What is this white scratchy stuff on the sides and bottom of my pool?

[gonjah]

In *extreme* situations you can use floc, let the particles settle, then vacuum.

[gonjah]

I don't know but nice pool.

[Arklin K.]

The filter has a ton of green scum on it (from the swamp) so it's hard to tell. It's slimy stuff. Almost like a thin lime-green paste.

Thanks! I'm reading it now!

[Arklin K.]

Here's a better picture of the coating, I just took today:

The white part by the upper tile is soft and smooth. The white part by the lower plaster is rough and sandpapery.

I can't tell what the white stuff is. If it's calcium, I've read that acid washing isn't really for that (acid washing is to remove a thin layer of plaster for refinishing or painting).

Also, the blue splotches are confusing me. I can't tell if the white is covering the blue or if the blue has flaked off revealing white.

Can someone look at these pictures and give me advice as to what's happening with the blue paint?

[Arklin K.]

One problem with the aluminum flocculent in my pool is there is no vacuum. The pool is designed to be 'self cleaning' (yeah, like high school kids are self policing).

Anyway, maybe I 'should' have used the flocculent and then 'rented' a pool vacuum to get the stuff off the bottom ... but that's too late now!

[Arklin K.]

I don't know yet.

I can either fill it from the well (paying for electricity at California rates of 45 cents / KW hour) or pay someone to deliver 38K gallons.

For anyone who has had water delivered ... how much is 38K gallons anyway in cost?

[Arklin K.]

The blue algaecide was about $50 The chlorine shock was about $50 for a 24 pound box at Costco. The bucket of 3" tablets was about $50 at Costco. The muriatic acid was about $25 for a few gallons. The clcium supplement was another $25 at Leslies. And THEN there was the liquid chlorine from Home Depot at about $50 for

12 gallons.

I've rounded all the numbers for the easy math but that's about $250 already, of which more than half was put into the pool - so that's where the rough number came from.

Not to mention 24/7 use of two 10-amp 240v 1.65HP pumps to clean the pool (since one pump can't work alone - this pool requires two due to the lousy self-cleaning system).

[gonjah]

It doesn't have a skimmer? I thought I saw one. My vacuum works through the skimmer. It's a pretty simple operation.

[Arklin K.]

I'm still unsure if the white is calcium or if the white is the lack of blue.

For example, here is a closeup of the blue and white.

The white on the tile must be a deposit of something. The blue below it must be the pool plaster. But what's the white below the blue?

[gonjah]

You know it's hard to tell but I'd guess it's (the blue stuff) dead algae that is imbedded in the plaster. If it is, it's impossible to get out without removing the plaster. It's hard to say because the previous owners could have done (or not done) so many things.

[Arklin K.]

Nope. The skimmers (both of them) are wholly unfiltered!

Other than the skimmer basket and pump basket, anything sucked up by the skimmer goes right BACK into the pool! I know. It's weird. IMHO, it's stupid - but that's the way Lifetime and Paramount build pools.

Here's a brochure describing the Paramount PCC2000 "self-cleaning" pool system:

Basically, the skimmers only skim the huge stuff. Everything else goes back into the pool, unfiltered so that the dozen rotating pop-up heads push the crud to the deep end of the pool.

Once at the deep end, it's soooo steep (45 degrees!) that the crud can't get back out. The filter pump pulls the crud from the bottom of the deep end and that is the only filtered water.

Here's a picture of the shallow end leading to the deep end.

And, here's a picture of me failing to remove one of the pop up cleaner heads: I can't seem to understand HOW these things remove, even taking into account the special tool and the fact they're reverse threaded.

Here's a picture of the two cleaner heads that control the dozen pop up rotating spray cleaners:

In theory, it should keep the pool clean - but in reality, it stinks.

The problem is there is no way to hook up a vacuum that I can figure out as the vacuum hooked to the skimmers simply blows the crud right back into the pool via the pop up cleaner heads!

[trader4]

No way I'd be paying $$$ for algaecide and $$$ for shock. I put 5 gallons of 12% liquid chlorine into a 48,000 gallon pool and it kills everything. There are algae that are harder to kill, but I don't believe the common green one is one of them. Even if you put 15 gallons of liq chlorine in, I could do that for $54 and it would have the chlorine up at 20+ ppm unless the pool is olympic size.

[trader4]

I don;t know, but it's impossible that it's going to be cheaper than running a well pump. 1 hp well pump is probably around 7 amps, 240V, or 1.5kw. That's

75 cents an hour. If it pumps a typical well rate of 15GPM, that's 900GPH. I could fill my 48000 gallon pool for $40 even at your electric rate.

[gonjah]

Makes me appreciate my mess. :)

[Dan Espen]

...

...

Clearly, you are not supposed to vacuum the pool.

I read the web page, all the crap heads to the deep end, then the filter sucks it in leaving the large debris in a canister. Clean water re-enters the pool.

Sounds like it would work.

When opening the pool, you might have to clear the filter multiple times.

[Arklin K.]

Very interesting calculation!

I think I'll fill it with the well. The main problem is the well can go dry - but I will check for that and only put in a few thousand gallons a day. I can probably get away with a thousand gallons a day so it would take a month to fill.

If I can get away with 2,000 gallons, then it will only take a few weeks to fill this up ... but I'm still siphoning the green water out as we speak!

[Arklin K.]

I agree with you that I likely wasted my money on algecide and shock.

From now on, it's liquid chlorine (and lots of it) for me!

Here's a picture taken this morning. I'm almost done pumping and siphoning out the green water from the deep end!

[Arklin K.]

I finally figured it out!

The trick is to NOT set the tool too deeply into the popup head when turning clockwise to remove (yes, clockwise).

When I set the tool deeply, it broke the tool.

When I set the tool shallow - it twisted the pop-up head the 1/8 turn that releases it from the pool! Lesson learned!

[Arklin K.]

Yes. Understood. I will have to pressure wash it.

Plus, the debris canister gets filled to the brim with leaves and stuff so it has to be dumped often.

Basically, the pool is designed with a VERY SHARP deep end. Then the dozen popup heads push the debris toward this deep end where it can't get out.

Then the filter pulls it out into the debris canister and then on to the filter, and then back to the pool.

Here's a picture of the pool empty showing the shape. You can see the popup heads in the middle of the bottom of the pool:

[Arklin K.]

I think I'm getting closer to figuring it out.

Today I pressure washed the pool (water only).

At one point, I deliberately stayed in one spot. Guess what?

The pool plaster turned blue!

That implies the white stuff is on top of the blue stuff. If that's the case, then I need to figure out what the white stuff is.

Probably Calcium - but I'm just guessing. If it is calcium (it feels like sand), then I 'guess' the acid wash (muriatic acid) is what gets rid of that Calcium.

Is that correct?