Yellowish dirt

[Barry J]

Lately I've been getting a yellowish dirt build up on the bottom of my pool, not on the sides but kind of scattered, anywhere the return does not directly flow.
It wasn't there a month ago, I think June/July I only had to vacuum two or three times, now it seems I vaccum it up and then the next day or two It could use another vacuuming. It's almost like a sand.
My kids are not in it as much but seems like more build up.
I tested the water and my chlorine came back good, pH was about 7.5, and alk was 7.
Any suggestions
thanks
Barry

[Charlie_R]

You know the Mods are going to want numbers...I assume you have the Taylor K-2006?

[Watermom]

You know the Mods are going to want numbers...

Yep! What Charlie said!

[Barry J]

Gave the numbers I have, chlorine, ph and alk.
What else??

[jwhouse]

Can you touch it? If you can touch it, try to pinch some between your fingers and look at it out of the pool. Does it feel like sand or is it of a more fine consistency than sand?
If you can't touch it, does it seem to disappear when you try? Are your walls or floor slick or slimy to the touch?
Is your water clear or other?

You didn't actually give a number for chlorine. Only that it "came back good". How are you testing? Using strips, OTO or titrating drop kit?

Sorry for all the questions but it's hard to give you an answer with such little info. ;)

[Barry J]

I'll go into pool later, but for now, the kit I'm using is a HTH kit, ..OTO and the chlorine by view looks to be 5 or higher, water is clear.
Do I have too much chlorine in???? Did I need an algaecide or just shock and if algaecide what type???
Thanks
Barry

[aylad]

Whether your chlorine is "good", "too much" or "too little" depends on your stabilizer level, which you haven't reported yet. If you can get us that, using the disappearing dot test rather than strips, then we can better help you.

The best algaecide you can get is chlorine--and lots of it. Whether you just have dirt/pollen or actual algae growing is sometimes hard to tell, unless you can measure how much chlorine you're losing overnight when the sun isn't out.You can't measure that accurately with an OTO kit, which is why we recommend the K-2006 kit that can be found in the link in my sig.

HOwever, at the very least, we're going to need to know your CYA level to help you with your questions...

[Barry J]

I only had two test (dot) in my kit for cya , being the end of the season don't want to go out and buy a whole new kit. So maybe I'll just go on the guess that I need more stabilizer and put that in, it's been awhile. But wouldn't my cl level be low if I needed more stabilizer???

[Charlie_R]

Not necessarily. Usually, whatever you had for CYA will be close to what you have now. It doesn't drop on it's own. You can get more reagent from Amazon, or go directly to Taylor website and order it. The Walmart HTH kit is a rebranded Taylor kit. The reagent you want is R-0013. Best to get the 2oz bottles.

If you know your CYA level, you can use the Best guess chart (http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/best-guess-swimming-pool-chlorine-chart.html) to determine your ideal FC level.

There is a way to use the OTO kit for measuring higher than 5 on your chlorine, but I don't have the link handy for those instructions. Be aware also that this method isn't that accurate, but is better than "guess strips".

Now you know why the Mods here are always pushing the Taylor K-2006 kit. You would be money ahead to purchase it, through the links from any of the mod's signatures.

[Watermom]

Here is the dilution method that Charlie was referring to:

Testing Without a Good Kit (http://poolsolutions.com/gd/how-to-test-your-pool-without-a-good-testkit.html )

[aylad]

It's not that you need more stabilizer--it's that you need a shock level of chlorine in order to kill off the algae, and you can't determine how high the chlorine needs to be if you don't know your stabilizer level...

[Barry J]

Quote: "Can you touch it? If you can touch it, try to pinch some between your fingers and look at it out of the pool. Does it feel like sand or is it of a more fine consistency than sand?
If you can't touch it, does it seem to disappear when you try? Are your walls or floor slick or slimy to the touch?
Is your water clear or other"

I went in today, I cannot pinch it, seems to disolve, so not sand, it's yellowish, so I'm thinking algae, walls and floor not slimy.
I got some shock and stabilizer. I figured vaccuming, then dumping a gal of shock in and some stabilzer and letting it run for 24 hours
any suggestions
Barry

[jwhouse]

Now is when all your test numbers come into play which is why everyone keeps asking for them. If it is indeed algae, especially mustard algae, we will definitely need to know what your FC, CC, PH, TA, CH and CYA levels are before proceeding. Maintaining the proper chemestry during the high chlorine levels that will be required to kill it is important so we will need them for this purpose and to know exactly how high the chlorine will need to be.
Please report those to us and then we can formulate a plan to help you get it cleared up.