Cloudy After Cleaning

[Dazed and Confused]

I am new to having a pool and know practically nothing. After the pool guy comes to clean the pool, the water is very cloudy for a full two days. No algae problems. Also, the sides of the pool are slimy and when you rub against the side a white substance comes off. What the heck is going on? I'm never home when pool guy is here. Pool guy comes once a week. Any help would be most appreciated.

[Watermom]

Without having any good water testing results taken with a drops-based kit, we can only guess. But, if the pool sides feel slimy, then at the very least, you have an algae bloom waiting to happen.

[Dazed and Confused]

Thank you for the reply Watermom.

Let me explain a little more about the sides. When you rub the sides of the pool with your fingers it feels slimy and a white substance comes off and disperses in the water leaving a white cloud for a moment. Where you rubbed the slimy part it then feels like normal plaster. This has been going on for some time and there has never been any sign of algae. The weird cloudiness of the water only happens after the pool is cleaned and takes two full days to recover. Seems to me the water should be sparkling clear after cleaning. The filter pump is set to run for four hours everyday. Maybe thats not enough.

[Watermom]

Sounds like you might need to have a talk with your pool service and get some details about what they are doing. As far as pump run time goes, 4 hours per day may not be enough. Probably more like 8 hours per day. If you are having cloudiness issues after they are there, perhaps you need to run the pump 24/7 for the next day. But...... you really need to find out what is going on. I'd be concerned if my pool was only getting attention once per week. Are you saying that testing and chemicals being added is only happening once per week?

Maybe somebody else has some different ideas.

[Dazed and Confused]

Thanks again Watermom! Yes, pool service is once a week. So maybe I should do some testing on my own during the week. Its not like the pool came with instructions when I bought the house. I'm just going by what pool guy told me. After cleaning the water is so cloudy that you can't even see the bottom of the pool. I will extend the pump time. Do you run the pump longer during summer season? Sounds like I need a new pool guy!

[Watermom]

Maybe you can be the pool guy! ;) It is not that hard and really doesn't take that much time or effort if you keep on top of things. I'm not sure anybody can help you here on the forum to figure out what is going on with what your pool guy is doing since we have no details of what he is actually doing. But, if you want to do things on your own to take care of your pool, we can definitely help you with that. Let us know if you want to go that route and someone here can help you get started.

Go ahead and read a lot of the posts here on the forum, especially the stickied threads at the top of each section of the forum. (Until your registration is completed, you will have to log out first to be able to see the rest of the forum, however.) Also read over on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. You'll learn a lot.

[Dazed and Confused]

Ha Ha! I think you might be right!

Maybe I can be the pool guy. As my dad used to say, "If you want something done right, do it yourself". I just bought the house and am still unpacking and a little overwhelmed, but I am always up for a challenge. I already reset the timer to run the pump 9 hours a day during daylight hours. Will get a brush for the sides this weekend and get a testing kit. And probably a new guy until I get up to speed.

Thanks again.

[Watermom]

The kit we recommend is the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy) but you can't buy it locally. If you click on the test kit link in my signature, it will take you to Amazon where you can purchase it. A little pricey but definitely worth it!

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership upgraded.

Has your pool been painted with epoxy? The top layer of epoxy will chemically deteriorate over the winter, and in spring will FEEL slimy and BE chalky, till that layer wears off.

[Dazed and Confused]

Hmmm. Interesting question. I really have no idea what its painted with. It needs to be painted for sure. Whatever its painted with is cracking and blotchy. One of the many things on my ever growing list. I will get a brush for the sides and see what happens. Maybe thats it and a repaint will take care of the problem. Still, I don't know why its all white and cloudy for two days after cleaning.

[PoolDoc]

OK, try this.

Pick a spot, at least 1 foot square. Scrub it with a rag till it no longer chalks and is no longer slimy feeling. Check it 24 hours later. If it's STILL not slimy, and not chalking, then it's VERY likely that you have epoxy paint or acrylic that is chalking, and will continue to do so, till the top layer is worn or brushed off.

Bad news: I have -- one time -- encountered a pool painted with acrylic pool paint (I'm not even sure if that's been sold any more) that chalked TERRIBLY. And, unlike epoxy, it continued to chalk all summer, though it did diminish after the first clean up.

[Dazed and Confused]

Thank you again so much for all your help. I don't see how you have time to answer all these questions. I will do as you suggested with the rag. Why would it do this at the beginning of the season and not all the time? We had a very warm winter here in California with very little rain and we have only had one hot spell so far. Is it a temperature thing? We have only used the pool a few times in the last 3 weeks. I wonder if the cloudiness after cleaning is a result of the pool service cleaning the bottom and then the filter clears the water after a couple days. I doubt he has brushed the sides as the paint there is in good shape and dirt settles on the bottom.

[Dazed and Confused]

Yes PoolDoc! Its the paint! It needs to repainted anyway so now the question is: what kind of paint should I use? 19000 gallon in ground plaster pool in California just down the street from Disneyland.

[PoolDoc]

This page is a fair summary of the issue:
http://www.inyopools.com/HowToPage/how_to_select_the_proper_paint_for_your_pool.aspx

In my experience, Kelley's Olympic paint is the best product:
http://www.kelleytech.com

[Dazed and Confused]

Thanks again PoolDoc. I fired the pool guy and hired the neighbors pool guy who has been doing their pool for 12 years and it looks great. Draining the water today. Will repaint with rubber based enamel since Im a middle of the road kind of guy. Neighbor says pool was just painted 3 or 4 years ago, my guess is with acrylic. The old water was so bad! I wasn't really planning on a big project like this but suspected it might be necessary when I bought the house. I guess this is what credit cards are for!

[PoolDoc]

Sorry!

Hope you can get back in, soon.

[Dazed and Confused]

I tried to post a new thread about this but was blocked. After draining the pool, I discovered it is 12 feet deep! Much deeper than the 8 feet I thought it was. And the shallow end is 4 feet, giving me a total volume of 33, 510 gallons. Oy, the water bill! Almost double what I originally figured. This seems unusually deep. There used to be a diving board so I guess it makes sense and I suppose they used to dig pools deeper than they do today. The house was built in '55 and I don't know the age of the pool. My learning curve keeps getting more steep.

[PoolDoc]

Where did you try to post a thread? In this section?

[Dazed and Confused]

I think I tried to post a new thread in the subscriber posts section. Probably the wrong section. I don't really do much posting in online forums, like ever. I wasn't thinking.

[PoolDoc]

Yes, that section is only for paid subscribers, and is given priority when we get behind.