Dilemma - need advice on what to do with this algae

[mrshanes]

I have an AquaRite SWG and I've never had any problems until now. I had to go to Ireland this past week and while away, my wife calls and mentions that she and the kids would like to swim, but the water seems cloudy. Getting service error on the heater also. I haven't cleaned the filter lately, so I figured, the filter is dirty, and the water flow is very low. I had her bump the filter handle and told her it would still be OK to swim. Fast forward to this weekend when I return. I check the SWG panel and no lights are on. LDC display is still working though. Did some quick research and it seems like the same problems most people have - voltage limiter is probably bad on the panel. I haven't taken it apart yet, but the symptoms seem to match. Anyway, It's now 9/23 and I have an algae outbreak - my first one. I dumped some bleach into the pool to get my level up to 15, but that won't last long. I'm wondering if it makes sense to go ahead and close the pool and just forget about this. Will the cold weather kill the algae and the opening will still be easy? I don't want to dump a bunch of money into this now, only to swim a couple more times before closing it. But, if it's going to make opening in the spring a headache, I don't want that either. Which way should I go?

Thanks,
Shane

 

[Stuamurr]

Treat the algae now, if you don't you'll be opening to a green swamp and it will be much harder and more expensive both in chemicals and time, start the shock process and do the OCLT.

Regards
Stuart

 

[BoDarville]

mrshanes:

Another vote for shocking now to remove the algae. Colder water and the shorter days of fall & winter will cause the algae to go into a dormant state of slow growth but will not kill it. Therefore, it will be much easier to deal with it now in terms of your time and the smaller amount of bleach required to kill the algae versus waiting until spring. If you leave it until spring, the algae is going to grow exponentially as water temperatures warm up and the days get longer. As a result, it will take considerably more bleach and time to kill it.

Before going through the shock process, do the following prep work:

• 1. Test CYA. You will need to know what this is so you can determine the appropriate FC shock target

• 2. Lower the pH to around 7.2 (makes the chlorine more aggressive as a sanitizer)

Then begin the shock process. Once the shock process is underway, ignore the pH until the shock process is done. In addition to running the pump throughout the shock process, you will need to brush the pool at least daily until the shock process is complete. Also keep an eye on filter pressure and clean / backwash if necessary.

 

[mrshanes]

Just to give a quick update, I did go ahead and go through the shock process to clear up the pool. It wasn't too bad, so it only took a few days. In the meantime, I got the new $3 voltage limiter and soldered it into the circuit board on the SWG panel and it was up and running again. I ran it for a few days to ensure it was indeed working. All is good now. Closed the pool this past weekend as the water temp was down to 60, so it's all over until next year
Thanks for the advice.
Shane