Reminiscing about our black algae nightmare

HiddenRiver

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Jun 15, 2017
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East Coventry, PA
This photo is from June 2, 2017, the day I realized the black stains on the bottom and sides of our beautiful pool were growing and they were likely the result of black algae. I learned a few things—
1. Algae comes in a rainbow array of colors including black. Ew.
2. Many items including visiting bathing suits and professional tilers and the guys who replaster the pool finish can bring algae, in my case black algae, into the pool with their brushes and brooms.
3. One should not just wait and watch the black stains grow trusting the PS with a remedy of various expensive concoctions.
4. The positive side of the above “lessons learned” is that searching the web for a solution brought me the TFP website and the true solution to the problem using TFP simple but effective methods.
5. I am convinced that the tried and true TFP methods to maintain a crystal blue pool and reading white papers and consulting the specialists here is the best possible way of keeping a trouble-free pool!
 
I don’t see the picture I posted of my black algae soup so I will try again before and after
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WOWsa! That's one huge pool and I seriously envy that 10' deep end. What a lot of pleasure that pool has provided over the years. I love older pools, they have a certain charm to them.

Good job killing off that black mess.

Maddie :flower:
 
WOWsa! That's one huge pool and I seriously envy that 10' deep end. What a lot of pleasure that pool has provided over the years. I love older pools, they have a certain charm to them.

Good job killing off that black mess.

Maddie :flower:

Thanks Maddie! Simplicity and functionality—not a lot of design features. I think that is what makes these old pools beauties and attractive to serious swimmers/divers for which the pool was designed, I am told. I hope it will serve us for many more years! I won’t complain that there is no spa or waterfall or fountain or designer rock piles—. So grateful for TFP—the reason for this post.
 
Looks fantastic! Did you have to drain it and acid wash? We noticed some black dots in our pool last summer and we fought it until it was closed. Nothing seemed to help, but it never spread. I'm worried about what we will find when it's opened next month. Thanks! Steph
 
Looks fantastic! Did you have to drain it and acid wash? We noticed some black dots in our pool last summer and we fought it until it was closed. Nothing seemed to help, but it never spread. I'm worried about what we will find when it's opened next month. Thanks! Steph

No draining or acid wash. Just slamming and slamming and slamming and brushing with a metal brush twice a day for about two weeks. Good way to strengthen the arm muscles! The hardest location to battle the algae was at the deep end on the walls near the diving board. Not sure why. We kept the baseline FC levels higher than needed to prevent a reoccurrence—at a FC of 5 I started adding and targeted 9. Never had to SLAM again all summer.

The negative? Those nice men who patched my plaster after replacing the coping and tile—and who I think brought in the algae—most of that new plaster got wire brushed off with the algae and my dolphin robot picked up sand all summer long.
 

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