OK, I admit it, I'm a noob. 36K gal pool with vinyl liner. And yes I've read a lot of the info here on dealing with algae, but only after I had already gone down the following frustrating path:
1) opened pool 3 weeks ago. totally green and cloudy.
2) shock with dichlor powder and adjust ph and alkalinity using test strips (yeah I know, a REAL test kit has been ordered and is on the way). Vac'd to waste what a could, a challenge when you can't see the bottom
3) 3 weeks later, still green and cloudy; my CYA is probably off the charts -- as near as I can tell from the test strip, probably in the 100 range. FC is dark purple on the test strip, something over 10, but yeah prob. not enough to really treat the algae given the high CYA
4) call my pool guy. He says to use (gasp) copper algaecide. I add enough per the instructions to initially treat 40K gallons. Makes a little bit of a difference, but not enough. Meantime, it plunges my FC to zero (according to the test strips)
So after reading all the info here, once my test kit arrives I'm ready to go and buy out costco's supply of clorox unscented bleach and set off a chlorine bomb in the pool.
My real question is, can I do so safely after having already added 16 oz. of copper algaecide to the pool? My pool guy seemed to indicate that too much FC will cause the the copper to stain the pool. But I'm going to need a LOT of bleach given my high CYA. Feel like I'm in a catch 22... what should be my next step? Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. There's a reason my username is what it is... wish I had found this site earlier
1) opened pool 3 weeks ago. totally green and cloudy.
2) shock with dichlor powder and adjust ph and alkalinity using test strips (yeah I know, a REAL test kit has been ordered and is on the way). Vac'd to waste what a could, a challenge when you can't see the bottom
3) 3 weeks later, still green and cloudy; my CYA is probably off the charts -- as near as I can tell from the test strip, probably in the 100 range. FC is dark purple on the test strip, something over 10, but yeah prob. not enough to really treat the algae given the high CYA
4) call my pool guy. He says to use (gasp) copper algaecide. I add enough per the instructions to initially treat 40K gallons. Makes a little bit of a difference, but not enough. Meantime, it plunges my FC to zero (according to the test strips)
So after reading all the info here, once my test kit arrives I'm ready to go and buy out costco's supply of clorox unscented bleach and set off a chlorine bomb in the pool.
My real question is, can I do so safely after having already added 16 oz. of copper algaecide to the pool? My pool guy seemed to indicate that too much FC will cause the the copper to stain the pool. But I'm going to need a LOT of bleach given my high CYA. Feel like I'm in a catch 22... what should be my next step? Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. There's a reason my username is what it is... wish I had found this site earlier