something on the bottom of the pool

[bjaeram]

Thank you!

I have well water so the PH, alkalinity, and hardness are always high. I got them down initially but I've topped off the pool a couple of times and need to work on that again. I have not added anything calcium.

Did you look at my pictures? do you think that is algae? Do you recommend just adding lots of chlorine to get rid of it if it is?

[aylad]

The most reliable way to tell if it's algae is to measure your chlorine at night, and again in the morning, and compare the two readings. If you've lost more than 1 ppm of chlorine during the night, then you probably have algae. It's hard for me to tell from looking at your pics, but if you have brown stuff blowing from the returns I'm betting that you have sand blowing back into the pool, not algae. This can happen if the laterals are damaged, if your pump is oversized for your filter (take a look at that label on the side of the motor and see what horsepower it says it is), if you've gone too long without backwashing, or if your multiport gasket needs replacing. Do you have a working pressure gauge on your filter? Does it rise when the pump is running? When is the last time you backwashed the filter? After you backwash, do you run it for a minute or so in "rinse" mode before going back to "filter"?

Janet

[bjaeram]

I swept it all out today, backwashed the filter, added acid and two gallons of chlorine...It's looks good now but we'll see in the morning. It was hard to sweep because if I didn't do it very slowly the stuff on the bottom turned to a cloud of dust and dispersed in the water. I think part of my problem is the stuff gets stirred up in the water then settles over night so I'm not actually getting it all out of the pool when I vaccum. I have wedding cake steps and I moved those to clean under them and it was a huge cloud of brown under there.

I do not having a working pressure guage. It looks like it has water in it. How do you know if the multiport gasket is bad? I do know the little clear thing on it where you can see the color of the water when you backwash leaks really bad when I backwash. After I backwashed and rinsed I did not see any brown blowing back in from the return.

[PoolDoc]

Bjaeram pics:

[PoolDoc]

Looks like it might be algae -- take a picture with the pump off, and the water still, if you want us to make a better guess.

Meanwhile, post another set of test results, after all that acid.

And, finally, remove ALL chemicals from the skimmer, if present, and begin adding 2 gallons of plain 6% bleach to your pools skimmer each evening. That will help your pool, AND clean any live algae out of your filter.

[aylad]

If you look at the top of the multiport handle, sometimes water will leak out around the handle if the gasket is bad. It also only takes a few minutes to take the handle and top off the multiport and actually look at the gasket--it will be obvious if it has twisting or tearing and needs to be replaced.

If you had a "huge cloud of brown" under your steps when you moved them, then the brown settling you see might just be dirt or dead algae. Again, the only way to tell for sure would be the overnight chlorine test, as I described above. Do you see any of this on the sides of the pool, or just on the bottom? Do the sides of your pool feel slippery?


Janet

[bjaeram]

It's all back this morning. I don't know if it grew back or just settled. I kind of think just settled.

So if it is just dirt or even dead algae how do I get it out? Vaccuming even as carefully as I can stirs it up into the water.

It is only on the bottom and the steps. None on the sides of the pool. It does not feel sllimy at all. I tried to get some off of the steps to put in a container so I could look at it better and take a picture of it and I couldn't get any. I barely touch it and it just disolves. I tried to get it under my finger nail too and just can't get it.

I'm getting ready to go out of town for the day but I'll do the chlorine test tonight. I'll also see about checking the gasket. I put two gallons of chlorine in last night but I didn't put it in the skimmer. I'll do that tonight.

Thank you for your help!

[PoolDoc]

Sound's like dead algae. I don't know what sort of vacuum you have or why you can't vacuum it up.

To vacuum it easily you need:

1. A wheeled vac head (a brush head stirs it up, unless you've got super-suction)
2. Good suction
3. Patience to move slowly enough so you DON'T stir it up.

We do it every week, on a 200,000 gallon pool.

Brush type: Poolmaster 27514 Triangular Vinyl Liner Vacuum
Wheeled type, medium duty: Poolmaster 27200 Heavy-Duty Flexible Metal Handle Vacuum
Wheeled type, light duty: Swimline 8150 Weighted Flex Vacuum Head, Blue
Hydro Tools 8365 8- to 16-Foot Adjustable Fluted Premium Fluted Telescopic Pool Pole, White
Poolmaster 33430 Premium Vacuum Hose with Swivel Cuff, 30-Feet by 1-1/2-Inch

[bjaeram]

I took some much better pictures today. I'll attach them here. The problem remains the same. I think if it's algae it's dead and I just have to try to get it out. I have a vaccum similiar to this. http://www.amazon.com/Hydro-8130-Wei...s=pool+vaccuum. If a wheeled one will work better I will get one of those. I also have an aquabug but I think he really stirs things up so I've been using the manual one. I have very good suction so I don't think that is a problem. I think the problem stems from inside my wedding cake steps. Would it be helpful to put chlorine directly in there every week?

http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o...eram/pool%202/

The one picture has a baggie of water from the top of the pool and the bottle is the stuff from the bottom. Seems so weird that the water is so clear but this junk stays on the bottom.

Todays results

PH 7.8
Chlorine 4.5
Alk 180

[aylad]

Have you tried testing for overnight chlorine loss, like I suggested in post #12? If there's no chlorine loss, there's no live algae!

Janet