Yellow staining or algae

[mdmello]

Hey everyone,
As a new pool owner for a two weeks now Owing a pool is overwhelming. Feel like I’m learning slowly and must say if it wasn’t for this group I’d don’t know if I could continue.

We bought a house with a pool (Vinyl/salt) and I noticed yellow staining. I never thought it was algae as I’ve brushed it a few times and nothing happened. Well fast forward two weeks and I noticed some of it came off so now I’m thinking it is algae but I’m not sure. I’m reading it’s fairly easy to brush off but this has been some serious elbow grease and even then only a little came off. Attached a couple pictures (hard to tell) but if anyone has advice or knows if it is algae or staining it be appreciated.

 

[mknauss]

Does not look like typical algae.

Read Stains in Your Pool - Trouble Free Pool

 

[mdmello]

Does not look like typical algae.

Read Stains in Your Pool - Trouble Free Pool

Thanks I brushed for 2 hours yesterday and got 1/8” at best off. From my understanding mustard algae isn’t hard to get off just hard to maintain so I’ll try the stain remover I brought. Waiting for my test kit as well to do the overnight test

 

[mknauss]

If there is buildup, could it be scale? Or scale mixed with dirt, etc.

 

[mdmello]

If there is buildup, could it be scale? Or scale mixed with dirt, etc.

Yes I think it’s scale. I bought some scale and stain remover which I’ll be adding tonight. I think it was from improper balancing because it wasn’t noticeable when we went for an inspection in May. When I took over Ph was 8.2 and TA was 150