Found Algae today all over the bottom - Need advice

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T

Teerump

Well-known member
May 13, 2015
151
Indianapolis, IN
Hey guys, took my solar cover off after being on for 2 days and found algae all over the bottom of the pool. NOW I know it's my fault due to my negligence the last 2 days, I wasn't able to test and add bleach daily like normal.
So.. after removing the cover and vacuuming the pool, I tested the water and here are my results.

FC - 5.5
CC - 0.5
PH - 7.8
TA - 200
CYA - 60

I'm confused as to why there is algae if FC is at 5.5
Should I bring the water to shock level which is 24 for CYA of 60? Or is there anything else I need to adjust?

Thanks!
Tim
 
Is the algae yellow/mustard in color (it could look green if against a blue background)? Does it puff up like dust and cloud the pool when you sweep it or is it more sticky and clumpy like green algae? Yellow/mustard algae prefers shade and is more resistant to chlorine than green and black algae. The FC/CYA levels in the Chlorine / CYA Chart are the minimum needed to prevent green and black algae growth, not yellow/mustard algae if algae nutrients (phosphates and nitrates) are plentiful. To keep away yellow/mustard algae would need an FC that is 15% of the CYA level so the normal recommendation is to completely eradicate yellow/mustard algae so that one need not have to maintain the higher level which would use roughly twice as much chlorine (since breakdown from sunlight is proportional to the FC level at the same CYA level).
 
chem geek said:
If you can carefully collect some of it and take it out of the water and put it on white paper, then you'll be able to tell it's true color.
Click to expand...

I'll have to try tomorrow, I've already vacuumed and kids wanted to swim so the water has been all stirred up. I've put some DE in, and after about 25 mins pump pressure was really high. I backwashed and alot of green water came out. Doing another round of DE to help filter. Should I go ahead and bring to shock level?
 
Mmmm. If you think you're filtering it out faster than it's growing (if it's growing), then keep at the filtering, but at some point you'll need to SLAM and normally we'd do that sooner rather than later just to be safe. Is it possible that your cover had a bunch of junk (maybe pollen?) under it and when you put it on it all settled to the bottom of the pool and now you're filtering it out? There's just something strange about this situation. Physical removal of debris or algae is always a good thing. Usually we're doing both in a SLAM -- killing algae with chlorine and filtering the dead algae out.
 
chem geek said:
Mmmm. If you think you're filtering it out faster than it's growing (if it's growing), then keep at the filtering, but at some point you'll need to SLAM and normally we'd do that sooner rather than later just to be safe. Is it possible that your cover had a bunch of junk (maybe pollen?) under it and when you put it on it all settled to the bottom of the pool and now you're filtering it out? There's just something strange about this situation. Physical removal of debris or algae is always a good thing. Usually we're doing both in a SLAM -- killing algae with chlorine and filtering the dead algae out.
Click to expand...
I did another backwash just a few mins. ago. Lots of green water again. I didn't put in anymore DE since it's getting late and I won't be able to monitor the pump pressure. I'm going to go ahead and start SLAM since I'm going to have to at some point. I'm home all day tomorrow so I can keep up with it.

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep you posted.
 
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