new to the site and I have been reading a bunch on algea products, but I need some guidance please. We have gotten a lot of bad advice in the past and need to get on track.
my pool is about 3 seasons old, fighting with algae every year. 27,000 gal vinyl, hayward 300# sand filter with zeolite. 1st year the auto chlorinator was hooked up backward by installers (so no chlorine). used el-cheapo bags mostly, with very little testing. 2nd year was better, used bags + some 12% CL (and some borax & baking soda), but still had the algae problem in the edges. I closed and opened the pool myself and the water was clear, but had green on the bottom.
this year, multiple mistakes were made. After opening, we relied on the test strips (bad idea). Did one shock using 5 bags of el-cheapo (55%). Now we are using the 12% CL. we cleared up the pool (but with algae still present). went on vacation for 2 weeks. added 2 gals CL before we left and neighbor added 2 gals while we were away. forgot to turn autoCL back on.
Green pool bottom when we came back. Started vacuuming and shocking (but not enough I fear).
I have to get the numbers from home, but I remember the CYA was 95 and PH was 7.2. After dumping a foot of water and adding fresh, did not put enough CL back in. Now we have "antifreeze" colored water. After reading CYA info here, I put in 10 Gals of 12% CL, probably too much, but we are at our wits end. Bought the HTH-6 test kit and have been trying to learn how to use it, but with the high CL, having trouble.
Pool store wants us to use "Green Treat" from United Chem, is this any good?
We are running filter 24/7 and backwashing often, but no more green is coming out. We are ready to pop the top on the filter to see what is happening.
Should we replace the zoelite?
All the other posts recommend keeping chlorine levels up until algae dies, any idea how long that will take?
Thanks!
my pool is about 3 seasons old, fighting with algae every year. 27,000 gal vinyl, hayward 300# sand filter with zeolite. 1st year the auto chlorinator was hooked up backward by installers (so no chlorine). used el-cheapo bags mostly, with very little testing. 2nd year was better, used bags + some 12% CL (and some borax & baking soda), but still had the algae problem in the edges. I closed and opened the pool myself and the water was clear, but had green on the bottom.
this year, multiple mistakes were made. After opening, we relied on the test strips (bad idea). Did one shock using 5 bags of el-cheapo (55%). Now we are using the 12% CL. we cleared up the pool (but with algae still present). went on vacation for 2 weeks. added 2 gals CL before we left and neighbor added 2 gals while we were away. forgot to turn autoCL back on.
Green pool bottom when we came back. Started vacuuming and shocking (but not enough I fear).
I have to get the numbers from home, but I remember the CYA was 95 and PH was 7.2. After dumping a foot of water and adding fresh, did not put enough CL back in. Now we have "antifreeze" colored water. After reading CYA info here, I put in 10 Gals of 12% CL, probably too much, but we are at our wits end. Bought the HTH-6 test kit and have been trying to learn how to use it, but with the high CL, having trouble.
Pool store wants us to use "Green Treat" from United Chem, is this any good?
We are running filter 24/7 and backwashing often, but no more green is coming out. We are ready to pop the top on the filter to see what is happening.
Should we replace the zoelite?
All the other posts recommend keeping chlorine levels up until algae dies, any idea how long that will take?
Thanks!
That is why you have a consistent algae problem. With the cya you have you should always have a minimum of 8ppms of chlorine, and to kill the algae you will need to shock to 25 and leave it there. As you can see the chlorine test at the pool store was only 10, and you said you shocked it to 40, either you did the test wrong, or the algae is so bad that it used up all the chlorine really fast (which is a real possiblility), You can get your chlorine really high with the cya you have - you can get it up to 30 and keep it there. You will have to add bleach a couple of times a day. The more consistent you are the faster the algae bloom will be. I would suggest you stop using any pucks, as they are adding cya - if it is at all possible, I would do a partial drain and refill to get rid of the high cya. Your other numbers are ok for a vinyl liner. If you don't do a partial drain and refill, then you will have to keep your chlorine at about 12ppms at all times.
