said the Floc would sink everything to the bottom and lower the combined chlorine to a more acceptable level. I never heard of Floc being used for that. Has anyone else? I also purchased some anti-foaming liquid (haven't used it yet) and I even have a new filter coming in two days just in case whatever is causing the foam is stuck in my filter.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Would the foam be sticking around because the free chlorine level is too low? Would you recommend Shock, Flocculant, or even many bottles of bleach?

Thanks for the great site.

Mike
 
jblizzle said:
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

What are you testing with? We do not trust pool store testing.

We also do not recommend the use of pounds of shock, floc, algacide, etc.

All you need is liquid chlorine (bleach).

Have you discovered Pool School yet? Start with these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome.

I tested it with the Taylor K-2006 kit. I knew the numbers going into the pool store to keep him from selling me **** I don't need (been there and done that before). I just wanted to verify what I had and to see what was needed to get rid of the foam and bring up the free chlorine level (actually, how much shock I needed).

I added the anti-foam liquid about an hour ago (it got rid of it within 10 minutes) and I just vacuumed the bottom (sending the water out to the sewer). I don't have a backwash filter :(

I'm not a big fan of shock either so I'm glad to hear that liquid chlorine works. Is that just regular Clorox I can buy at Walmart? Or is it something special?

So assuming that my foam issue is over, how do I determine how much liquid chlorine bleach I need? I used the pool calculator and it says I need 231 oz of bleach to bring my levels from 1 to 4. Does it not matter how much combined chlorine I have in the pool?

I'll be checking out the Pool School tonight, but while I'm learning, I'd love to get some helpful answers to my immediate Free Chlorine problem quickly.

Also, I've looked everywhere and this may be a stupid question, but what is CYA?

Thanks again.

Mike
 
You can buy unscented, regular bleach (concentrated is a better value). Just make sure it doesn't have "splashless" on it. It's regular clorox, or off brand, etc.

CYA is Cyanuric Acid - stabilizer - you can read more about it at the Recommended Pool Chemicals link in the post you responded to. You can buy that at Walmart as well if you like.
 
If you read the ABCs link I provided you would know what CYA is ;) :poke:

Post up all the test results with your kit.
And please add your pool details to your signature as described HERE as it will help us help you.

I think you might need to dose the FC quite a bit higher if your really were showing a high CC number. Lets see all the numbers first.
 
triptyx said:
You can buy unscented, regular bleach (concentrated is a better value). Just make sure it doesn't have "splashless" on it. It's regular clorox, or off brand, etc.

CYA is Cyanuric Acid - stabilizer - you can read more about it at the Recommended Pool Chemicals link in the post you responded to. You can buy that at Walmart as well if you like.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. It's definitely cheaper than shock.

jblizzle said:
If you read the ABCs link I provided you would know what CYA is ;) :poke:

Post up all the test results with your kit.
And please add your pool details to your signature as described HERE as it will help us help you.

I think you might need to dose the FC quite a bit higher if your really were showing a high CC number. Lets see all the numbers first.
Click to expand...

I'll do a re-test and post the numbers. I'll also put in the pool details when ASAP.

Thanks for such quick help. :D
 
mmartin028 said:
Thanks for that. It's definitely cheaper than shock.

I'll do a re-test and post the numbers. I'll also put in the pool details when ASAP.

Thanks for such quick help.
Click to expand...

Ok. Here's my numbers.

FC - 2
CC - 8.8
Ph - 7.4
Alk - 160
CYA - 70

According to the pool calculator, I will need 405 oz of liquid chlorine to bring the FC from 2 to 7. Does that sound about right - seeing what my other numbers are?

Thanks.
 
That amount is correct if you actually have 6% bleach, although I think it all is now 8.25% which is 289 oz

What is your CH?

Also, use 10ml of water for the FAS-DPD chlorine test so each drop is 0.5ppm to save your reagents.

The CC number is crazy high.
Can you list specifically what all has been added to the pool? Product names etc.

I am wondering if something is interfering with the CC test.
 
jblizzle said:
That amount is correct if you actually have 6% bleach, although I think it all is now 8.25% which is 289 oz

What is your CH?

Also, use 10ml of water for the FAS-DPD chlorine test so each drop is 0.5ppm to save your reagents.

The CC number is crazy high.
Can you list specifically what all has been added to the pool? Product names etc.

I am wondering if something is interfering with the CC test.
Click to expand...

I didn't do the CH test tonight, but I know it's high. The last time I checked 2 days ago it was something like 800-900. Apparently we have very hard water in our township.

As for what I've added since I opened it....

This algaecide (one bottle)- Clorox Pool and Spa Green Algae Eliminator, 32 oz - Walmart.com

This from Leslies (one bottle) - http://cdn.lesliespool.com/wimages/product_image/lpm-14916-040_39945.jpg?600x600

I've also been adding this shock - Pool Shock Chemicals - In The Swim

Lastly, I have 2 chlorine pucks in 3 different skimmers.

I've been adding the shock 3-4 bags at a time and then 2 nights ago I added 6. Nothing changed. According to the pool store (who I hate), they want me to use 45-50 bags of shock to bring up the FC level. The number of bags might be right, but if I can use liquid chlorine instead, I'd rather do that.

The good news is that the water is crystal clear. I just have to get the levels right before that changes :)

BTW, thanks for the FAS-DPD test idea. I like saving reagents.
 
OK, about the CH. If it is very low, that can cause foaming ... you ruled that out ;)

FYI, the shock you are using is cal-hypo, that adds even MORE calcium to your pool ... not good!!! Even more reason to hate the pool store :mrgreen:

The Clorox stuff is this: Quaternary ammonium compounds, benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl, chlorides 50%
The Leslies stuff is kind of a mystery, most of it is proprietary.

Note sure if they would cause foaming, but I am guessing they are the problem.
 

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jblizzle said:
OK, about the CH. If it is very low, that can cause foaming ... you ruled that out ;)

FYI, the shock you are using is cal-hypo, that adds even MORE calcium to your pool ... not good!!! Even more reason to hate the pool store :mrgreen:

The Clorox stuff is this: Quaternary ammonium compounds, benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl, chlorides 50%
The Leslies stuff is kind of a mystery, most of it is proprietary.

Note sure if they would cause foaming, but I am guessing they are the problem.
Click to expand...

I used the anti-foam stuff earlier and the foam is gone. I won't know till tomorrow morning if it stays away. Fingers crossed.

So basically, if I took the pool store's "shock" advice my entire pool would turn into one giant calcium tablet :brickwall: Jeeze, I hate those places.

I think if I add about 2.5 bottles of liquid chlorine (300 oz), that should help may FC problem?

Is this what I could use?

Clorox Regular-Bleach, Concentrated, 121 Fluid Ounces - Walmart.com

Thanks so much for your help.

:cheers:
 
jblizzle said:
That bleach is fine, or the Walmart Great Value ... or many have 10% in the pool section now too. Here is a tool to use to find the best deal: Liquid Chlorine Cost Calculator

Ideally the CC should be 0, given that it is so high, you may need to keep adding a lot of bleach to raise the FC and drive the CC down.
Click to expand...

Great.

I'll start the treatment tomorrow and keep testing it until I get the FC to 7 or so and the CC close to 0.

Thanks again.

You're saving me a ton of money and minimizing my pool store headaches.
 
Well really you should follow the slam process which requires a much higher at sea level than 7. But like I said I'm not sure your high cc is a real reading or if it's an artifact of some kind of interference.
 
Clorox Pool and Spa Green Algae Eliminator causes foaming and a chlorine demand if you put enough in there to make it foam. You probably will also end up with a black grease like material at the waterline in the skimmer.
 
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