Bubbles and Flakes

[mas985]

The last few weeks, I have had a similar problem. White flakes you can see best at night with the light on. I did not think it was the SWG because of the volume of water and density of the flakes. It seems like a SWG have to make a lot of flakes to be able to see it in a 14,000 gallon pool let alone a 21,000. But then again, I do have high calcium and it would seem like a reasonable explaination.

Oasisdave,

Do you have high calcium in your pool? That is my problem and I think it may contribute to the flakes.

Also, I have read in another post that it could just be particulates in the water. Summer time puts a lot stuff in the water and the chlorine bleaches it to white. Depending on the density of the particles, they will float, sink or stay mixed with the water. The later has a hard time getting filtered out.

If I could catch a few particles, it would be interesting to put under a microscope.

[Ozzzz]

I have also noticed flakes in my pool, to me they look like bad dandruff. Some days I notice them and some I dont, all depends on how the sun is shining into the pool. Pool Store told me to shock with non-chlorine shock, didnt have much effect.

During the time that my cell was not switching polarity correctly the flakes were really bad, and also caked up my debris shield in the skimmer pretty bad. Since finding this site, getting a good test kit to check the chemistry, and getting my salt cell replaced I havent really noticed the flakes, the debris sheild is not caked with white powdery stuff either, and my cell is not scaling up either. The scale that had built up on the tile in the spa also seems to be cleaning itself up.

My CH is up over the 1000 mark right now and try to keep my PH below 7.8 to stay in a non-scaling condition.

[guild1]

Keep your CH close to 200 and your PH in the correct range and the flakes will disappear.
Greg

[mas985]

Keep your CH close to 200 and your PH in the correct range and the flakes will disappear.
Greg

Easy for you to say . With fill water over 350 ppm hardness, it is very difficult to keep the pool below 400 ppm. The only thing I have to work with is alkalinity and PH and that does not seem to be enough.

[waste]

Oh, sorry, I thought this was a thread about some of my old girlfriends - seriously, Sean, as per usual, has the right take on this.

[oasisdave]

Ok, heres my test results:
FC - 3
CC - 0
TC - 3
PH - 7.5
Alk - 110
Cal - 420 up from 370 on 7/6/06 but had the flakes then too.
Cya - 40
Temp - 87

I noticed today that the water looked just a little cloudy.

Right now my equipment runs from 6:00 Am to 2:00 Pm. The Aquarite is running at 70% and the salt readout on the control panel is 3200. I don't have the salt test from Ben so this is all I have to go by. Another strange thing I have noticed about the Aquarite is that if I up the generating time to say 80% the salt reading drops to 3100. If I lower the generating time that salt readout climbs. Anyone know why it does this?

Mas985 - The flakes I have sink to the bottom, they seem to collect in the shallow end below the return jets. They stay on the bottom until the water gets disturbed then scatter everywhere. I always seem to have the flakes no matter what season it is.

[tonyl]

You might try raising the CYA up to the recommended levels of 60-80 to allow reduced output level. I run my AquaRite 8 hrs a day at 30% for 20k, full sun, CYA at 80. It won't eliminate the flakes but maybe reduce them enough that it's minimal.

[socalKC]

Keep your CH close to 200 and your PH in the correct range and the flakes will disappear.
Greg

My water is 350 coming out of the city supply. Can't do much about that, sad as that is. I suppose I can truck water in......

this issue of white flakes has plague our system for four years. I will tell you what I have found to be the case in my sitation. My flaeks are BAD, by the way.

1. defintely has to do with CH, my start point is 350 and it is over 700 now after draining two years ago.
2. It only happens in summer (high chlorine output)
3. Ph lowering has not helped me, but I try to maintain it low at around 7.3-.4
4.The Corporate Aquarite guy came here a couple of years ago and basically blew me off as a pool chemistry issue that he can't help. Which I basically agree with, but he was a total jerk....I don't recall his name but I do recall he was Australian.
5. It also causes my filter to require cleaning more often, like once a month(cartridge).
6. I eventually learned not too mess with putting tons of product, clarifiers, etc in the pool. However, if there was something new developed, I would try it.

I realize this isn't solving the problem but, the only thing I have done that works is drain the pool. Also I try to clean the cell once a month, not sure this helps. It is so visible/bad in my spa that I think we have to drain again.

I also would appreciate any new found input/product.

karen in so cal