Algae - Vacation plan of action

Jump to latest Follow Reply
A

annc

0
Jul 16, 2010
3
I have to go away for 4 days (starting today), and I am dealing with an algae problem. The next few days are supposed to be very hot here (high 90s). Yesterday the water was clear but there was quite a bit of algae on the bottom. The ph was a little low, so I brought it up to 7.2. I put in 2-128 oz bottles of bleach last night and today the water is cloudy blue green. I was thinking that to keep at least some chlorine in the pool I would fill two floaters with some pucks, and I have one leftover frog bac pac that I could put in. My CYA is already high at about 70 but I don't want to leave the pool with no chlorine as I can imagine what it will be like when I return. Does this sound like a good plan? Are there any better ideas? I have a 15,500 gal above ground vinyl pool.
 
Unfortunately you are in a tough situation. When I first read your post quickly I thought you were leaving in 4 days, and I thought "OK you need to buckle down and really attack that algae and you will probably be able to lick it before you leave." As it is you really don't have much of an option.

The pucks will add to your CYA and wont be able to put a dent in the algae as the FC they release will be rapidly consumed.
The frog will have the same result as the pucks plus adding copper :thumbdown:

Defeating the algae is going to take a few days of attention. Do you have a friend that owes you a favor?

Otherwise you best bet is probably bring the pool up to shock level with bleach, add the pucks, and hope for the best. Most likely you will return to lots of algae.

At that point you should drain 1/3 of you pool and refill to get the CYA down to a reasonable level and attack the algae in earnest with liquid chlorine according to the "How to Shock" article in pool school.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I figured that the pucks wouldn't really kill the algae, I am hoping that perhaps it will leave at least some measure of chlorine in the pool. As for the frog bac pac, does the actual bac pac have copper in it? I did not replace the mineral portion of the frog system this year. I kept the used mineral cartridge in place because I have a few bac pacs to use up, but I am assuming that the minerals are used up since you are supposed to replace it every year. If the bac pac has copper in it, I won't use it.
 
the bac pac doesn't have copper in it.
I'd go ahead and use the tablets or bac pac, and then replace some water when you get back to lower your CYA level.
Do you have a solar cover? Raising the water up to shock level and covering it should do the trick.
 
No, unfortunately I don't have a solar cover. I guess there's no kind of slow release unstabilized chlorine. That would be helpful; at least I wouldn't be adding to my already high CYA.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply