White Flakes in Water

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G

gto65racer

Member
Jan 31, 2023
17
Atwater, CA
Pool Size
32500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
My pool was constructed in the Spring of 2024 and began operation in April 2024. The pool is 32,500 gallons and was intended to be salt water.
Here is a list of my equipment:
Pentair Intelliflo3
Pentair IC60
Pentair TM Tagelus Sand Filter
Pentair BioShield
Rebel V2 Suction Side Cleaner
Pentair Easytouch Panel

About 2-3 weeks after startup of the pool I started to get white flakes coming out of the returns and setting on the bottom of the pool. After a few days they stick to the plaster and are hard to remove. I have a pool company that does a "full service" weekly on the pool. The service includes adding chemicals. Every week the pool company adds 2-3 gallons of chlorine to the pool. I am confused why because I thought the SWG generated chlorine. The pool company says it is not generating enough and it is common.

My questions is, what are these white flakes and why am i getting them?
 

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That could be calcium from your fill water or your pool surface that might be flaking off the SWG plates. What is your test kit? We suggest that you take back the pool and do your own testing and chemical adding. Use one of our recommended test kits: Taylor K2006c with salt kit, TF Testkits TF100 or TFPro (recommended) with salt kit. Then test your water and post all of the results. You may have very hard water, your PH or TA could be way off causing the plaster to be degraded. Your ozone gizmo is also eating up your Free Chlorine that your expensive salt water generator is creating. Natural UV from the sun will eat 3-5 ppm of chlorine daily and then you add the Ozone and there goes the rest of it.
 
Take few drops of muriatic acid and drop it onto a flake. If it foams and dissolves its calcium. Likely scaling from the plates in your SWG. The SWG will automatically reverse current flow through the plates to sluff any buildup of calcium off the plates and they ultimately end up in your pool.

A highly scaled SWG will not effectively produce chlorine. Algae will also consume chlorine as will UV and bather load. Post up a full set of test results from a recommended test kit for accurate advice.
 
Post a full set of current test results from one of the recommended test kits.
Test Kits Compared

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Salt
Water temperature

How many hours per day are you running your pump?
 
We need more information - and to give you a bit of homework:

1. Go to Settings here, and then Signature, and list out pool volume, type of finish, the equipment items you listed above, and the test kit you (will) have for testing. Anything of note you think we should know about your pool. Avoids us repeatedly asking.
2. Download to your phone the Pool Math app. If you link it to your login here, we can see what you've logged. If you use the pay version, we can see your whole history of chemical tests and additions, but not critical to do so. Either saves you typing in future responses.
3. Get a GOOD test kit! Swimming Pool Test Kits Compared You spent a lot on the pool, so just get the best: TF-Pro Salt (you won't need any of the extra options - the type of stirrer is a toss up.)
(NEVER trust pool stores or test strips. They are always wrong or inaccurate! Most here won't give an opinion based on those kinds of tests, since they have proven to have been so very wrong so often.)

After you get your kit, post the results from all the tests.

Others are guessing that it might be your SWCG is scaling up, which is very valid at this point with unspecific information. If you can take it off, and take a picture of the plates from one end, that would help in the diagnosis.
From this limited perspective, the guess is you have very high CH in your water. Either from the fill water itself, or from the newer materials used in your pool build. Or both.
Your new test kit will tell the tale.

Let us know how long the pump is running each day, and what current setting your SWCG is set at. Nominally running 24/7 and 30-70% would not ever require any Cl additions. But if the SWCG is scaled up, it may be producing less to a lot less. The CYA and FC/CC tests from the kit will tell the tale for that, also.
 
Ok i got my TF-Pro test kit today and tested my water. Here are the results:

Free Chlorine - 4.5ppm
pH - 8.4
Total Alkalinity - 300ppm
Stabilizer/CYA - 40ppm
Calcium Hardness - 275ppm
Salt - 4000 ppm
CSI - 1.18
Water Temp - 84.0f

I run my pump from 8am to 3pm every day. I do this because when I asked the pool company about why they have to add 2.5 gal of chlorine a week and my chlorine level is usually 0 4 days after they add it, they told me that I was not running the pump during the day and not long enough for the SWG to create chlorine.

The pool company provides my current weekly service, sold me the equipment, and installed the equipment.

This week I have an extreme amount of calcium flakes in my pool. I am worried I may never get them off the plaster.
 
With an Intelliflo 3 why not run 24/7 at minimum speed to produce chlorine 24/7 for your needs? Your issue is your high TA and high PH. You need to aggressively manage your PH, driving it down to 7.2 as frequently as possible in .4 increments. Doing so will bring down the TA as well. Keep up the routine until your TA falls to 70. You’ll find your PH will then stabilize and you need to reduce it less frequently. Use pool math to check your CSI and keep it slightly negative.
 
Using pool math, you can play with the numbers in the CSI section to see the effects of planned changes to the chemistry. The goal is to get it slightly negative.
The very high TA is the core of your white flakes problem. It also drives up pH, hard.
So follow the above to get the TA down to around 70. Then aim for keeping pH at about 7.8 after. It will take a lot of repeat dosing to do that as the MA drives pH down a lot more per dose than it does TA. You may need 12-15 gallons of MA. Make sure to use the PoolMath "Effects of Adding" and test TA and pH before each time so you don't drop pH below 7.2
Inspect the SWCG cell for white flake coating on the plates - that may be the source of your white flakes, being calcium deposited on it. That kills the efficiency of the cell.
Take a picture, and we can advise on how to clean it, if needed. We may need to have you give it an acid bath, but that is to be avoided if we can, since it dramatically shortens the life of the cell.
Running the pump 24/7 at the lowest speed that allows things to function (the SWCG, reasonable skimming) is a huge money saver over running at a higher speed for a shorter time. SWCG's are good at constantly making lowish levels of Cl, but not so good at providing a lot more in a short time. The amount of water flowing through it doesn't matter, as long as there is just enough to keep it turned on - hence a low pump speed. If the plates are crudded up, you may have to set it to a high/very high level to generate enough even in 24 hrs. Cleaning (if needed) will allow you to dial it down.
Finally, your CYA is a bit low. You may want to bump it up to about 60 or 70 with stabilizer. At 60, set the SWCG to keep your Cl in the 4-9 range, at 70 the 5-10

'Tis a crime that the "Professionals" let the TA (or made the TA) get so high, and possibly damaged your equipment (the SWCG cell).
 
With the FC swings you mentioned I'd be very eager to do a OCLT with the cell off and see if there's a algae problem. You also need to test for the CC immediately after the FC test as that will give you an inclination.
 

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sande005 said:
Inspect the SWCG cell for white flake coating on the plates - that may be the source of your white flakes, being calcium deposited on it. That kills the efficiency of the cell
Click to expand...
Most certainly do this. Clean the cell as necessary.
 
Your Calcium level is actually pretty good, so no need to worry about that. The issue is that the extremely high TA and pH is forcing the CA to precipitate out. Some of us have to add CA to your level to keep our CSI number from going too negative.
IF your SWCG has a big buildup of deposits so fast after the initial start up of a brand new pool, you may want to have a very serious discussion with the company needing to both reimburse you for the large expense of MA AND giving you a brand new cell. You shouldn't accept a reduced life of an essentially new cell via acid cleaning, if they suggest only that as a resolution.
 
Another thing - the Bioshield. It is not doing any harm, and maybe a very slight amount of microbe killing. But with proper Cl maintenance, it is a pretty redundant device that is not giving any measurable benefit. No need to fret about it now, but if it ever goes bad, needs an expensive bulb, etc. just stop using it, and you will never miss it.
 
I am extremely new to pool chemicals and am getting lost in all of the abbreviations. Is there somewhere on here I can find an abbreviation list?
 
I have been slowly adding MA to the pool and the pH has come down. My Chlorine test today came out a little wonky. I tested it three times and each test had a orange tent to it. What do you think?
 

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