Yellow algae, need help

[Newdude]

Just to be clear, when I was brushing and seeing clouds, that was about five minutes after I poured the chlorine in yesterday morning

2 unique and unrelated events. you were brushing up dead algae, which means there was very recently alive algae and you probably have a little more to go.

Stay the course. You got this !!!

If today/tomorrow's brushing comes up clear, move onto MA slam.

 

[smithkl]

Ok! One more regular SLAM day it is!

You might find this piece of information interesting. Before I say the word phosphate, let me say that I have done the reading assigned, and I know that phosphates really don’t matter if you keep everything else in balance. Having said that, our house water has a level of 1200 phosphates in it. We have our own water system in our neighborhood, and we have a lot of iron which turns the water brown. Everybody complains all the time about brown water, including me, so they add phosphates to clear it up. My phosphates were about 1000. I took my pool water and my house water in to Leslie‘s and that’s how I found out that the phosphates in the hose water were 1200. I called our water company to talk to them about it. They told me they add phosphates, and they believe they are doing that within safe levels. I tried to research online so I could make a case against that, mainly for the sake of my pool, but I really wasn’t able to find much. So this will be something I will be dealing with forever.

And so I guess I have to confess everything here, right? This is a no judgment site ?? I did one session of phosphate removal given all of the information I just mentioned above and the fact that I was struggling with the yellow. My phosphates are now 300. They will continue to rise because that’s the water that fills my pool. But I’m hoping to get on the TFP plan and never think about phosphates again. And, perhaps I am a test case for how removing phosphates does not work because I went from 1000 to 300 and still had new yellow growth.

When I get past this situation, I would love to ask a few more questions. How do I do that without being that annoying person that just won’t stop?

 

[PoolStored]

But I’m hoping to get on the TFP plan and never think about phosphates again.

Just do it.

When I get past this situation, I would love to ask a few more questions. How do I do that without being that annoying person that just won’t stop?

There are no annoying persons when you are trying to learn and are asking questions. We typically ask that people start a separate thread for each topic. AND to not create multiple threads on the SAME topic. Other than that, good to go!

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[Newdude]

let me say that I have done the reading assigned, and I know that phosphates really don’t matter if you keep everything else in balance.

Then procede how you wish, with your eyes open.

I believe they don't matter until they do. At some point on the high side, be it 2k or 5k, you'll have a runaway algae train when life happens and the FC dips. Given enough time, life will always happen. So I wouldn't worry about them until they were somewhere between 2k and 5k, but I would eventually treat them as insurance.

We typically ask that people start a separate thread for each topic. AND to not create multiple threads on the SAME topic

+1. Keep related stuffs related, and seperate things seperate.

 

[mgtfp]

We have our own water system in our neighborhood, and we have a lot of iron which turns the water brown. Everybody complains all the time about brown water, including me, so they add phosphates to clear it up. My phosphates were about 1000. I took my pool water and my house water in to Leslie‘s and that’s how I found out that the phosphates in the hose water were 1200. I called our water company to talk to them about it. They told me they add phosphates, and they believe they are doing that within safe levels.

That's interesting information. That means that you will have high iron levels in your pool, that is sequestered with phosphonic acid (I assume that's what the water company adds) to a certain degree.

You want to make sure that you don't create metal stains. Dissolved metals can fall out of solution and stain surfaces at high pH or high FC, most so at a combination of both.

That might be something to consider before going to MA-Slam. Maybe @JoyfulNoise has some insight there?

 

[smithkl]

Thank you for adding this information. I know the pH is high, because that’s what happens with the high FC. But I’m not supposed to add acid yet if I’m understanding the process correctly. That does make me nervous to think I could be creating stains.

 

[mgtfp]

You had mentioned earlier that you had puffing up material after adding chlorine. Was there a clear correlation, like no puffing before but puffing after adding chlorine? Wondering if that could have been some iron fallout. But I am only speculating here. Let's see if Matt joins in with some expert advice.

 

[smithkl]

You had mentioned earlier that you had puffing up material after adding chlorine. Was there a clear correlation, like no puffing before but puffing after adding chlorine? Wondering if that could have been some iron fallout. But I am only speculating here. Let's see if Matt joins in with some expert advice.

The puffing up was related to scrubbing. I was answering someone else’s question about seeing clouds as I scrubbed. I only mentioned the chlorine to say that the clouds when I scrubbed were at the beginning of this process. I believe he was concerned that I had started the SLAM but was still seeing clouds from algae. Now when I scrub there’s nothing.

 

[smithkl]

Thanks for all the help, especially @Newdude and @PoolStored. If I could have made my donation in thanks to them, I would have.
I am now on the step of letting the FC come down. I am at 26 this morning.
I reduced ph with acid and tested TA. I have a question about that. It reads 90. But it was a color I have never seen before. It usually turns from green to pink. It turned a light orange. Is that because of the high FC?

Also , since I learned from you all that my FC is tied to my CYA, I read up on if I need to tie my TA to my CYA. The thread I read on here had a lot of details, but my take away was not to worry about that. If I missed something, I’d appreciate the advice.

 

[Newdude]

Thanks for all the help, especially @Newdude and @PoolStored. If I could have made my donation in thanks to them, I would have.

Checks get made to Newdude with a capital N. just kidding. We get paid in feels here, and you extended the deadline that the lights get shut off, allowing us to get more feels along the way. Ya did great. THANKS.

I am now on the step of letting the FC come down. I am at 26 this morning

OK great !!! Wait it out. Fc of 10+ makes the PH test invalid so let PH be until the FC drops below 10.

The other tests should be unaffected but don't matter yet, so hold off there too. It's one of the big follies of the pool store merry go round. Tackle 6 things at once and foul 5 of them up worse than they were. Here we go one at a time, and pay it the attention it deserves to get it right.

TA is it's own independent measurement (not tied to CYA) and will manage itself as you keep the PH in the 7s. Woohoo one less thing to worry about.

A 90 TA is a great head start there.

On any of the tests, you're looking for the distinct color change, and the specific color change is less important.

 

[mgtfp]

I reduced ph with acid and tested TA. I have a question about that. It reads 90. But it was a color I have never seen before. It usually turns from green to pink. It turned a light orange. Is that because of the high FC?

Yes, this is an interference of the TA indicator dye with chlorine. When that happens, just add another drop of R-0007 at the beginning to ensure that all chlorine has been removed from the sample before adding R-0008.

 

[PoolStored]

Thanks for all the help, especially @Newdude and @PoolStored. If I could have made my donation in thanks to them, I would have.

No worries, happy to help. Thanks for the donation!

Glad all the chemistry is working like it should.

 

[smithkl]

Just updating and clarifying. My FC is 23. We have cloudy days and cool weather. It’s only going down by 1 a day right now. Is it ok for it to stay this high for this long?

 

[PoolStored]

Just updating and clarifying. My FC is 23. We have cloudy days and cool weather. It’s only going down by 1 a day right now. Is it ok for it to stay this high for this long?

May take a bit with the sun so low in the sky. Is there a cover on the pool? Does it get any sun? Yes, it is ok, it is lower than slam level. Even ok to swim.

 

[Newdude]

Yup. And you're getting a free extended SLAM due to the low daily loss this time of year. It can only help with the possible Mustard Algae. With any luck, whatever it was will be long dead by the time you return to normal target range.

 

[mgtfp]

Just to give you an idea what to expect in colder weather with less sun: My pool stays open all year, even though it's too cold to actually swim. But my Aussie SWG is designed to run all year. Over the peak winter months, my pool doesn't get any direct sun. I maintain FC around 10ppm over winter, with daily losses of about 0.25ppm per day (or about 1ppm in four days). I just set my SWG to produce 0.25ppm per day and that keeps FC pretty stable. In July (equivalent to your January) I was away for four weeks and just bumped up FC to above 20ppm, and turned everything off. When I got back, FC was around 9ppm, pretty much what I expected (When calculating losses over a longer period, you have to consider that the daily loss is not a fixed number, but relative to the FC-level. In my case I actually lose 2.5% per day in winter, which means 0.5ppm at 20ppm or 0.25ppm at 10ppm. The calculation would be 0.975³⁰=0.47 - over 30 days FC will get reduced by a bit more than 50% with daily losses of 2.5% (or 97.5% surviving each day)).

Once the sun starts hitting the pool again and the water gets warmer in spring, I have to ramp the SWG up again.

In your case, the SWG will probably shut down at some point, and you'll have to switch to liquid chlorine.

 

[smithkl]

Thanks for still hanging in with me!
No, there is no cover on the pool. It gets sun about 3 to 4 hours a day when the sun is shining mid day. We’ve just had cloudy days and rain since I started this. In fact, we’ve had about 5 inches of rain during this time of my SLAM. I thought it would significantly lower the chlorine, but it didn’t.

 

[Newdude]

we’ve had about 5 inches of rain during this time of my SLAM. I thought it would significantly lower the chlorine, but it didn’t.

Take the average depth in inches of your pool (60?) and a boatload of rain, 5 inches, is still less than 10% of your pool volume. It did affect you by a proportionate amount, but everybody always thinks it will be much more than it is.

 

[mgtfp]

It did affect you by a proportionate amount, but everybody always thinks it will be much more than it is.

Yep, effect of rain is generally vastly overrated. Not just effect on FC, also on pH. Important to make sure that rain is properly mixed in before testing. Especially in a salt pool, fresh rain water floats on top - if you test that, you'll get weird results.

 

[PoolStored]

Especially in a salt pool, fresh rain water floats on top - if you test that, you'll get weird results.

AND in the spring when you open the pool if you have a mesh cover. Mix that stuff up.