Pool question

Duckmauler dhc

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
We bought a house with a pool and I didn’t take a picture of it but the like had some of these spots on it. They seem to be in new places now and getting bigger. Anyone ever seen this? It is not algae or anything you can feel or scrub off. The pool people couldn’t give us a good answer on what it was when they came out to open the pool. My wife takes care of the pool but we have been stumped on what causes these spots on the liner.IMG_4420.jpegIMG_4421.jpeg
 
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Papa_Smurf

Papa_Smurf

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
it looks like algea or something organic to me. to be aure place a round chlorine tablet on it for just a minute or 2 and then move it. see if theres a clean spot where the tablet was.

take a water sample to a pool store. they can analyze it beyond what your normal test kit can and give reccommendations based off of test results. otherwise you are just guessing at what the problem is.
 
DBCooper

DBCooper

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Make sure your pH is right. If it isn't, your chlorine or bromine's efficacy is diminished. Muriatic acid is your friend. If it were me, I'd hire a professional for a year and hang around him and ask questions while he's there.

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Good luck.
 
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blazinbowtie99

blazinbowtie99

Six Pointer
Mustard algae is really tough this time of year. It typically looks like dirt/sand when it starts but can stick to floor and walls if not treated. It is chlorine resistant so you'll have to use some sort of algae treatment and keep it shocked every few days to keep it controlled. Vacuuming, sweeping and treating. I've been fighting it this year.
 
Duckmauler dhc

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
blazinbowtie99 said:
Mustard algae is really tough this time of year. It typically looks like dirt/sand when it starts but can stick to floor and walls if not treated. It is chlorine resistant so you'll have to use some sort of algae treatment and keep it shocked every few days to keep it controlled. Vacuuming, sweeping and treating. I've been fighting it this year.
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Is there any way for it to be removed? If in fact that’s what it is?
 

cwcook68

Eight Pointer
Go to a vitamin store and buy yourself a lb. Of ascorbic acid powder and dump it in. If it’s iron or organic it’ll disappear in 12 hours. My fiberglass pool gets brown iron stains from my hard well water and ascorbic acid will clear it right up.
 
Duckmauler dhc

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
cwcook68 said:
Go to a vitamin store and buy yourself a lb. Of ascorbic acid powder and dump it in. If it’s iron or organic it’ll disappear in 12 hours. My fiberglass pool gets brown iron stains from my hard well water and ascorbic acid will clear it right up.
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This might very well be the issue as well. I forgot to add that we have well water.
 
blazinbowtie99

blazinbowtie99

Six Pointer
Duckmauler dhc said:
Is there any way for it to be removed? If in fact that’s what it is?
Click to expand...
Not really, as soon as it is scrubbed down or loose stuff is disturbed it will just settle somewhere else in the pool. If you are sure your water is balanced...some sort of algaecide, vacuum, backwash, small amount of shock every couple days until its gone. Leave your suction vacuum going as much as possible and backwash. If you don't have a suction cleaner, be sure to empty robot a lot, don't let it sit in the pool.
 
Duckmauler dhc

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
blazinbowtie99 said:
Not really, as soon as it is scrubbed down or loose stuff is disturbed it will just settle somewhere else in the pool. If you are sure your water is balanced...some sort of algaecide, vacuum, backwash, small amount of shock every couple days until its gone. Leave your suction vacuum going as much as possible and backwash. If you don't have a suction cleaner, be sure to empty robot a lot, don't let it sit in the pool.
Click to expand...
I have been vacuuming the pool every two days since we opened the pool. And I always take it out and clean out the filters and put it up after every use. We have not been backwashing that often though.
 

Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
I've owned pools for 18 years. One of the best things you can do is visit Trouble Free Pool to learn how to maintain your own pool.
https://www.troublefreepool.com

It a website dedicated DIY pool care. Many of the methods were developed by experts in chemistry and large scale trial and error. I've only had algae once and it was after I did a lot of pressure washing of the pool deck which put soap and dirt into the pool. One of the basics of their methods is to avoid pool stores. First reason is their testing is not accurate. There have been members who has taken water samples to three different pool stores and got three different results. Second reason is that they want to sell magic potions to fix your water in your pool. You go one week and they sell you a chemical. Next week they sell you another chemical to fix the effects to the previous week's chemical. Testing is free so they can sell you something.

First step for TFP is to get a good test kit. They have two recommendations which are both drop type tests. They call test strips guess strips. I have a Taylor K2006C test kit. They also don't add a bunch of chemicals. You basically need bleach, muriatic acid, baking soda, cyuranic acid (CYA), calcium chloride, and salt if you have a salt water pool. The reason pool store or pool service maintained pools get algae is that they maintained the free chlorine (FC) in the 1-3 ppm level which is old standards from years ago. They have FC/CYA ratio table to follow. For my current CYA level, my target level is FC of 4-9 ppm. When I occasionally visit the pool store for a part, I'll bring a water sample along. Their test result will show 7 ppm and they'll get all alarmed and try to sell me a potion to lower chlorine. Even if it was high by their standards, pool in this area will lose about 4 ppm of chlorine per day from UV from the sun. All it would take is turning off my salt water chlorine generator (SWG) for one day and it would reach their standards. But that doesn't result in a selling of a potion.
https://www.troublefreepool.com/blo...ine-and-cyanuric-acid-relationship-explained/

My pool has never looked clearer. You could almost read the date on a quarter at the bottom of the pool. Also my expenses to maintain the pool are way lower. The basic chemicals I mentioned can be found in home maintenance stores and Walmart. A pool store will sell you a bag of Total Alkalinity for $30. Or you can buy a large bag of baking soda for $5 from Walmart. It's the same chemical. It takes me about 10 minutes to test the water in my pool. It takes 25 minutes each way to get to the pool store and another 15 minutes for the pool store to test. So not only is maintaining your pool cheaper, it also takes less time unless you live next door to a pool store.
 

Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
Duckmauler dhc said:
We bought a house with a pool and I didn’t take a picture of it but the like had some of these spots on it. They seem to be in new places now and getting bigger. Anyone ever seen this? It is not algae or anything you can feel or scrub off. The pool people couldn’t give us a good answer on what it was when they came out to open the pool. My wife takes care of the pool but we have been stumped on what causes these spots on the liner.View attachment 153109View attachment 153110
Click to expand...

The stains in the photos look like classic green algae. The pool store solution is to dump a copper-based algaecide into the pool. Over time using this algaecide, copper levels will build up which can turn blonde hair green. There is a method to get rid of it using bleach.
https://www.troublefreepool.com/blog/2019/01/18/defeating-algae/
 
Duckmauler dhc

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
Homebrewale said:
I've owned pools for 18 years. One of the best things you can do is visit Trouble Free Pool to learn how to maintain your own pool.
https://www.troublefreepool.com

It a website dedicated DIY pool care. Many of the methods were developed by experts in chemistry and large scale trial and error. I've only had algae once and it was after I did a lot of pressure washing of the pool deck which put soap and dirt into the pool. One of the basics of their methods is to avoid pool stores. First reason is their testing is not accurate. There have been members who has taken water samples to three different pool stores and got three different results. Second reason is that they want to sell magic potions to fix your water in your pool. You go one week and they sell you a chemical. Next week they sell you another chemical to fix the effects to the previous week's chemical. Testing is free so they can sell you something.

First step for TFP is to get a good test kit. They have two recommendations which are both drop type tests. They call test strips guess strips. I have a Taylor K2006C test kit. They also don't add a bunch of chemicals. You basically need bleach, muriatic acid, baking soda, cyuranic acid (CYA), calcium chloride, and salt if you have a salt water pool. The reason pool store or pool service maintained pools get algae is that they maintained the free chlorine (FC) in the 1-3 ppm level which is old standards from years ago. They have FC/CYA ratio table to follow. For my current CYA level, my target level is FC of 4-9 ppm. When I occasionally visit the pool store for a part, I'll bring a water sample along. Their test result will show 7 ppm and they'll get all alarmed and try to sell me a potion to lower chlorine. Even if it was high by their standards, pool in this area will lose about 4 ppm of chlorine per day from UV from the sun. All it would take is turning off my salt water chlorine generator (SWG) for one day and it would reach their standards. But that doesn't result in a selling of a potion.
https://www.troublefreepool.com/blo...ine-and-cyanuric-acid-relationship-explained/

My pool has never looked clearer. You could almost read the date on a quarter at the bottom of the pool. Also my expenses to maintain the pool are way lower. The basic chemicals I mentioned can be found in home maintenance stores and Walmart. A pool store will sell you a bag of Total Alkalinity for $30. Or you can buy a large bag of baking soda for $5 from Walmart. It's the same chemical. It takes me about 10 minutes to test the water in my pool. It takes 25 minutes each way to get to the pool store and another 15 minutes for the pool store to test. So not only is maintaining your pool cheaper, it also takes less time unless you live next door to a pool store.
Click to expand...
Thank you for taking the time to write all of that up. That was very helpful and I am reading as we speak. I’m the first to tell you I’m not chemist or expert on all of this. That’s the wife’s forte but I’m trying to learn.
 
Duckmauler dhc

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
Jimbob78 said:
After reading all of this, owning a pool sounds like a full time job that requires another full time job to finance.
Click to expand...
It honestly hasn’t been that hard to maintain…..not nearly as hard as I thought. However I’m now questioning whether we are doing the right things or not.
 
Jett

Jett

Ten Pointer
If you will do me a favor and take me bass fishing just one time, I will do you a favor and fill that pool with dirt! 🤣
Just kidding, sort of.
 
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