First want to say hello and thanks in advance for all of the help that this site provides. This is my first post and of course it is about Algae, as I'm sure most residential pool owners come here in search of help!
So here's the back story on the fight with my pool this season.
To start we had a KILLER winter, with record snow fall that brought the water level above my water-line tile, froze causing many of them to fall off. When I opened the pool, the water was extremely clear. I ordered the tile immediately but, it was a special order and took over a month to get. During this time, I had my first bloom, as I couldn't figure out a way to run the pool while still having the water level lowered (I figured this out). I shocked the pool as I would have shocked my previous non swg pool and the bloom went away(seemingly).
Roughly 1 week later, my SWG Cell died. I replaced the cell within three days but, during that time, another bloom occurred, which I believe was largely due to the first bloom not being completely killed. This is when I SLAM'd for the first time and it worked well. However, one week after that, my Hayward Pump died. Of course it died on a Thursday and I didn't receive my replacement until Monday. The pool was still clear but, slightly cloudy. I shocked and hoped for the best.
The pool cleared BUT, I seemingly had a ton of deal algae on the bottom of the deep end of the pool. This is where things get a bit tricky for me and I need some advice. When I vacuumed, my filter does well for about 10 minutes and then it just gets overloaded and dumps the dead algae back in the pool. Additionally, I can't see anything when this happens. Is this normal for a Cartridge Type filter? My previous pool had a Sand filter, so I am pretty unfamiliar with the tendencies of Cartridge type filters. Also, I realized that there's a good chance that some living algae was hiding among the dead algae and when vacuuming, it was spread throughout the pool when the filter became overloaded. Do I really have to clean this filter every ten minutes in order to vacuum this algae up?
Moving on to my need to SLAM again, here are my numbers:
Salt - 3200ppm
FC - 3.5ppm
PH - 7.4
TA - 80
CH - 250
CYA - 30
I know from Pool School that I need to get my CYA up immediately. Can someone recommend a good product to do so. I went to a local pool store and ended up being sold $400 worth of chemicals (some of which was stabilizer) and I simply cannot afford to spend $400 to bring my CYA level up.
I used the Pool math to figure out that I need to add roughly 7 gallons of bleach to bring my FC level up to shock level and check every hour or so.
If CYA dips during this time, am I adding stabilizer as well? Any other recommendations to help me through this process is GREATLY appreciated. We have been in our home less than a year and haven't been able to enjoy our pool once yet.
Thanks again!
So here's the back story on the fight with my pool this season.
To start we had a KILLER winter, with record snow fall that brought the water level above my water-line tile, froze causing many of them to fall off. When I opened the pool, the water was extremely clear. I ordered the tile immediately but, it was a special order and took over a month to get. During this time, I had my first bloom, as I couldn't figure out a way to run the pool while still having the water level lowered (I figured this out). I shocked the pool as I would have shocked my previous non swg pool and the bloom went away(seemingly).
Roughly 1 week later, my SWG Cell died. I replaced the cell within three days but, during that time, another bloom occurred, which I believe was largely due to the first bloom not being completely killed. This is when I SLAM'd for the first time and it worked well. However, one week after that, my Hayward Pump died. Of course it died on a Thursday and I didn't receive my replacement until Monday. The pool was still clear but, slightly cloudy. I shocked and hoped for the best.
The pool cleared BUT, I seemingly had a ton of deal algae on the bottom of the deep end of the pool. This is where things get a bit tricky for me and I need some advice. When I vacuumed, my filter does well for about 10 minutes and then it just gets overloaded and dumps the dead algae back in the pool. Additionally, I can't see anything when this happens. Is this normal for a Cartridge Type filter? My previous pool had a Sand filter, so I am pretty unfamiliar with the tendencies of Cartridge type filters. Also, I realized that there's a good chance that some living algae was hiding among the dead algae and when vacuuming, it was spread throughout the pool when the filter became overloaded. Do I really have to clean this filter every ten minutes in order to vacuum this algae up?
Moving on to my need to SLAM again, here are my numbers:
Salt - 3200ppm
FC - 3.5ppm
PH - 7.4
TA - 80
CH - 250
CYA - 30
I know from Pool School that I need to get my CYA up immediately. Can someone recommend a good product to do so. I went to a local pool store and ended up being sold $400 worth of chemicals (some of which was stabilizer) and I simply cannot afford to spend $400 to bring my CYA level up.
I used the Pool math to figure out that I need to add roughly 7 gallons of bleach to bring my FC level up to shock level and check every hour or so.
If CYA dips during this time, am I adding stabilizer as well? Any other recommendations to help me through this process is GREATLY appreciated. We have been in our home less than a year and haven't been able to enjoy our pool once yet.
Thanks again!
