Foam on Pool

davida · May 25, 2012

I opened my pool last weekend and have a lot of foam. Yesterday I added salt and the foam went nuts. We scooped probably 30 gallons of heavy foam. A lot less today, but it's hanging around.

I used algicide in the fall and March to control algae. None since.
Shocked pool with liquid bleach. Raised it to safe level. Not sure what "shock level" means.
Water has gone from green to gray, to a bit cloudy. (cannot see the bottom of the deep end)
Added borax to bring up PH to about 7.3
Added CYA to skimmer (shoulda used a sock!)

Any advice would be appreciated.

David
16 x 32' inground, vinyl, SWG

JohnT · May 25, 2012

Welcome to TFP!

Shocking Your Pool might help.

Whatever is causing the foam should be eliminated by the chlorine if you maintain shock level as in the link.

It

davida · May 26, 2012

I found my chlorine had dropped way down. Raised it back to 4.5 and Calcium and foam is finally gone.
I did chicken out and go to my local pool stealership to double check my chemistry. He found my calcium to be far to low.

linen · May 26, 2012

Welcome to tfp, davida :wave:

What is your cya level?

JasonLion · May 26, 2012

Low CH is just fine with a vinyl pool.

davida · May 26, 2012

Thanks for the help guys. I think the pool shop just stole 50 bucks from me for the Dang calcium.. Told me it would suck the calcium out of my liner. He did print a nice water test to check my chemistry tho.
My CYA was low; I was thinking that I should add the CYA after clearing the water, as I'm backwashing daily. Now I know to use a sock!
John T had it right; I shocked it with 6 bags of powder and 5 gallons of bleach, foam cleared completely the next day. I did not anticipate how fast FC would fall

linen · May 26, 2012

Follow the instructions in that link JohnT posted. Your are not done with the shocking process until you meet all three criteria it lists (they are also in my sig). Liquid chlorine/bleach is the best way to chlorinate during the process. You will want ~ 30 ppm of cya in the pool to help the process. I would not trust the pool store to get a good number, see my sig for an appropriate test kit to get the job done fast and right.