mappo
05-22-2012, 01:25 PM
Hello, all! I'm a second year pool owner (20 yr old 20'x40' gunite) that got reasonably up to speed last year by poring over this amazing forum. I can't express how grateful I am for such a wonderful resource!
Sorry for the long-winded description below. Since I'm inexperienced enough to not know which details are relevant and which aren't, I'm erring on the side of too much information.
I'm in the process of opening my pool, and have a significant amount of blackish staining at the bottow of the deep end that I didn't encounter last year. It doesn't vacuum up, and hasn't cleared up any with sustained appropriate FC, PH, and alkalinity levels in the water over the last week. I've ordered a metal stain ID kit to find out if it's due to iron, and I believe if it's just dirty organic-based filth the chlorine will eventually take care of it, right? Are there other possible causes that I don't know about?
When I first took the cover off the pool, the water was relatively clear, but there was a fair amount of yellow-brown algae/sludge coating the pool surfaces (mesh cover - I'm not a fan). However, at the deep end was a dark greenish blue haze 8"-12" deep that obscured the bottom surface of the pool. The algae coating the rest of the plaster did not extend into this haze - after clearing up the water there was a perfect bowl of non-algae at the bottom where the haze had been. This is also where the stains are. They kind of look like powder burns, in some places random/splotchy and in others running in distinct ooze-like patterns. So my guess was that the haze was algaecide that the pool guy that helped me close the pool added, which settled down there. But can algaecide cause stains like this, or is the co-location just a coincidence?
Sorry for the long-winded description below. Since I'm inexperienced enough to not know which details are relevant and which aren't, I'm erring on the side of too much information.
I'm in the process of opening my pool, and have a significant amount of blackish staining at the bottow of the deep end that I didn't encounter last year. It doesn't vacuum up, and hasn't cleared up any with sustained appropriate FC, PH, and alkalinity levels in the water over the last week. I've ordered a metal stain ID kit to find out if it's due to iron, and I believe if it's just dirty organic-based filth the chlorine will eventually take care of it, right? Are there other possible causes that I don't know about?
When I first took the cover off the pool, the water was relatively clear, but there was a fair amount of yellow-brown algae/sludge coating the pool surfaces (mesh cover - I'm not a fan). However, at the deep end was a dark greenish blue haze 8"-12" deep that obscured the bottom surface of the pool. The algae coating the rest of the plaster did not extend into this haze - after clearing up the water there was a perfect bowl of non-algae at the bottom where the haze had been. This is also where the stains are. They kind of look like powder burns, in some places random/splotchy and in others running in distinct ooze-like patterns. So my guess was that the haze was algaecide that the pool guy that helped me close the pool added, which settled down there. But can algaecide cause stains like this, or is the co-location just a coincidence?