Starting from the beginning, last season I had what I thought was some type of algae. Pool store kept selling me chemicals and talking about chlorine demand, nothing worked and finally I changed the sand in my filter and all the water. It helped and pool was clear until we pulled the cover back this spring. It stunk bad and had white chunks floating around in the water?? This was the point I heard from a friend about this web site TFP. Read through pool school and water chemistry, got a test kit TF1000 and started to work. It took a while, but I got the pool crystal clear, maintaining chorline levels at about 5 to 7 ppm, PH7.5 CYA 60 and everything was great. We had some friends over and one of the children had a life jacket on which I found out later had been in a lake. I immeadiatly shocked the pool up to about 26 ppm and you may not believe it, but I could tell by the way the water looked I was in trouble again. It had kind of a fuzzy look, no longer the crystal clear it had been. Now with this being end of season and I use the 3" tablets in an automatic chorlinator my CYA has increased to about 120. Using the pool calculator I am presently doing mustard algae shock at 64 ppm and it drops to about 40 ppm over night, brushing every morning and evening. I top off my pool with well water ran through a filter, I think they call it a bobby? just so you know all the facts. My PH keeps falling from 7.5 to 7.2 takes about a week. I airate and get it back up and repeat pretty much weekly. My Calcium hardness is about 200 and TA about 120. Another thing that is wierd is the foaming on top of the water. Last year I told pool store about this and they look at me like I'm crazy. When I airate it is like the aireation brings out the algae or whatever it is and the chlorine can kill it. I get white foam on top of the water and blue greenish stringy stuff in the skimmer basket. I had above ground pools for years and never had this kind of problems, this is my first in ground, but the principles should be similar. I just can not get this stuff or algae or whatever it is to go away. I sure I'm missing something, but getting frustrated, any ideas?
Reoccuring problem not sure it is algae??
- Thread starter kmwilli58
- Start date
You probably won't be able to effectively shock your pool until you lower the CYA level some. And with that ~40 percent C loss overnight, you definitely need to shock it.
I'd suggest you shoot for a CYA of 30-40.
I'd suggest you shoot for a CYA of 30-40.
Changing half the water and getting the cya down to 60'would make it a lot more manageable. If the cya wasn't so high the life jacket may not have been such a big deal. I have had kids bring in life jackets that they have used water skiing in a salt water bayou with no problems.
Quit using the pucks whatever you do.
Quit using the pucks whatever you do.
Yeah, your use of the pucks has caused the problem. Over and over, we find pools with VERY high CYA simply become unmanageable and the only practical solution is to reduce the CYA down below 60.
How much swim season do you have left? My bet is you are done for this year so you might try simply leaving the pool alone from this point 'til the Spring.
There are several instances here on the forum where neglected (read very dirty) pools may produce a bacteria that will consume ALL your CYA. Of course you will have a messy pool to clean up in the Spring but you may want to try it.
The other option is to drain 1/2 the pool and refill then retest CYA. drain and refill again if necessary until your CYA is around 50 and then close the pool as you normally would.
How much swim season do you have left? My bet is you are done for this year so you might try simply leaving the pool alone from this point 'til the Spring.
There are several instances here on the forum where neglected (read very dirty) pools may produce a bacteria that will consume ALL your CYA. Of course you will have a messy pool to clean up in the Spring but you may want to try it.
The other option is to drain 1/2 the pool and refill then retest CYA. drain and refill again if necessary until your CYA is around 50 and then close the pool as you normally would.
Sounds like everyone agrees I need to get the CYA levels down. Is this why I see so many people on TFP with SWGs? Every brand of Trychlor, pucks or sticks that I check contains CYA. So I am getting the idea there are only 2 ways to control CYA. Either SWG or add liquid chlorine, or bleach and dump the pucks. Any recommendations on a SWG?
Thanks
Thanks
Oh, sorry, yes I do use polyquat 60 algacide, 6 oz per week. But the foaming seems to really pick up when I add chlorine to shock. Last year when I added the lithium shock it was 1/2" thick and covered the entire surface of the water. I have definativly had much better luck staying away from the pool store, I just need to do some more learning.
Thanks
Thanks
If you get the cya under control the chlorine will be properly sanitizing the pool and you won't need the algaecide. If it takes 6 oz a week and you still aren't controlling the algae that is saying a lot about how ineffective the FC is with all that cya in the water.
Changing 1/2 water out tomorrow afternoon and NO MORE PUCKS!!
So you don't use algacide at all? Just chlorine and that's it?
So you don't use algacide at all? Just chlorine and that's it?
Thank you!!!! Sometimes I am just a touch HARDHEADED, but I understand quite a bit more today than I did just 3 days ago. You can use algacide, but it can also cause problems. When you say in Pool School Chlorine is the best sanitizer you're not kidding. Changed out 1/2 the water and CYA is now 60 PH 7.5 CH340, hard water in Indiana & TA 240, FC 21 CC.5. water is clear and the auto chlorinator is empty, no pucks. Thanks for the advise and all the help.
If you look at the MSDS of clorox bleach, it's listed as an algicide as one of it's uses. As long as your FC level stays above the mark, you'll avoid algae. Once again....quit with the pucks.
Of coarse, I've still gotta convince my brother-in-law this for next year. He's all set on pucks as that's what he was told to use.
Let's hope I can sidetrack him somehow.
Of coarse, I've still gotta convince my brother-in-law this for next year. He's all set on pucks as that's what he was told to use.
Let's hope I can sidetrack him somehow.Will do, shocking now and already CC is down to .5. Anybody that uses puck should talk to me. I have been fighting this problem for 2 years now and thought I was doing the right things. Pool store had me doing phosphate treatments, changing water twice, algacides, change the sand in the filter, nothing worked for any length of time. I didn't think it was algae because I really didn't see any clinging to the walls, the water would just get cloudy until it was grey and smelled. All the time using the sticks and then pucks. After reading the information on the this web site I thought, okay get the pucks with the highest percentage of chlorine thinking they would have less CYA. Then made the mistake of thinking I could shock with high enough chlorine levels and fix it. I was reading, but not understanding, now with some help I starting to get some understanding. No one knows everything and that's the great thing about TFP it brings together many people that have a wealth of knowledge. Thanks.