foamy pool

[cruzadin1121]

I have a 20x40 25,000 gallon inground pool. Have had water tested at pool store and was told phosphates are high. Everything else is fine...at night i get a foam that builds across the pool that burns off in sunlight. Have turned off bubble jets at shallow end but still get a film across the pool. I have treated pool for phosphates twice in last 2 weeks. Any help with this would be appreciated.

[aylad]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

My first response would be to not use the phosphate treatment anymore. Did this problem start before, or after you started using the treatment?

Phosphates are really not a problem in properly chlorinated pools. Yes, phosphates are algae food, but if you don't allow algae to grow in the pool, then it doesn't really matter what your phosphate level is.Phosphate removers are suddenly highly touted by the pool stores, but I suspect that it's the profit margin that drives that recommendation, rather than actual assistance in the pool. How did your water look before you had it tested?

[cruzadin1121]

It was doing it before the phosphate treatment. Pool is cloudy in the deep end which is 8ft. Clear in the 4ft shallow end. I can post the printout from the pool store from 2 weeks ago if that would help. They recommended the phosphate treatment and 2lbs of shock. I did that and the clarity has slowly gotten better but still having the foam issues. Pool store had no answer for me on the foam.

[PoolDoc]

Phosphates have nothing to do with the foam; they're just piling on. 90% of the time, foam in pools is caused by crumby cheap algaecides. Filtering and chlorinating will eventually break down that junk.

Do this:

1. Read the testkit info page, linked in my signature. Get a K1000 or as close as you can get locally. Order a K-2006
2. Test your pH and chlorine, and report those.
3. Beginning tonight, add 3 gallons of PLAIN 6% household bleach, per 10K gallons in your pool.
4. Use bleach to maintain the OTO in the DARK YELLOW range, till you know more.
5. Run your filter & pump 24/7
6. Add your pool info to your signature (gallons, type, pump/filter make/model, equipment: heater, saltwater system, spa, solar, etc) so we can have some idea what you're dealing with.
[ http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/profile.php?do=editsignature ]
(my bad: I already added the stuff in your first post - you add the rest)

You can post the results . . . but we won't trust them very much. We see totally bogus test results from pool stores on a daily basis!

[cruzadin1121]

Ok Got my taylor test kit today. The foam has pretty much gone away but the water is still cloudy. Here is the results from the test kit

FC-.05ppm
CC-1.5ppm
PH-7.4
TA-110
CH--180
CYA-50

[PoolDoc]

+ 7 gallon doses of plain 6% bleach are definitely called for.
+ run your pump CONTINUOUSLY on LOW speed; only use high to backwash.

Residual cloudiness from phosphate treatment can take awhile to clean up.

Changing subjects, do you have a plan for how you want to chlorinate?
+ you could get an SWCG
+ you can use a combination of bleach and dichlor, very economically if you have access to a Sams Club but you'll end up with high CYA levels, and need to run high chlorine levels to compensate. That's not a bad thing, since it makes it possible to add chlorine on Monday, and have it last till the following Monday.
+ you could use bleach and trichlor, putting the trichlor in a floater, the skimmer or an inline feeder.
+ and there are some other possibilities.

[cruzadin1121]

I have a swg that the cell just went out again...replaced it and the main board last year Unfortunatly the cell went out after the year warrenty so im not putting any more money into it. I have a sams club 1 hour from me. I figured nows a good time to convert to BBB method.