Constant brushing & vacuuming, with little results!

[jcrewguy]

I'm not sure why but this year I've been struggling to keep my water crystal clear/blue. Literally every morning I have a layer of what looks to be brown algae completely covering the pool floor. I have brushed, vacuumed, brushed again, vacuumed, backwashed, rinsed, and adequately shocked the pool multiple times but can't seem to get that algae out nor the water from having a green tint. All my other levels are up to par

pH - 7.4
CC - has been high from the shock
FC - .3
Alk - 80
CH - 250
CYA - 30-40 range

My pool filter is like new, the sand was just replaced last season. We just bought a new 1HP Hayward pump to replace our old 1HP Hayward pump.

I've attached a pic of what it looks like at the moment and what the bottom looks like when brushing. In years past, I've only had to get my levels where they need to be and then just maintain the pool with liquid chlorine/bleach every day.

Any ideas/insight is greatly appreciated!

 

[mknauss]

You have a chemistry problem not a filtering problem.

You need to SLAM. You show having a K2006. You might need to order some FAS-DPD reagents as you will use a lot of them to SLAM.

Go to PoolSchool and read the SLAM article. The sooner you start the sooner the pool will be clear and clean.

Take care.

 

[BasicTek]

Have you SLAMMED the pool yet?
You have the right test kit per your sig if your CYA is 40 per the chart you need to add a lot of bleach using pool math to hit your target.

I'm sure others will post to give you more details but I wanted to get your started as the FC of .3 has got to be raised ASAP.

-Tim

 

[dariushd]

I had a mustard algae problem, and a SLAM for about a week solved it and my water is the clearest it's ever been. SLAM it.

 

[jcrewguy]

ok, so I've been doing the SLAM process for 4 days straight now. I've kept the FC levels exactly where they need to be and have kept the filter running. I vacuum the entire pool once per day (backwash and rinse as needed).

The water is now crystal clear but every morning when I run the brush along the bottom of the pool I still have the algae build up. Should this eventually get to a point where there is no algae at all present when I brush it?

 

[mknauss]

Can you post a complete set of recent test results?

Thanks

 

[jcrewguy]

Can you post a complete set of recent test results?

Thanks

The recent test results -

pH - 7.4
FC - 16
CC - 0
Alk - 80
CH - 250
CYA - 40
Overnight Free Chlorine test - .5

 

[mknauss]

So the FC dropped 0.5 ppm or it went down to 0.5?

Either way, if you are still seeing cloudy water or worse, live algae, stay with the SLAM.

You may want to double check your CYA -- sometimes we underestimate that and we should have a shock level above where we are at.

Take care.

 

[jcrewguy]

So the FC dropped 0.5 ppm or it went down to 0.5?

Either way, if you are still seeing cloudy water or worse, live algae, stay with the SLAM.

You may want to double check your CYA -- sometimes we underestimate that and we should have a shock level above where we are at.

Take care.

The FC dropped .5 overnight.

The water is crystal clear, however, every morning there is still a thin layer of algae sitting on the pool floor that I scrub over to the deep end and then vacuum up.

 

[BasicTek]

The FC dropped .5 overnight.

The water is crystal clear, however, every morning there is still a thin layer of algae sitting on the pool floor that I scrub over to the deep end and then vacuum up.

Can you post a pic?

 

[jturie]

Had exactly the same problem early this month. Woke up one morning and the bottom was nearly covered. I had to chlorinate the heck out of the pool for a good week (this is before I found this website and knew what SLAM was--Leslies sold me a ton of stuff that fixed the problem, but at a significant cost to both my wallet and my CYA level). THought I had it licked after the first heavy CL shot, but two days later it came back just as bad. From what I've read here at TFP, there are no shortcuts--you gotta keep at it, and even after you think you've won, you need to really keep track of your numbers because you may have just barely won, and a couple of lazy days later the boys are back in town.

EDIT: Brushing does help, but only after you've gotten your FC to shock level--get the algae up in the water column to maximize the impact of the chlorine. Makes the pool look like a swamp in the short term, but it's worth it. I did a very thorough backwash of my DE filter after the battle was over too.

 

[jwhop3]

Once you've completed your SLAM, you still have a bunch of algae corpses floating around in your water. Your filter will catch most of them, but you will get some blowback through your return jets.

Search this forum for my DIY Slimebags post. I swear by these, and it only costs me $15 per year for two bags.

 

[jcrewguy]

Can you post a pic?

Here are a few pics from yesterday.

Tomorrow makes 1 full week of SLAM and I still find myself still scrubbing and vacuuming algae from the pool floor. I'm ready to bring the chlorine levels back down to normal so we can actually use the pool over the next several days which it will be nice outside.

 

[mknauss]

You can swim as long as your FC is at shock level or below. No need to stop the SLAM.

Have you checked your CYA? My previous post discussed that.

Take care.

 

[jcrewguy]

You can swim as long as your FC is at shock level or below. No need to stop the SLAM.

Have you checked your CYA? My previous post discussed that.

Take care.

Yes, the CYA is still at 40. I've been keeping the FC level at 16.

Should I continue to run the pump 24/7 or can I run it for half a day and be ok?

 

[mknauss]

Circulation speeds the process but I also see you have a single speed pump so expensive to run. I would think you could reduce the pump time, increase the brushing, and see if the algae gets worse. You do need to run the pump for an OCLT, when you get there.

Take care.