Limestone Fountain. Please help with Algae!!!!

[rynacd]

Hi, i have a limestone fountain and i'm having a hard to preventing algae growth. Fountain was built about 4 months ago. First time i had algae i used Kem-Tek Algaecide and it killed the algae within 24 hours. Ive been adding about 2 ounces per week and it is no longer effective. My gardener drains the fountain once a month but algae keeps growing every two weeks.

I've contacted limestone tile manufacturers and pool guys and none seem to be familiar with limestone. They all recommended i don't use chlorine long term to keep algae from growing. Should i be concerned about using chlorine or bromine to shock kill the algae? Should i be concerned using it long term on limestone?

Any help on how to kill the algae and upkeep my fountain long term would be greatly appreciated!

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

Is this a decorative fountain? No people in it? Lots of people have pools with limestone and use chlorine. I would use chlorine to prevent algae. You can float a trichlor puck in a puck floater or add bleach regularly to keep the chlorine level up around 5 ppm. A cheap chlorine test will let you test it to make sure it doesn't drop to 0.

 

[duraleigh]

+ 1 what pooldv said. Keep your FC around 5 ppm with a chlorine tester (You have to test resularly) and you will nor have algae.