Tell me how YOU have DEFEATED Mustard Algae?

[Jill]

So I am at the end of my 2nd shocking process for what I now believe is mustard algae. Hopefully tomoorw will be my 24 hours of shocking at 30 ppm of chlorine! Yay! Anyhow I was wondering what ya'll did/do to keep it at bay. I had it gone but once my FC got to 5.5, it clouded up the water in a few hours. My plan is to not let my FC go below 7.5 ever again! Should I use an algecide? What do I do with pool toys, life jackets, noodles? What about my skimmer and jets, do I have to somehow unscrew them and clean them? Tell me please how best to go about getting rid of this monster once and for all!!!!!!!!

 

[csigirl]

OMG! I just finished (i think) fighting off mustard algae...what a mess! I caved and bought Yellow out which worked well for me. I followed the directions to the letter and then continued shocking at mustard algae levels for almost 2 weeks afterwards just to be sure. ALL of my pool equipment, toys, etc were thrown in the pool during the entire process. I would use the brush to scrub and then toss it back in the pool. You have to scrub EVERY nook and cranny to be sure you get every last little speck of algae...they only thing I couldn't remove was the light because the screw broken off inside the fixture and I can't figure out how to get it out!
Invest in tons of LC and lots of advil because you'll be sore from scrubbing. Be religious about your FC levels!
Good Luck!

 

[JasonLion]

Take a look at the article in Pool School on defeating mustard algae. It goes through the entire list of steps. The main thing is to clean everywhere, including pool toys and bathing suits. Otherwise they can bring the mustard algae back.

 

[Butterfly]

Yep, everything gets cleaned!

pool-school/mustard_algae

 

[schertzy82]

I'm taking a shot in the dark here, but do you happen to use Aldi bleach? I've got a coworker who has battled a mustard algae outbreak every season since he put his pool up and he religiously follows the BBB method. And he uses Aldi bleach. I've read several threads on this forum from users who switched to the cheaper Aldi bleach and then started having algae problems. I've never used it, so I can't say for sure. But maybe there is some truth to it because as I said, I've seen it pop up several times on this forum.

 

[DWSPool]

We had an outbreak of mustard algae after I let the chlorine level get too low (< 2, I believe); got it up to mustard shock level for 24 hrs - then when the chlorine came down to normal levels, another outbreak - I did not pull the pool light out and clean the cavity the first time shocking - major mistake. Also, the sand filter didn't seem to be doing the job, so..... shocked at about 36 ppm for a couple of days, cleaned the light and cavity, added some DE to the sand filter, and viola', the outbreak abated - just in time for my daughter's wedding and 4th of July parties. No outbreak as of today, about 10 days after chlorine came down to normal levels. The moral of the story: be thorough.

 

[DWSPool]

Regarding Aldi bleach: I used it quite a bit last year and had no problems - as long as the chlorine level in your pool goes up roughly according to the pool calculator, it should be fine. All bleach has a shelf life, but the bottom line, are you getting your free chlorine level to the point it needs to be.