Just bought a house and apparently a swamp!!

[AnnaK]

She didn't ask what to do in two weeks. She was curious as to what she could do now.

In two weeks she may have the electricity turned on, if not sooner. The realtor had given them the ok to go to the new place and do what they could with the pool, especially with an eye on managing mosquitoes. It's not too far a reach to speculate that they'll realize they need electrical power to really do any good and take steps to get it turned back on.

Then we can walk her through how to clean up a green swamp.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

That's the beauty of this forum, you'll get a multitude of opinions and not everyone will always agree. Nothing wrong with that, and the OP can decide which choice to make.

IMHO, I feel money spent on bleach at this point is money down the drain, without proper filtration via electricity. She can try adding bleach and stirring now, but in three+ weeks, she'll still have a green swamp on her hands when she closes on the house. TMO, take it or leave it.

 

[Denali]

I agree with Anne completely on this one. Killing the algae now and having it grow back and be exactly as it was when it started is better than letting the algae grow and reaching a point where it is very difficult to remove. If black algae is involved it is even more important to hit early.

If black algae is allowed to grow it gets harder and harder to get rid of. Mixing chlorine in a pool is not that tough. Use a pool brush and mix it in. Not much different than removing any debris that is in the pool now. It may have the same amount of debris in there next time you get to the pool but that is still less than what would have been in there.

The longer you allow algae to grow, the more difficult it is to get rid of, IMO.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I see your point, if she's going to go over every day adding bleach and stirring/scooping then maybe she can successfully kill it...I envisioned pouring some in, stirring it up and coming back in a few days....

I just wanted to add, from what I understand Black Algae rarely if ever grows in AG and/or vinyl pools... that it's commonly misdiagnosed as black algae, but in fact it's something else entirely.

 

[launboy]

If the OP can get the bleach mixed in, which isn't hard, and gets to the point where floculant is added, then the pool will be a lot better off then if it was just let go. Also, you Can vacuum without electricity or a pool pump, with a siphon. When all of the algae has settled because of the floculant, then you can get a siphon going with the vacuum hose and suck all of the dead stuff out, it would be just like vacuuming to waste.

HTH,
Adam