I found another hiding place for algae

[AimeeH]

I know I've been preaching to folks about not just brushing but finding all the nooks and crannies to brush as well. So much so that I put my kids to work with a plastic kitchen brush. This advice comes from my own experience of finding puffs of green where you'd never suspect like where fiberglass steps meet the vinyl pool and behind light face plates.

Well I have a new one now. Our weir door on one of two skimmers broke off this evening. Now call me naive but I never knew that the side facing the skimmer (I can't really see that side when looking in skimmer) has about a 1 inch thick firm foam backing slid into clips that keep it in place. And guess what? Some algae spots. While my test of slightly agitating and adding bleach to confirm it wasn't natural green specks in an otherwise white or whitish foam wasn't very scientific......I'm pretty sure it was algae.

We've had crystal clear water since our post vacation SLAM about a month ago. But in general if my chlorine dips ever so slightly I ALWAYS get algae bloom returns. I'm learning why. Algae hides in wait.

I took pics and will post upon request but too lazy to resize and post otherwise since PC is out of commission and I'm relegated to IPad.

This has been a public service announcement, you may now carry on with normal programming.

 

[zea3]

The foam block in the back of my weir is full of algae too. When the weir broke off last summer I just left it off because of the algae.

 

[JamieP]

Can you get the foam out without the door breaking off?

***
Never mind... I just checked mine and figured it out. Fortunately, mine both looked clean, but that's a great thing to be aware of. Thank you for posting!

 

[AimeeH]

Can you get the foam out without the door breaking off?

Hmmmm. Never tried. I never knew it was there until the wier door broke off and was floating in the deep end of pool. Heck I couldn't understand why it was floating and not sinking when daughter called to me to tell me.

And as a side story, within the hour of that happening, my daughter had asked me if the skimmers had been emptied that day.....we get lots of frogs. I told her I wasn't sure if dad had done that or not (His ONLY pool care job). She was worried about critters like frogs and snakes. So I proceeded to explain to her that if something was in the skimmer it would stay in the skimmer because of the wier door design. Not 30minutes later she says "I think the door is broken....see....its floating in the deep end"

 

[JamieP]

Hmmmm. Never tried. I never knew it was there until the wier door broke off and was floating in the deep end of pool. Heck I couldn't understand why it was floating and not sinking when daughter called to me to tell me.

And as a side story, within the hour of that happening, my daughter had asked me if the skimmers had been emptied that day.....we get lots of frogs. I told her I wasn't sure if dad had done that or not (His ONLY pool care job). She was worried about critters like frogs and snakes. So I proceeded to explain to her that if something was in the skimmer it would stay in the skimmer because of the wier door design. Not 30minutes later she says "I think the door is broken....see....its floating in the deep end"

LOL! That's a great story! My kids wanted to know what I was laughing at.

FYI- I discovered that the foam is flexible so you can bend it to pull it from one side of clips to then dislodge it from the other side. It goes back in the same way.