question on algacide....

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pinstripepat

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Jul 11, 2012
57
Dallas, Texas
Hello,

ok, I am a first year pool owner in may 2012. All summer I have been fighting boatmen and backswimmer bugs. I have spent much time on here and have used the wonderful advice and now have my pool water wonderful. However, from the very beginning I was told that if you have boatmen it is because there is algae somewhere. get rid of algae (even nacent) and you get rid of boatmen. But other tell me that is not true that they have had boatmen while they were shocking.
So I shocked (bleach) and everything looked great. I have maintained a 6-7 FC for a few months now and water looks great. However, the boatmen still appear one or two a day. i get them with the net and kill them and move on. I am just curious. Since my good FC levels are still not detering them is it time now to use the biogaurd all 60 algae preventer. I have wanted to stay away from uneeded chemicals since joining this forum, however, I am tired of fighting the few bugs everyday. Normally, no biggie, but my wife and son have both been bit and they say it hurts.
Another interesting thing I am noticing is that those with darker colored pools seem to be the ones with issues as the bugs are possibly drawn to the color as they are a pond/creek type bug.

So would you start to use algacide now or not?

Thanks,
 
Bama Rambler said:
I would try borates before I tried algaecide.
Click to expand...
Here's something weird. I hadn't seen a Boatman or Backswimmer in the pool for years until a week after I added Borates last year. I was surprised to see two Backswimmers swimming merry as you please in my freshly borated pool. I hate those things. I know the theory about surface tension and how it short circuits their attached air bubble but these two mutants must not have gotten the memo. :eek:
 
One followup then.....we had rain last week for what seemed to be the first time in a month...nothing new in texas right, but me being a new pool owner, i don't know the affect of rain on my water...please help me....i was carrying a 6-7 FC for ever as stated above well right after i posted this i tested my water and it was a shocking 3-3.5 with my SWG set the same. After reading about rain affects on pool chemistry....could the rain be why my FC dropped to 3-3.5 from 6-7 and has seemed to stay there? I am at a loss, certainly my SWG is not going bad three months old (i hope). Can someone help me out? Thanks....that may be why the boatmen re-appeared.

PS...it is raining today and expected for tomorrow as well then back to upper 90s and sunny rest of week. Should i shock after the rain?
 
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