New white grout turning YELLOW! Help!

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Not having CYA at 50 ppm in your sunny climate will certainly cause the sun to oxidize to FC quickly. Sequestrant also consumes chlorine. It is a delicate balance between chlorine, sequestrant and stains. When FC drops below minimum it is possible for bacteria to consume the CYA.
 
Thanks Pooldv. We added CYA this morning along with a little more chlorine (only 4.5 cups...the rest of the bottle). The FC this morning was less than 0.5...looked close to 0. This evening it's 0.5 so the little bit of bleach I used seems to be holding so far. I opened a new bottle of bleach and added 6 cups. So we will see what happens.
 
Algaecide issues

Moderator comment: Threads merged together

So as you might know if you saw my staining thread, I recently did a couple of ascorbic acid treatments. We were keeping chlorine low and ended up with algae at one point a couple of weeks ago. It's gone now, but while keeping our chlorine low we are using algaecide to prevent further outbreaks. When adding the maintenance dose last weekend (6 days ago?), I accidentally added about 2x the regular dose. Now the water gets a bit foamy when you splash around (not super bad, and it dissipates quickly, like maybe a minute or less after you stop splashing...if it was someone else's pool I doubt I would even notice but I read that too much algaecide can irritate eyes/skin). We added about 2 inches of water last night (we were low) but it didn't dilute things enough to help much. We are having a pool party 8 days from now. Do you think it will be okay by then? I really don't want to drain and add new water because we JUST got our chemicals back in balance.

Also, I am freaking out worrying that we will end up with more algae before our pool party. Is there anything else I should be doing to make sure it doesn't come back (other than keeping our chlorine at 2-4ppm (CYA at about 30...can't test CYA accurately yet because we just added some a couple days ago. We had been down to 0).
 
Re: Algaecide issues

Just a couple of quick questions first.

How are you testing your water, & can you post a complete set of test results including:
FC
CC
PH
TA
CH
CYA

How did you determine that the algae was gone?

How do you normally chlorinate the pool, and what were the levels you were trying to maintain, and why would you go 'low'?

Dom
 
Re: Algaecide issues

Hundreds and hundreds of posts daily on this website so few remember a given thread. That's why we we strongly urge everyone to keep your questions under the same thread, even if the question is different.

Post a set of test results and we can help you with your algaecide issues and keep your pool clear.
 
Re: Algaecide issues

FC 4
TC 4
CC (Is CC just TC minus FC? If so it's 0)
PH 7.5
TA not sure
CH not sure
CYA Was probably close to 0 (test only goes down to 30, but the water that was supposed to be cloudy for the test to hide the little dot thing was completely clear--didn't obscure the dot even a little-- so it was definitely way less than 30); we followed instructions to bring it up to 30 ppm a couple of days ago. (Have not tested it again yet because I read that the test is not accurate right after you add the CYA)

I have a Taylor K 2006 kit.

I determined the algae was gone because the water is crystal clear and our FC and TC are equal. Also now that we added the CYA, we aren't losing much chlorine.

We had to keep the chlorine low while doing our AA treatment (iron staining) as per the directions on this website.

ETA: we are using liquid chlorine.
 

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Re: Algaecide issues

Active chemical is -

Poly [oxyethylene (dimethyliminio)ethylene (dimethyliminio) ethylene dichloride]

If it's not that, it's not Polyquat 60
 
Re: Algaecide issues

Okay it's HTC Super Algae Guard 60 4-in-1. It says "non-foaming" on it.

Ingredients are Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chlorides and Alkyl dimethyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chlorides.

I just told my husband to buy polyquat 60 and he said he did. I don't know what the ingredients should be (except that I know copper is bad).

So is there anything else I should be doing to prevent algae before my party? We can't shock because when we shock we end up with metal stains again (even though we are using Jack's Magic and we use their Sequest Test kit to keep it in the proper levels). We actually started to shock last weekend (before realizing our CYA was so low) and we already got more stains even with the sequesterant. (And before anyone asks... YES they are metal stains, not algae. We've had them before, and done AA treatments before. The AA works beautifully, but eventually the stains come back, even with sequesterant).
 
That's the wrong algaecide. That is a linear quat algaecide, also known as ADBAC algaecide. It is not Polyquat.

Linear quats themselves are "non-foaming" BUT when chlorine oxidizes them, the by-products of that reaction are chemicals that cause foaming.

Polyquat 60 is more expensive than the linear quat algaecides and pool stores rarely carry them. You'd be better off ordering online.
 
It is safe to swim when
FC is above minimum and up to shock level for your CYA, [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]
PH is between 7.2 and 7.8
Water is clear

The algaecide is fine to swim in.
 
Re: Algaecide issues

JenniferJuniper2 said:
FC 4
TC 4
CC (Is CC just TC minus FC? If so it's 0)
PH 7.5
TA not sure
CH not sure
CYA Was probably close to 0 (test only goes down to 30, but the water that was supposed to be cloudy for the test to hide the little dot thing was completely clear--didn't obscure the dot even a little-- so it was definitely way less than 30); we followed instructions to bring it up to 30 ppm a couple of days ago. (Have not tested it again yet because I read that the test is not accurate right after you add the CYA)

I have a Taylor K 2006 kit.

I determined the algae was gone because the water is crystal clear and our FC and TC are equal. Also now that we added the CYA, we aren't losing much chlorine.

We had to keep the chlorine low while doing our AA treatment (iron staining) as per the directions on this website.

ETA: we are using liquid chlorine.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting the results.

The K2006 is a FAS/DPD chlorine test, the FC & CC tests are separate tests so I don't understand your confusion. How did you get a TC result. Are you also using an OTO test?

What is it that you are not sure of with the TA or CH? Did you get an unexpected result or reaction? Those are two important tests that you will eventually need to do, especially if you have a plaster pool.

Dom
 
Re: Algaecide issues

Hi Dom,

Sorry for being vague. Yes, I also have the OTO test. That's how I got the TC.

As for the TA and CH, we just haven't tested them in the past few weeks. :) And I don't remember what they were when we did test them. They were in range at the time, but they would probably be different now. I will test them and let ya know.

We are new to testing our own water. I thought TC was total chlorine, FC was the free chlorine, and CC was the difference (ie the chlorine that was tied up with germs or whatnot). I could be wrong though.
 

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