White Wispy Stuff and Chlorine Consumption

[Naplespool]

Try and not laugh while I describe some bugs in my pool.

I wasn't quite sure where to post this but here goes. A few weeks ago we started seeing quite a lot of a white, wispy residue with small (smaller than a pin head) brown dots in some of it--my first thought was it's pollen but the pool is in a screen cage. At the same time, I noticed that my chlorine consumption was increasing, eventually to about twice the normal level. My first thought was SLAM but I had done that the month before after replacing a dead SWG.

The chemistry using a Taylor DPD kit is right on: FC: 8, CC: 0,PH: 7.4, TA: 70, CA: 350, CYA: 70 and NaCl: 3600. OCLT: less than 0.5 PPM. The water is crystal clear. But, my SWG is set to produce about 2.5-3 ppm to hold FC. When I drop to my normal level of 1.6 ppm per day, I was losing 0.5 to 1.0 ppm/day.

I was about to try another SLAM yesterday but decided to skim the pool to remove 95% of the white/wispy stuff, which using a magnifying glass seems like it might be a bug, but it is tiny. This morning, after half a day of running after skimming, I measured the FC, it had fish by 2.5ppm!

Could my FC be oxidizing a teeny bug infestation leading to a high level of chlorine consumption?

The other possibility is that my two month-old Pentair 1.4 lb/day SWG is not producing the amount of chlorine I expect.

Any thoughts?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I think my firtst question would be to ask neighbors if they're getting the same problem?
How long do you run you pump for each day? What setting is the SWG on?

Lets see if we can can figure this out....?

Maddie

 

[Naplespool]

None of my neighbors know about their pool chemistry, which isn't surprising. I heavily skimmed for two days in a row and now believe that what is floating is some kind of tiny flower or pollen from the many palm trees and is what has filtered through the screens. Am I right that a lot of organic matter would consume FC?

So that we can swim early, I start running the pool at 3 in the morning and stop at 5 in the afternoon but at 1800 RPM. The 1.4lb. SWG should produce 2.5ppm at 44% in 14 hours in my 17,250 gallon pool. I was running it at 63% (3.6ppm) to keep up with the chlorine use but over the last two days FC increased from 10-11 so I will dial down the SWG a bit.

I know that 10 is higher than needed and for my CYA of 60/70 I would like to get back down to 5/6 but my pool seems to need me to stay above that or after a while I get cloudy water and have to SLAM.

Right now the water is crystal clear and the CC is 0.

 

[mknauss]

Am I right that a lot of organic matter would consume FC?

You are correct.

 

[Naplespool]

It's windy today and more stuff is starting to accumulate. That's a chopstick in the photo (not a 2x4) so the camera would focus on the surface and give an idea of size. You can see the small stuff floating. The amount was about 10X what's there now.

 

[Naplespool]

You are correct.

And have you heard of other FL pools that suck down a lot of chlorine when the pollen and flower detritus start blowing around?

 

[mknauss]

All pools are different. Do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

 

[Naplespool]

All pools are different. Do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

It's been 0.5 ppm lately but I will do it again tonight. I have been running 1.5 to 1.75ppm chlorine per day until the past couple months.

I've been wondering if the IC40 we installed is outputting at its full rate.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Those bugs might be springtails. Try to get a good close-up photo and compared to what you see in the following link.

How To Get Rid of Springtails

Learn how to get rid of springtail infestations, determine where spring tails are nesting, and how to treat various springtail nesting sites in our step by step guide.

www.domyown.com

 

[Naplespool]

Those bugs might be springtails. Try to get a good close-up photo and compared to what you see in the following link.

How To Get Rid of Springtails

Learn how to get rid of springtail infestations, determine where spring tails are nesting, and how to treat various springtail nesting sites in our step by step guide.

www.domyown.com

Even with my magnifying glass I can't see anything like those photos, I'm leaning toward organic matter.

 

[Naplespool]

All pools are different. Do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

My chlorine loss from 7:30am to 7:30pm was 1ppm. Then my loss from 7:30pm to this morning at 7am was 0.5ppm.

Yesterday was very windy and a lot more stuff is on the surface. I'll have to see how it is tonight.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Even with my magnifying glass I can't see anything like those photos, I'm leaning toward organic matter.

That's good news.

 

[Naplespool]

Our pool has returned to its normal level of chlorine consumption at about 1.7ppm/day. The bottom line seems to be that it was a massive multi-week pollen storm from the palm trees. Crazy!

 

[pesuazo]

Yep...going thru this here in NC...water is crystal clear...but the pollen floating on it drives me crazy sometimes

 

[crusemm]

It's the season, it's raining oak catkins here in north Texas, I fill 2 skimmers a day.

(Not my Pool)