Another thread about white flakes

[Ilovepools]

Hello, I’ve read every single thread on the white flakes. We have a new plaster swg pool built august 2022.

We had it closed for the winter, with only the spa open, converted to bromine.

In April, we had it professionally opened and the salt cell turned on for the first time.

White flakes started arriving in May. Now they are so plentiful that it’s alarming every time we open the cover. They settle around the bubblers on the sun deck and outside of the returns. The spa is especially bad. There are literally thick piles of it. Today I got into the water with the manual vacuum hose and got it all up. I immediately backwashed and when I turned the pump back on the flakes had shot out the return lines and the sun ledge drains??? undoing 2 hours of work.

We test every other day.
Chlorine is 2-4
PH is 7.4
TA is 100 (Why do most resources say ideal range is 80 - 120, except for TFP?) is 100 high?
Calcium is 260
CYA I can’t figure out because the solution isn’t cloudy and the dot never disappears even when filled to the top.

Please help- I am at my wits end with this. The pool builders were here yesterday fixing stuff and they literally could not figure it out. That didn’t help.

 

[mknauss]

Your water chemistry does not look like you should have that level of scale. How are you testing your water chemistry?

 

[Ilovepools]

I am using a Taylor test kit (K-2005).

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

What sample size are you using for the CH test, 10 mL or 25 mL?

Are you able to collect any of the flakes? If you can, put a couple drops of MA on them. If they fizzle, we can confirm they are calcium.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

CYA I can’t figure out because the solution isn’t cloudy and the dot never disappears even when filled to the top.

This indicates your CYA level is less than 30 ppm. Unrelated to the issue with flakes, TFP recommends a CYA level of 60-80 ppm for SWG pools. If you have the Taylor K-2005 test kit as opposed to the K-2006, you'll need to add a FAS/DPD (drop-based) test kit for free chlorine (see Taylor K-1515). The OTO (color match) test is not accurate and cannot read levels greater than 5 ppm.

 

[mknauss]

If you continue to see scale flakes, reduce your TA to 80 ppm and they should reduce.

 

[Ilovepools]

If you continue to see scale flakes, reduce your TA to 80 ppm and they should reduce.

Thank you. The person that opens and closes our pool and was formerly the Chem guy for our pool builder said the exact same thing - also to lower saturation to -0.2.

 

[Ilovepools]

I just wanted to provide an update. We added two bottles of Clorox descaler, waited overnight. Then started to mitigate the ph and alkalinity. We brought the ph down to 7.2 and the alkalinity to 80ppm. We have tried our hardest to balance at these levels and it’s been a a little over a month and no white flakes! Our pool guy said the trick is to make it a corrosive environment that calcium can thrive in.