I've been getting very faint but noticeable green algae on a few of my walls and in a couple of spots on the floor. I brush it off with my stainless steel brush. I keep my liquid chlorine level and pH pretty consistent. What gives? Do I have to use an algaecide?
Very light algae on walls
- Thread starter blazeone
- Start date
- May 3, 2014
- 59,789
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Did this "SLAM" earlier in the summer, of course it worked but it also came back within a couple of weeks. Maybe from the rain we get? The water has been anything but blue and clear.
You need to get mean and kill that algae for once and for all.
Just for demonstration, because I have no idea of the exact numbers, let's say algae doubles every 24 hours. And let's say it isn't visible until you have 3 million of them.
So you brush and chlorinate and kill the huge majority of the algae and you have only the faintest traces left, lurking behind a light or inside the ladder. Hardly any. Maybe 2,000 spores. That's nowhere near the 3 million you need to even see the stuff. And tomorrow you have 4,000. Then 8,000. Then 16,000, 32,000, 64,000, 128,000, 256,000, and boom, now you see if because all-of-the-sudden, you have 512.000 spores. And you get busy with the bleach and the brush but this time you stop with 100,000 left. And in just a couple days, algae again. So what you need to do is kill it all. That means hit it again and again and again. Never let it have the time to reproduce. That's called a SLAM Process Shock Level And Maintain. The M is the critical part. Too many people think a one-time megadose of chlorine will do it. It doesn't. The high chlorine levels have to be Maintained.
Algaecide works better as a preventative than as a cure in the same way that cleaning surfaces with Lysol stops the spread of colds but drinking it won't cure one.
Just for demonstration, because I have no idea of the exact numbers, let's say algae doubles every 24 hours. And let's say it isn't visible until you have 3 million of them.
So you brush and chlorinate and kill the huge majority of the algae and you have only the faintest traces left, lurking behind a light or inside the ladder. Hardly any. Maybe 2,000 spores. That's nowhere near the 3 million you need to even see the stuff. And tomorrow you have 4,000. Then 8,000. Then 16,000, 32,000, 64,000, 128,000, 256,000, and boom, now you see if because all-of-the-sudden, you have 512.000 spores. And you get busy with the bleach and the brush but this time you stop with 100,000 left. And in just a couple days, algae again. So what you need to do is kill it all. That means hit it again and again and again. Never let it have the time to reproduce. That's called a SLAM Process Shock Level And Maintain. The M is the critical part. Too many people think a one-time megadose of chlorine will do it. It doesn't. The high chlorine levels have to be Maintained.
Algaecide works better as a preventative than as a cure in the same way that cleaning surfaces with Lysol stops the spread of colds but drinking it won't cure one.
What are your chlorine and CYA levels? Those are the only chemicals that matter for algae.