Pool Milky White with yellowing white residue Thank you for your help!
Hello, We have an frame Intex pool 14 X 4 ft round and have had it for 3 years. This year was the first time we winterized it and it did well. (We used a non-chlorine winterizing kit ) We have well water (Iron) but only had to fill about 1/3 of the pool with fresh water for this season. When we opened our pool, the pollen in our area was very bad. It began accumulating at a rapid rate in the pool while we were doing start up shock etc. The pool turned cloudy and we couldn't seem to clear it using clarifier, algaecide, and vacuuming the bottom. I used almost a whole bottle of clarifier over several weeks while we were battling this problem. We cleaned the filter constantly but the problem only got worse. We cover our pool when not in use because we have the typical cartridge filter/pump that came with the pool and want to keep pollen and debris to a minimum. Finally we visited our local pool store and had a sample tested. Everything tested fine...except cya was low. This was because I was using Shock N Swim (Calcium Hypo) which has no stabilizer. I have used Shock N Swim for 3 years with no problem. They suggested I use Pool First Aide. I dosed the pool 3 times but it only seemed to be getting worse. However the First Aide did clear up the pollen. Then we noticed tiny blue flecks in the filter cartridge and realized that something was dissolving the pool cover! We promptly removed it and replaced it with another, but we don't let the new one touch the water. All of the blue flecks are gone now but we still have a cloudy pool and it appears to be getting worse. I stopped using Shock N Swim because I read that the calcium could be building up. (I was shocking it every day initially hoping to solve the problem.) I am now using Tri-chlor one inch tabs in floater and in filter cartridge. I regularly use algaecide (abt once a week) but noticed it turn white when it came in contact with the water. (Never seen that before!) So I have discontinued that. I used 20 Mule Team Borax to up the pH, which was stable at 7.2 until we started vacuuming to waste and refilling with well water. It dropped to 6.8. We are now ready to give up! I'm worried that the well water is only making things worse. We are cleaning the filter every couple of hours and we think some or most of the white milky residue is going back into the pool. We cut apart a second cartridge and doubled the cartridge filter paper. It actually helps retain more of the concentrated yellowish white residue which we wash out. The concentrated residue will fall out in the bottom of the pump and I have let a jar of it sit until it accumulates at the bottom, but our pool seems to retain it in solution and not much is accumulating on the bottom. When we let it sit in a jar about 3/4 of an inch of milky/slightly yellowish white residue drops to the bottom. We are still vacuuming to waste but the waste water looks fairly clear even though pool is very cloudy. We are Senior Citizens with limited income, so we can't spend a lot of money on the pool. Our Grandkids are coming in two days to swim and we are desperate to find a solution before then. The pool people said the water was safe but it is looking worse each day, so I am worried it is not. Thank you so much for your help! We use a two way test kit with drops. (I do have test strips and with them the Ta appears too high but all else is in range. Doesn't ever show chlorine) Chlorine is about a 3.0 and pH is 6.8 right now. (Added well water to make up for loss) Pool holds 4,600 gals.
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