new + black algae questions

[kep150]

Hello,

just found this forum while looking for a little help regarding some black algae in my pool. doing some research it seems there are a few options. I would prefer not to do the avenue of daily scrubbing for 2-4 weeks and getting the chemical levels way high (or perhaps adding other chemicals making the pool unsafe for people and pets). I have 4 little kids and 3 dogs, so it would be tough to manage.

I'm thinking about just draining the pool and washing. I'm looking for any advice during this process that would be a pitfall. It's a saltwater pool, about 15,000 gallons, with a cartridge filter system. What I've come across online details doing an "acid wash" and pressure washing. I've tried pressure washing with the pool full, but it doesn't seem to work at all.

Do I just use a pump up sprayer to spray the pool with muratic acid after draining?

Could I use bleach? I wanted another avenue in case the acid caused staining or erosion.

when filling back up, are there any potential issues to watch out for? I've always just monitored the water, I've never drained and restarted from new.

I've always had problems with high pH, maybe due to my chocolate labs using the pool for a wash tub after they've dug enormous holes... not sure, but I think this was part of the problem with the algae growth. Also, water quality is really good. The problem started this past winter when my saltwater generator was failing. I've since replaced, and chlorine is all good. regulary check stabilizer, etc as well from the pool store. that's the worst of it.. the water is crystal clear which makes the black specks standout even worse!

thanks for any help!

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

The first thing to do is to read the article on black algae in the Solving Problems section of Pool School. In particular, there is a test in there to confirm that you actually have black algae, which is important to do before continuing.

Draining and washing the pool (with either acid or bleach) is unlikely to remove true black algae, and runs some risk of damaging the pool (depending on the kind of pool and height of the local water table).

Is the black algae in a few small areas or is it everywhere on the pool? If limited to small areas, rubbing with a trichlor tablet tends to work.

 

[kep150]

thanks, I will check out that article.

It's an in ground pool (gunnite?) what I believe are the spots are all very small individually, but spread over about 1/3 of the pool. They're much more prevalent on the shallow side of the pool. I sat on the bottom today with a stainless brush and scrubbed, and only the top portion of these spots came off, and it wasn't easy at that. what did come off looked somewhat fibrous. I had thought it may be some type of mineral deposit with my dogs doing what they do all the time. that's the other thing... in general, all of these spots are at the bottom of the pool, or around the radius of the bottom to the wall. There are no spots on the walls of the pool themselves. They were also around the tile at the steps of the pool.

I'll will try those trichlor tablets though. I guess that's a "no harm no foul" if it's not black algae?

 

[mickey4paws]

B

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