New pool owner - questions - black algae and pop-ups

[jtb33]

Hi guys. So I'm new to the forum and recently bought my first home with a pool. I'm in Phoenix, AZ. The pool is a nice in-ground pool and was in OK condition when we bought it. Built by Dolphin Pools within the last 3 years, spec's are: 15,150 gallons, a P4 salt system, magnasweep in-floor cleaning system, pebbletec finish, waterfall with grotto and rock slide. Has a large play-step with a water fountain feature on it and some umbrella sleeves. The kids love it. Also has the full goldline wireless system and a cool multi-color LED lighting system. It uses a Hayward C5025 filter (with 4 cartridges) and a 2HP Hayward tristar pump. I'm sure this was a rather expensive pool.

Anyway, it had a couple black widows living in the grotto, which i was able to get rid of easily. I cleaned the filter cartridges (they were super-dirty) and the strips were breaking, so I just ordered four new ones to replace them. It did take a couple HOURS to clean them out, and man was that disgusting! Yuck! I also cleaned out the salt cartridge (needed it badly) and had to re-solder a lead on the back of the Goldline mainboard as it seemed to have popped. Works now.

Water is clear. I run the pump 11 hours a day; from 8AM until 7PM every day. There are a lot of small leaves that get into the pool - the kind that can float AND sink, so often, there are leaves that are in the middle of the water.

Issue 1: So, the pop-up heads seem to often only pop-up about halfway. If I manually push down on them, they always come back up all the way. It's not just a couple - seems to be all of them - almost as if they don't have enough water pressure to pop them up. They rotate normally as well. I did open up the gearbox thing by the filter and it was perfectly clean and everything moved freely.

Issue 2: Seems we have some black algae forming. Pool tested:

FC: 5.0
pH: 7.6
TA: 180 (working on reducing it by adding muratic acid a little a time at night so as not to affect pH)
CYA: 40 (just increased it yesterday to ~70)
Phosphates: 400
Salt: 3800

So today, I brushed the areas with the black algae with my SS wire brush and then set my pool to super-chlorinate for 14 hours tonight. As I understand it, I need to do that daily for several days.

So, any feedback on issue 1 and issue 2 is much appreciated. I'll see if I can get some pics of the pool this week if anyone's interested.

Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

Hey neighbor.

You would be better off using liquid chlorine to raise your FC than the SWG. The SWG is just to slow and it also wears put the cell faster.

have you read the pool school articles on how to properly go through the shock process and defeat algae? To properly do it you need your own good test kit with the FAS-DPD chlorine test.

Do you have any valves that are diverting some of the flew away from the floor system?

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone

 

[jtb33]

I did - thanks. I ended up scrubbing the two large areas of black algae (they were about a FOOT in diameter) with a SS brush and then putting trichlor/granulated shock on those areas and in the skimmer. In less than 24 hours, they were gone. I've kept the chlorine levels high the past few days to make sure it's gone.

So still:

So, if I have the return valve opened up any more than 1/8 of the way (with 7/8 passed to the pop-ups) the pop-up heads seem to often only pop-up about halfway. If I manually push down on them, they always come back up all the way. It's not just a couple - seems to be all of them - almost as if they don't have enough water pressure to pop them up. They rotate normally as well. I did open up the gearbox thing by the filter and it was perfectly clean and everything moved freely. Thoughts?

 

[jblizzle]

So is there a problem leaving all the flow to the pop ups?

Did that not used to be required?

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone

 

[jtb33]

Well, that's what I'm asking. Is it a problem to have the returns valve completely closed?

My biggest issue with the pool is that I have a lot of palo verde leaves (very small - about 1/8 of an inch) that don't float to the top nor sink to the bottom - they don't end up in the skimmer - they just float around between the floor and the surface. Not sure if that's a result of not having the returns on, or if it's another issue entirely.

Thread with pics (and video!) on that here: getting-non-floating-non-sinking-leaves-out-ugh-t49268.html

 

[jblizzle]

The whole point of the pop ups is to keep the debris suspended in the water so that it eventually ends up bring filtered out.

I had one at my previous house and it did a decent job as the only source of cleaning. Although there were a couple spots where some dirt would collect.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone

 

[jtb33]

The whole point of the pop ups is to keep the debris suspended in the water so that it eventually ends up bring filtered out.

I had one at my previous house and it did a decent job as the only source of cleaning. Although there were a couple spots where some dirt would collect.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone

Hmmm... well then, I guess they are doing their job really, really well, but something else isn't filtering them out. I have the valve for the skimmer and drain set to about 55% main bottom drains (there are two) and 45% skimmer.

If they are suspended, what is supposed to filter them? (sorry if these questions are basic/idiotic, I'm a new pool owner).

 

[jblizzle]

Honestly I am not sure. I suppose some is supposed to go both ways.

Do you have an alternative method for cleaning? Maybe just used the wall returns for awhile and then vacuum it up ... kind of defeats the point of having the popups though.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone