powdery brown dusty silt

[hpanky2019]

I have been having a problem with dusty brown powdery silt at the bottom of my perfectly clear and maintained above ground Intex 16x48 above ground pool with an aftermarket Hayward skimmer and a 1/2 hp Glass media filter. No matter how much I vacuumed it kept coming back, I vacuumed to waste completely took apart my system and installed new media with the same result. Today starting with all new media, I put a white sock in my vacuum mesh bag with a half dozen cotton balls and put about 15 cotton balls in my skimmer and very slowly vacuumed my pool, it is crystal clear right now, i turned the pumps off and am now waiting for it to settle. I will post my findings in a few hours to see if it worked!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

hi there HPanky Welcome to TFP!

Sounds to me like you have some dead algae (hopefully dead, but maybe not?) in the pool.

Whatcha doing to chlorinate? What are you testing the water with and can you tell me:
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

Will help us diagnose the problem.

Maddie

 

[hpanky2019]

I typically have my water tested at Pinch A Penny weekly, I just tested on Sunday and all was within acceptable ranges and no chemicals were needed, I use a tablet floater and replace tablet as need, typically every 7-10 days. I do not have the most current #s but I will test again this Saturday and post them. Thank you!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

<sigh> Oh my.... ohmyohmyohmy..... well, we know the problem then! You've been "Pool Stored" hon. Its not good. The pool store is in business to sell you stuff....

Like pucks that contain too much stabilizer so that you get algae....
Then they'll see you some algaecide which doesn't actually *kill* algae....
Then they'll pull out the copper algaecides and say "Well, if this doesn't work...." and it won't.

please do yourself and your pool water a huge favor and read this: ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Then read this...FC/CYA Levels... and finally... now, don't fight me here, Sugar, but.... you *need* your own test kit!
Try this one--> www.tftestkit.net It will test all the elements you need to know about to keep your water pristine.

....cause YOU deserve and need clean, clear sanitary water to soak in...amirite?

Pool School has tons of articles for you to learn. And after that please ask every question that comes to mind. We're all volunteers here and are happy to help

Maddie <---feeling a little Auntie Mame-ish today....

 

[DM95]

I have been having a problem with dusty brown powdery silt at the bottom of my perfectly clear and maintained above ground Intex 16x48 above ground pool with an aftermarket Hayward skimmer and a 1/2 hp Glass media filter. No matter how much I vacuumed it kept coming back, I vacuumed to waste completely took apart my system and installed new media with the same result. Today starting with all new media, I put a white sock in my vacuum mesh bag with a half dozen cotton balls and put about 15 cotton balls in my skimmer and very slowly vacuumed my pool, it is crystal clear right now, i turned the pumps off and am now waiting for it to settle. I will post my findings in a few hours to see if it worked!

We've had the same issue since we opened our pool in May. Crystal clear water but clumps of fine brown silt in center of pool floor that would disappear into a cloud when you touched it .Noticed that if we left the pump off the brown sediment would not appear so figured it might not be an algae problem.Saw on another board that someone discovered they didn't have enough sand in their filter or that the sand needed changing. We opened the sand filter and it was completely clogged with clumps of sand and dirty water. Dumped the sand, cleaned the inside, the laterals, etc and refilled with new sand from the pool store until it was 3/4 full of sand. Restarted the pump last night and woke up this morning with a crystal clear pool for the first time since May. It's worth a shot before you start putting a lot of chemicals in the pool. It seems we didn't have enough sand in our Hayward sand filter.

 

[hpanky2019]

Ok, cotton balls were useless. I put a white nylon sock on my filter bag on my vacuum and two white cotton socks in my skimmer. The nylon sock is the therapeutic ones, very tightly woven. It worked perfectly! going on three days with very little brown dust. just vacuumed this morning again with the same setup and the pool looks great!
I will report back again in a few days and see where we stand!

 

[BuckeyeMac]

I’ve been battling this all summer. We have a ton of pollen and junk in the air (surrounded by fields). I’m still not sure what it is. This fall when I close the pool, I’ll open up the filter and see if it’s channeled. Could be algae? Who knows. It I haven’t gotten a CC reading since late April after Slamming.

 

[hpanky2019]

Pol has been crystal clear since my last report and all my tests are within normal ranges, I'm using the sock in the vacuum basket and that is filtering out all the fine particles!

 

[hpanky2019]

<sigh> Oh my.... ohmyohmyohmy..... well, we know the problem then! You've been "Pool Stored" hon. Its not good. The pool store is in business to sell you stuff....

Like pucks that contain too much stabilizer so that you get algae....
Then they'll see you some algaecide which doesn't actually *kill* algae....
Then they'll pull out the copper algaecides and say "Well, if this doesn't work...." and it won't.

please do yourself and your pool water a huge favor and read this: ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Then read this...FC/CYA Levels... and finally... now, don't fight me here, Sugar, but.... you *need* your own test kit!
Try this one--> www.tftestkit.net It will test all the elements you need to know about to keep your water pristine.

....cause YOU deserve and need clean, clear sanitary water to soak in...amirite?

Pool School has tons of articles for you to learn. And after that please ask every question that comes to mind. We're all volunteers here and are happy to help

Maddie <---feeling a little Auntie Mame-ish today....

I am going to take your advise and start doing my own testing !

Thanks!

 

[mrtmrt]

same problem at me ,i have cartridge filter 10 micron i clear pool floor every night with my robot but brown dirt occurs after 1 hour while pump is working . İ try to fix this issue 3 month but i cant . Must i try sock method ?

 

[duraleigh]

This entire thread is making a very wrong assumption........that your issues are centered around filtration.

Year after year, time after time we advise that your situations are chemical problems and not filtration. Get your chemistry correct and that "brown dust" (which is algae) will stop appearing in your pool.

Secondly, this is hpanky's thread so DO NOT post your questions in his thread. Leave this one alone and please start your own, new thread so we can respond to you individually.

Last, correcting your filtration issues is always the right thing to do (btw, DM95,2/3 is the correct sand level. you will likely blow sand out next time you backwash) but in 95% of these type posts, the "brown dust" is dead algae and that is a chemistry issue and not filtration.

Please read "The "ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School