The other day when cleaning my pool on the deep end, I noticed some spots in the deep end of my pool (gunite). Mostly following the pattern along the bottom edge where dirt and some debris tends to accumulate. Although it doesn't accumulate often because I'm anal about keeping my pool clean. Anyways, I decided to put on some goggles and swim down there to get a closer look. When I did, I noticed it was more spots than I thought. Now here's the thing, they look dark green to me, not actually black. So I'm not sure if this is black algae, but I just assumed so. I got a very stiff bristled grout brush and went to work scrubbing all the little spots on the deep end. It took a good bit of elbow grease and scrubbing to get the majority of the spots off and figured bleach would kill the rest.
Fast forward a few days later, I got back in the pool and noticed the spots were there again...ughhhh! Anyways, I scrubbed them again as best I could (not easy to do in the deep end when you have to continuously come up for oxygen lol). I shocked the pool after this again, but with triple the dose. It was getting late/dark to get a full set of results, so I figured I'd just dump 3 gallons of 10% bleach in there (should bring my FC to around 15ish). I will try to get a full set of results this afternoon when I get home. I plan on going buy a stainless steel brush today after work and use that instead.
My questions are:
1. Does this sound like black algae?
2. Is there anything else that I could put in there afterwards (like a black algaecide) to help prevent it from coming back since I've read that black algae is a curse and it never really goes away because it's still in the pores of the plaster?
It's kind of freaking me out, just the thought of it possibly always returning. But then again, I'm not even sure if it is indeed black algae. Most of the spots I saw were about a pencil eraser in size or a little smaller. Any other advice besides SLAMing and brushing vigorously?
Fast forward a few days later, I got back in the pool and noticed the spots were there again...ughhhh! Anyways, I scrubbed them again as best I could (not easy to do in the deep end when you have to continuously come up for oxygen lol). I shocked the pool after this again, but with triple the dose. It was getting late/dark to get a full set of results, so I figured I'd just dump 3 gallons of 10% bleach in there (should bring my FC to around 15ish). I will try to get a full set of results this afternoon when I get home. I plan on going buy a stainless steel brush today after work and use that instead.
My questions are:
1. Does this sound like black algae?
2. Is there anything else that I could put in there afterwards (like a black algaecide) to help prevent it from coming back since I've read that black algae is a curse and it never really goes away because it's still in the pores of the plaster?
It's kind of freaking me out, just the thought of it possibly always returning. But then again, I'm not even sure if it is indeed black algae. Most of the spots I saw were about a pencil eraser in size or a little smaller. Any other advice besides SLAMing and brushing vigorously?