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Thread: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

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    Default brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    hello all. i read the posts on brown looking dust that wont goaway which was determined to be some kind of brown algae. i have followed posts instructions and have added granular chlorine to shock levels (the test kit reads up to 5. when i test for chlorine levels i think there is so much chlirine that on the test kit the color of sample is almost orange) so i think that im keeping the chlorine level pretty high. ph is about 7.5.

    pool is gunite,about 20k gallons. i added some de to sand filter and psi went from 7 to about 9. have pump going 24/7 since saturdaty night...every time i brush, brown stuff picks up right away and brushes off easy. but when i go brush again, the stuff is still there. pump has been on 24/7 so i would think stuff should be filtering out...ok, my question is,since those posts are from 2007 i believe, has anyone found a better solution that worked for them that dealing with these same problem? i wonder if i should use pure bleach instead of the granular calcium hypochlorite i;m using? these stuff just wont go away. water looks good,its that brown stuff that wont go away...can someone please advise.i wouldappreciate it. thanks in advance

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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    Is the brown dust dead algae, or do you think it's live?

    Is it 'coming back' or just settling back down, in roughly the same spots?

    Mustard algae can be brown, but it's more often yellowish.

    The fact that you added DE and didn't see anything back in the pool is good - that means your filter is catching fine particles like it should.

    But, you'll need to post your other test results, especially your stabilizer level. Meanwhile, "orange" is a good chlorine level to maintain.

    Ben

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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    How about pollen or airborne dirt of some sort. Is this a possibility in your area?
    Al
    16'x32' oval 22K gal IG vinyl pool; ; Hayward S244T sand filter; Hayward superpump 1 HP pump; hrs; K-2006; PF:5.5

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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    What's in your skimmer basket and do you use skimmer socks? This time of year I would first guess at pollens and dirt as Al mentioned. If you're collecting brownish stuff in your skimmer basket that looks like wet soggy newspaper, it's pollen, and when pollens sink to the bottom they look like brown dust. I do a lot of vacuuming but, until pollen and plowing season is over, the dirt on the bottom comes back.
    Oval 12.5K gal AGP; Hayward 19" sand filter; Pentair Dyn 1 HP 2sp pump on timer
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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    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.

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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    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

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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    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

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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    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.

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    Default Re: brown looking dust @ bottom of pool wont go away

    I sat my pull up on saturday, got it filled by the evening time and the next morning I had the same thing, almost a rust color. It looked like someone splashed motor oil on the bottom of my pool and along the creases. It was very 'dusty' like. I stirred it up with the skim net, turned on my pump and ran it. Then turned around checked my filter the next morning and WOW! It looked like someone soaked my filter in tea. I back washed and with in a few hours it had happened again. This all just started with in 12 hours of the pool being filled. Don't think it's algae. I keep stirring it up and keep filtering a few hours a day. It's slowly going away. Seems it was a sediment in my water. It usually settles on the outside areas of the pool in the flow path.

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