2 Items Yellowing At Water Line in Steps Area and Sand discharging into Pool

[terradon973]

In NNJ and this is our 4th year with inground pool 16x34 3-8 feet. This was a new installation

Problem 1: Just opened the pool Memorial Day weekend and everything seemed fine. Chlorine was almost non existent and Ph was very low. Chlorine was fine with the day. PH was low after adding Alkalinity Up was still low. Just added 2 doses of Soda Ash and all is well. Still learning the ropes of opening my own pool.

1. Today i removed the solar cover and now see sand around the bottom of the pool. Turned the filter back on (8pm, currently run filter from 10am-8pm every day) and see the jets spitting out fine sand. Now i did back wash tonight and it was very dirty looking in the glass. I only backwashed maybe 2x since the pool was opened, and was thinking maybe that is the cause of the sand spitting into the pool. Any ideas??

2. The water line and some of the steps in the shallow entrance to the pool are yellow. Tried scrubbing with just the regular brush thinking that it was maybe mustard algae. Nope, its stained. What can i use to clean those steps? Also parts of the steps submerged look stained as well.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[aylad]

1. After you backwashed the filter, did you switch it to "rinse" mode for a few minutes before going back to "filter", to wash the remaining sand out of the lines? If not, that's probably your problem. If so, then you meay need to look for a cracked or broken lateral in the filter. Does the sand spit all the time, or just for a few seconds after turning on the pump? Any visible air coming out?

2. Many things can cause staining, but I often have a yellowish tint to my stairs after the winter is over, but it's usually from leaves that have sat on the bottom of the pool and disintegrated over the winter . (My pool stays open all year, and my neighbor has a virtual forest in her backyard, so all her leaves blow into my pool over the winter. I usually wait until all the trees are bare before making an effort to get them all out, and usually don't get them all out until the water starts warming up.) Usually after a good 2-3 day shock, the yellowing goes away.

If not leaves, then do you perhaps have metals in the water? Have you tried taking your chlorine up to shock level for a couple of days to see if that makes a difference?

Janet

[terradon973]

Thanks for the quick reply!

1. It only seems to spit out when turning the filter back on. I usually only rinse for less than a minute. As for air bubbles not too sure.

2. U were right about the bellowing, coming out with some elbow grease and a brush.

[mbar]

If your pool is new, your filter is new too, meaning that your sand is new. New sand needs to be backwashed a lot, I mean a lot! It also will send very fine particles of sand back into the water (it happened to me). When you turn the filter off overnight, let the particles fall to the bottom. Then vacuum to waste, or the fine particles will just come back in. You can also put a skimmer sock on (or an old stocking) to catch the fine particles. As for the stains on the steps, you can also use a magic eraser. Let us know how you make out - and if you have any other questions.