winterizing chemical deposits on pool floor

s marcotte · Postby **s marcotte** » Sat 10 Oct, 2009 20:36

Hi. We have a large (16 x 32) above-ground pool. Following the advice of the pool store where we have our water tested regularly I added liquid shock and liquid winter algaecide to the water after lowering the water a little below the skimmer. The chemicals made the water cloudy and in a few days there were whitish blobs all over the floor of the pool. upon close look, they were granular in texture. THe liner is vinyl. I called the pool store and emailed them a photo. The guy there said he had never seen anything like that happen. He advised me that it won't harm the liner and to try sweeping it, which I did. It swept up and dispersed into the water again, making it cloudy again. And, a week later, we have more deposits again on the floor of the pool.

Would appreciate any insights and advice.

We are in NH.

We have a leaf net over the pool until we figure out what to do, if anything, before we put the winter cover over it.

Thanks

nocturnalsheep · Postby **nocturnalsheep** » Mon 12 Oct, 2009 12:07

What were the chemical levels before you put these in? (chlorine, pH, Alkalinity, Calcium)

Had you put any other chemicals in recently?

nocturnalsheep · Postby **nocturnalsheep** » Mon 12 Oct, 2009 12:17

And if you don't know the chemistry then or even if you do, what are the chemical levels now?

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Thu 15 Oct, 2009 01:31

Had had the water tested on 9/25 and was told it was balanced and only needed shock and algaecide for treating. I'm looking at the actual test results now and it wasn't perfectly balanced--the chlorine especially was a little high. I had not shocked it for a while. Throughout the end of the summer the chlorine seemed to run high. I'll put the numbers from the water test on 9/25 below.

I was told to add 4 packages of shock and the algaecide. On 9/27 I added only one package of the shock that I had been using over the summer--it was the last of what I had on hand from the summer. I had told the guy at the store that I would be using this particular shock---it's called Smart Shock and it's a powder and you can swim in the pool a little after using it. Then the next evening, 9/28, I went back to the store and explained that I had run out of the Smart Shock and that I preferred to use a liquid shock precisely because I was afraid that I might inadvertently let the residue of a powder shock clump on the floor of the pool. So there was a mixture of shocks over a 24 hour period---one package of this Smart Shock on the 27th and then 3 gallons of a liquid shock and a container of algaecide on 9/28.

The

jenkins913 · Postby **jenkins913** » Thu 15 Oct, 2009 01:41

The conditions on 9/25, before I added any shock and the algaecide:
Chlorine: 5.5; pH:7; Tot Alkalinity: 135; Adj. Total Alk: 112; Hardness: 240

I have not had the water tested since. I sent a picture to the guy at the store and spoke with him by phone. He said he had never heard/seen this happen before. He didn't think it would do any harm to the liner. He didn't suggest I get the water tested again, but I can certainly do that. Of course we've drained the filter and lowered the water in the pool and all that as adding these chemicals were part of winterizing the pool in the first place.

Thanks for "listening".