Algae buildup in lighted bubblers

[r2sie2]

So I’ve taken care of my pool on my own using the TFP method since it was built just over a year ago. The water is beautiful and balanced however I’ve developed algae in my lighted Hayward bubblers on a Baja deck. I had always ran the bubblers automatically for 5 minutes a day to keep some water flow on the deck but I covered the pool with a solar cover for a few weeks so I turned the bubblers off. I believe this is when the algae developed due to a lack of circulation on the deck. Chlorine levels have never been below 5 and CYA is about 60, I aim for chlorine to stay at 7

To add to the issue the covers are impossible to remove. I have the removal tool but there’s just no way to get proper leverage to remove and scrub it.

So far the things I’ve tried are raising the chlorine level to 28 and running the bubblers overnight which didn’t seem to do anything. I then tried using bottle scrubbers to get inside of the bubblers as well as I could which did help but I can’t maneuver them inside well enough to scrub everything.

Is there anything I can do chemically to resolve this or am I going to need to break and repurchase the covers? I’ve seen other people on here that had the same issues with the exact same bubblers. The only solution I saw was one person said their pool guy made a shock concentration and injected it somehow inside of the bubblers. I know poolrx is a bad word here but I was thinking of maybe trying that just until the algae hopefully goes away? Looking for any recommendations as I don’t want to screw up! Thanks!

 

[ajw22]

Your problem is algae develops a biofilm that protects it from chlorine. You need to brush and rub the algae to break the biofilm protection to let any chemicals be effective.

I would run your FC at half SLAM level for a while and run water through your bubbler for a few hours a day.

Do the best you can to reach the algae in the bubbler. Many pools have a bit of algae hiding somewhere. I would not go crazy to get it.

Does your pool pass a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test ?

 

[r2sie2]

Your problem is algae develops a biofilm that protects it from chlorine. You need to brush and rub the algae to break the biofilm protection to let any chemicals be effective.

I would run your FC at half SLAM level for a while and run water through your bubbler for a few hours a day.

Do the best you can to reach the algae in the bubbler. Many pools have a bit of algae hiding somewhere. I would not go crazy to get it.

Does your pool pass a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test ?

Yes it passes the OCLT

That makes a lot of sense about the film. I wouldn’t be worried about the algae except that the cover is clear so it’s embarrassing when I’m always flexing about how much better my pool is using the TFP method vs friends using pool guys

I’ll take your advice and just keep on trying to get in there as well as I can and hopefully I can break it up enough to break that barrier. Appreciate you!