Mustard Algae Gone?

[MarshysMaster]

I'm pretty sure we had a case of mustard algae (clear water but brown residue on the bottom, looked like dirt). I have been slamming the pool for more than 2 weeks now. Went through a period when the water turned cloudy, but now it's crystal clear and there is very little residue when I brush. (Just a hint of cloudiness in places) For a few days now the chlorine level falls 2ppm overnight. I've been waiting for that magic 1ppm as suggested in the OFCT, but it's just not happening.

Should I go ahead with the final mustard-algae-level slam now? Or should I keep waiting for the OFCT to show a drop of 1ppm or less?

 

[Azgirl71]

Welcome to TFP. Are you vacuuming out the brown stuff? This is important to get anything out of the water. Have you scrubbed ladders and anything else in the water that could be hiding algae?

 

[MarshysMaster]

I have been brushing and vacuuming at least once per day. I've generally done the walls and ladder but am waiting until I take the pool to mustard/yellow algae level of shock to do the real deep cleaning (underneath ladder steps, etc.). The hubby did remove the pool light a few days ago and released a whole bunch of algae into the pool. It took a couple of days to get rid of that and the OFCT showed a loss of 4-5ppm during that time. But now I'm back to a stubborn 2ppm, which is where it had been for a couple days prior to the pool light fiasco.

The hubby wants to call 2ppm good enough and proceed on to the mustard level shock and scrub stage, but I'm worried about getting things right. I DO NOT want to have to do this again. And I suspect that it was a cavalier attitude about pool care that got us here in the first place. On the other hand, I don't want to be foolish, maintaining these extremely high levels of chlorine unnecessarily. It's expensive because we lose a lot of FC to sunlight during the day. (CYA is about 60. Yesterday we went from 26.5ppm to 16.5ppm during the day.)

 

[Azgirl71]

You could take it to mustard Alger level if you want, but I would say you still have a ways to go. You should only be losing 2-4 ppm to sunlight generally. Also each time it drops below SLAM level it needs to be brought back up as soon as possible. That is why it is important to test every couple of hours if you can. If you cannot then you can overshoot FC level in the morning to account for loss, so it does not drop below SLAM level.

 

[ouachita]

I was in the same boat and had to go ahead and remove the ladder. Even with me getting in the pool and brushing under the rungs it still had algae up in the crevices. Actually I ended up removing everything removable. It was about 5 days after that that I passed the OCLT. Also if you have any water features, slide, etc... run them as well.

 

[MarshysMaster]

Thanks everyone. I just stocked up on bleach again and will try to scrub everything.

 

[MarshysMaster]

Update: After over 3 weeks at shock level, I finally passed the OCLT, took it up to mustard/yellow algae levels along with a good scrubbing, and have been enjoying a crystal clear pool for about a month now. This is first time in years that we have had a month of headache-free pool care! I am diehard TFP now. A lifetime donation is the least I could do to thank y'all for virtually walking me through my harrowing battle with mustard algae. I hope I never, ever have to do it again!