Algae Bloom?

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kevin11

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May 26, 2015
60
Northeast,Alabama
I noticed the last few days the pool has not been sparkling and crisp like it usually is. The water has felt a little slick or greasy to me. I have been needing to add CYA for awhile but it has rained solid for the last 2.5wks. When I opened the pool it had 0 CYA. I had some issues with the sock busting and I pulled everything back out. Added more and probably didn't add enough to get me to 40CYA. It's been burning through the bleach because I never added enough CYA to the pool. I have never felt like I got a good test result with this test. With that said I have been dosing the pool to 6.0fc at night and I have let the pool drop below 2.0fc too many times. Between 3 kids swimming all day, brutal heat for 2 weeks, followed by 2wks of Solid rain their is definitely something in the pool. Hopefully I caught it early. Started slamming last night. When I did the CYA test it barely turned cloudy. So I really have no clue what it is. Do I slam then add CYA or add it while I slam and shoot for those new numbers? How much would you add?
Current numbers.
7/4/15 9:30pm.
Fc 2.5 raised to 12.0
cc 0.0
ph 7.6
alk 80
ch 50
7/5/15
11:50am
fc 6.5 raised to 12.0
cc 0.0
3:00pm
fc 6.5 raised to 12.0
cc 0.0
4:35 pm
fc 8.5 raised to 12.0
cc 0.0

Am I on the right track?
 
If you did your CYA test recently and it was barely cloudy, you could add stabilizer to target 30ppm CYA and start dosing your bleach as if CYA is at 30ppm. Measure CYA again in a week. At that time you may want to increase your CYA to ~50ppm so you lose less FC to the sun.
 
Yep, you are doing the right stuff.

Epro has it right on the CYA. Adding some now is fine and will help protect FC from the sun during the day. Keep slamming. It is getting steadily better holding FC.
 
5:45pm fc 8.0 cc 0.5 raised to 12.0
added 70 something ounces of CYA in a sock. Lost count. I'm gonna blame my wife on that one. As long as she doesn't know I did. I will be okay! It was less than it called for but will wait a week and recheck.
6:55 fc 11.0 cc 0.0 raised to 12.0
8:25 fc 11.0 cc 0.0 raised to 12.0
about to run out and check again. Hopefully this will be a quick slam. Does anyone think tomorrow would be too early to check for an onclt? Thanks for the input. It's reassuring. We have only had a pool for a little over a year.
 
Doesn't ever hurt anything to check OCLT, might be a tad early. Good that it held 11 the last couple of tests. This is going to be pretty quick. Mostly because you tested and added so often, spread that out over a few days and you would be a few days down the road. :) Have you brushed the pool? Do you have a light? Algae likes to hide behind lights. What about a pool sweep, mine had some algae inside and got evicted.
 
Yes, it has been brushed. I brush pretty often. This pool is pretty old and your basic vinyl pool. No light, one skimmer, and one return. I did brush both ladders. What is a pool sweep? Are you referring to a pool brush? Or automatic cleaner? I have to vaccum the old fashioned way by dragging out hoses and manually doing it. I have huge pine trees all around my property line and every storm blows pine needles and junk in the pool. We have had at least one good storm a day for the past two weeks. Not my trees or I would have already cut them down.
 
Checked at 10:00pm fc 13.0 cc 0.0
1st test at 12:00am fc 13.5 cc 0.5
2nd test at 12:00am fc 13.0 cc 0.5 slowly adding drops at the end. Wasn't sure about the first test.
Is this testing error on my part? What about the cc coming and going? Does it do that?
somehow I over shot my 12.0 dosing. Maybe different % in the bleach. All bleach was bought today. Walmart 8.25%.
Just trying to make sure I'm understanding everything about this pool.
 
BuckeyeChris It was at 8:25pm fc 11.0 cc 0.0 added 30oz to Raise it to 12.0 fc
todays tests 7/6/15
11:40am fc 9.5 cc 0.0 raised to 12.0 fc
3:00pm fc 11.0 cc 0.0 raised to 12.0 fc
7:20pm fc 11.5 cc 0.0 raised to 12.5 fc
It seems to be holding steady now. All CYA is dissolved I added yesterday. Squeezed the sock every time I went outside. Will check OCLT in the morning.
Couple questions. It looks like I have some dirt or dead algae in the pool that needs vacuumed. Do I go ahead and vaccum it out or wait because I added the CYA? I think I read somewhere on here not to backwash for a week after adding CYA. It usually looks like this after the kids are in and out of the pool for a few days. I vacuum every 3 or 4 days. How do I distinguish if it's just dirt or dead algae? The concrete pad needs pressure washed but I keep putting it off because I don't want to get the pool nasty.
 

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Vacuum it. Sometimes hard to tell the difference between dead algae and dirt, except there is usually quite a bit more. The don't backwash the filter advice was before we started advocating adding CYA in a sock. The filter used to catch it so you didn't want to backwash it out before it dissolved. Now that it is dissolved you are good to go.
 
pooldv thanks for keeping up with me. I'm pretty positive it will pass OCLT in the morning. It's got that sparkle back like it had before it turned dull. I'm still puzzled by the cc'scoming and going. I had 0.5cc one test early on. Then numerous test with 0.0cc. Then one test late last night with 0.5cc. Just trying to figure out if it was error on my part or the pool goes through that during a slam.
 
Slamming once again. This pool has been burning thru the bleach. Pool is still sparkling crystal clear. Got in the pool a few days ago and the walls were slick. I may have not passed the OCLT on 7/7/15 like I thought I had. I may have been getting falsely high fc readings from improper testing. Yesterday, I added enough bleach to get me to a slam level of 16.0 fc(cya 40). When I checked it I got a fc 17.5. Retested and got 15.0fc. After lots of reading, I made sure to have exactly a 10ml sample and dropping correctly. I may have just been keeping algae at bay because I thought I was being diligent in adding bleach twice a day. So I may have not got rid of everything the last time. It's not bad but know something is not right the way it's been burning thru the bleach. Brushed pool, brushed steps, cleaned all around the skimmer. Back of the weir gate was slick. Think that's what it's called. I don't think I have any mustard algae? Nothing on the walls other than being a little slick. Full sun most of the day. I did notice a spot by the skimmer on the floor where it drops off to the deep end. It was a small spot that was greenish/brownish in color. Would mustard algae be all over the place? Just trying to figure out where I'm going wrong. Haven't been to confident in what I'm doing lately.
Current numbers
7/24/15 10:00pm + 242 oz to 16.0 fc + brushed
7/25/15 2:30pm fc 8.0 cc 0.5 + 242 oz to 16.0 fc
4:30pm fc 12.5 cc 0.0 + 121oz to 16.6 fc
6:30pm fc 15.0 cc 0.0 +30 oz to 16.0 fc
8:00pm fc 15.5 cc 0.0 + 30 oz to 16.5 fc
 
I had to slam a few weeks ago. Water was clear but had a dozen or so algae spots here and there. Also had algae behind my light and in my pool vac.

I did a swim-n-slam, kept FC just under shock level for my CYA and we swam every day for a week and a half or so. I much easier to brush in the pool. When I finished the slam i raised my target FC and now I keep it at 8 or 9. We are swimming a lot every day and even more on the weekends. Any little slip up and FC can drop below minimum and give algae a start. So, I am just going a little higher. My pool was ridiculously clear for 3 years and now it is just a little clearer still. There is a pic of my foot in my build thread in sig and you can't even tell it is in the water.

Give it a quick slam and brush everything to expose the algae to the chlorine and you'll be good to go.
 
I will let fc drift down a little and let kids swim about noon then bring it back up after they get out. Last time they were bummed out because I wouldn't let them swim for 4 days while I slammed. Should I take the ladders out and check under the steps? I have brushed under them but can't see under them too good.
 
That is probably not a bad idea. Or get a nice hand held scrub brush and scrub them a bunch. I had some algae in the mortar between the rocks under my waterfall and I scrubbed those areas 4 or 5 times a day with a handheld brush. That mortar hasn't been so clean!
 
I have a bunch of tile that needs a good scrubbing if your ever down in BAMA and want to help out!
pooldv said:
I scrubbed those areas 4 or 5 times a day with a handheld brush. That mortar hasn't been so clean!
Click to expand...
I think I finally solved my problem. Got in the pool, mask on and brush in hand. Found some black junk under one set of stairs. I couldn't get to it good so I got out and pulled both sets of stairs. Both stairs had black spots in numerous places. I guess I did not get them completely the last time because of all the grids under the steps. I learned something today. Cleaned them with a bleach water mixture and left them out of the pool. At 7:00pm added bleach to 16.0fc and brushed the pool. At 10:00pm checked again and fc was still at 16.0. Hopefully that will take car of everything. Every inch of that pool has been brushed and checked.
 
This slam is testing my patience. Put the ladders back in and the water got cloudy. Don't know if it was from the white steps or algae getting worse. When I cleaned the steps white stuff came off the steps. I sprayed them off good I thought. The poles of the steps hold water. Would they have Algae in them? If so how would I clean it out.
 

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