brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

[fhorta]

i do live in outer skirts of city. lots of trees. actually, there is an orange grove across the street. however, this stuff spreads uniformally across the pool floor. has been around since before spring, before pollen would have been a factor. i always thought it was dirt/dust, but after vacuuming it would still reappear. i have a aquabot vacuum and the stuff probably filters right thru the filter cloth.

from what i remember after doing water test at leslies one week ago they said everything was fine, except phosphates....

cl-has been over 5 consistently for past week.
ph-7.8
alk-120
cya-40
calcium hard-60
tds-1000
iron-0
copper-0

calcium hardness was low, which is preferred to avoid eating away at my gunite floor, and phosphates were high.

i'm not utilizing skimmer at this time due to a crack around the perimeter. if i fill the pool up to the skimmer level, water will leak through the crack. the water is traveling to filter via the other opening at the bottom of pool.

but actually, when stuff setlles on the floor, it does tend to look like a deteriorating newspaper in water.....but again, stuff been around since before pollen was around..

i think stuff is settling back down, as opposed to coming back. like i mentioned, been around for a while. condition hasn't really worsened, but stays steady. same ol thin layer of this stubborn stuff evenly distributed on the pool floor.

btw, i live california's central valley (san joaquin valley) so alot of agriculture..in case that makes a major difference.

i checked pump's psi this morning and it was at 13. i checked outgoing pressure on one of the return jets and felt quite weak. i backwashed and white foamy water was expelled from filter exit hose. pressure on return jet increased. i then threw some flock into pool. hoping to clump this stuf together and then able to vacuum it out..i just didn;t have any other ideas and wanted to give my poor pump a break...hope i didn't make things worse. in the meantime i'm open to other ideas/suggestions. thanks for your responses.

[PoolDoc]

If it's already settling to the floor floc won't help . . . and yes, it may make it worse.

Add DE to your filter again, but watch the water stream from the return: if it becomes cloudy, or even visible, your filter probably needs work. Dirt bypassing the filter can definitely cause problems like this.

If your filter is NOT the problem, then you need to try hand vacuuming. Leave the DE in the filter, HAND vac the pool, and then backwash.

Now the fact that you've added floc *may* mean that you've suspended some of the dirt in the pool, till the floc breaks down. However it may settle with no circulation. So, after you vacuum, raise the chlorine pretty high in the PM, and then turn the pump off overnight. If you have dust in the AM, hand vac again.

That may take care of your problem.

BTW, you can test your AquaBot with DE too. Put a small amount of DE on the pool bottom, and then guide the AquaBot over it. If DE comes out of the AquaBot's exit port . . . you may have found your culprit.

Ben

[fhorta]

thanks for the tip on aquabot. i will try that. so, to summarize:

we are leaning towards the assumption that this stuff is not some sort of algae, becuz if it was the high levels of cl would have taken care of the problem?

also, even if the aquabot was not picking everything up, and some of this stuff was getting by and getting filtered back into the pool, would this stuff settle back down here and there, right? but the stuff is spreadout evenly all around the surfaces. also, whatever the vacuum would miss, would the sand filter pick up. there was no visible DE in the water when i poured it in, so i guessing hte filter is working... so much to learn.. thanks

[PoolDoc]

It could be dead algae.

I'd try vacuuming it by hand.

Ben

[fhorta]

just a quick update on situation. i initiated another post under delaing with algae forums and post is labeled "chlorine levels" that explains my progress but here is a summary:

basically i may have had some algae but it was coupled with the residue of the pounds and pounds of calcium hypochlorite that i threw in there to get rid of the algae. i was able to get the floor cleared up by using store clorox, which left no residue. i was also not diluting the granules i was using before throwing into pool so residue would settle on the floor. also, pool tech guy said that my plaster is wearing away and the brownish looking dust is sand mix that is pasrt of the plaster component. pool has a very thin coat of epoxy paint that previoous owner slapped on surface of pool just to make it look good while selling home.

so this is what i'm told and makes sense so far. stuff on the bottom of pool or on walls always gone be there because its part of the surface itself..

hope this helps other folks.