Algae? Seriously?

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poolmomma

poolmomma

0
Jul 2, 2009
78
Southern Virginia
My numbers

FC: 7
CC: 0
TC: 7
pH: 7.8
TA: 80
CYA: 75

Losing NO Chlorine overnight. Water temp is at a blamy (haha) 71*F. The water had leaves on the bottom from an overnight windstorm, some pollen on the surface and splotches of what I THOUGHT was debris/dirt on the bottom. I threw in my bot to suck up the leaves and the splotches I thought was debris and now I have a greenish pool!!! I can still see the bottom of the pool, but the water is green. I run my pump constantly, great circulation and now I notice, today, what looks like algae (greenish-yellow) on my steps I was going to take out today. :*( How?!?! I test every other day because I am a freak about my pool and my levels are really good! Could my pH be too high? I am getting ready to order my cover and new pump and, if I have to, new steps. (Nothing wrong with my pump, but it has seen 4 summers of constant running and 2 full winters so I think it might Crud out soon.) What should I do? We now have more leaves so I will have to throw the bot in again tomorrow. Does this sound like Algae? BOO TO ALGAE!
 
poolmomma said:
FC: 7
CC: 0
TC: 7
pH: 7.8
TA: 80
CYA: 75
Click to expand...
Hi PM,
One possibility is that there is no algae, just stirred-up debris. In which case, backwashing the filter, brushing the sides and floor, vacuuming to waste and pumping/filtering is going to clear it.

The other possibility is that despite your excellent maintenance efforts some type of algae as taken hold. (Perhaps it came in with the leaves.) CYA is troublesome to measure precisely, so it could be a bit higher than 75 ppm. If so, chlorine residual (FC) is borderline and it may have occasionally been significantly less than the level you now report. Why not take this opportunity to lower CYA to 20-50 ppm? That will make it easier, if the algea persists, to shock the pool as described in Pool School and beat this thing prior to closing.
 
Thanks. I was thinking, just in case. of shocking anyway since I already backwashed and swept and it did NOTHING to help it. :( As far as CYA goes, I am pretty good at reading it. It has been WAY high in the past...over 100...and have worked on getting it lowered so I would have less of a demand.

So I shall wait for the rain to go away, clean up the leaves and shock. BOO to ALGAE! :rant:
 
PM,

Polyvue has a really good thought, IMO. 75ppm CYA is really still a little too high for a manually chlorinated pool.

You would find it much easier to keep your pool algae-free with a CYA of around 50.
 
This pool was a Baqua convert and also had a period of time with excessive CYA due to use of Trichlor (powder?) for shocking. There may be a lot of leftover chemicals in this pool so by diluting the water you would not only get the CYA lower but also reduce whatever else is in the pool that could cause problems.

The pool also may have poor bottom circulation so the chlorine levels may be quite a bit lower near the bottom if there is not thorough mixing. Having the return(s) pointed diagonally downward may help create better bottom circulation.
 
My return is pointed down but I am looking at getting something that will help improve bottom circ. like this http://www.askalanaquestion.com/the_circulator.htm Since I am not running the pump tonight, I thought maybe I WOULD drain it a bit. Not sure about 50% since our street drainage already has the rainwater collecting in my dang driveway, but I want to get more out. We did lose about 1/3rd of our water when we had a tear right after our conversion.
 
I was constantly having algae problems with me pool. But, once I got a good test kit, I realized my CYA and FC were very high from all of the powders and pucks I used before switching to the BBB method. So, for about two days I drained off several inches of water and refilled until I got my CYA down to around 45. I haven't' had a problem since then, and I've even let my FC drift down to 1.5 a time or two (not on purpose).

Good luck,
Michele
 
I was down to 70 CYA, drained 1/3 water, circulated 24hrs and my CYA was back up to 100! :scratch: Algae is DEFINITELY the problem. Took out the ladder and it was all over the ladder. Ick. Tested the CYA today and it was definitely 100. The ONLY thing I did was add my normal Clorox to keep the FC at 8 and scrub the algae around since I don't want to shock until I get the CYA lower. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH BLEACH IT TAKES TO SHOCK WITH THAT HIGH CYA?!?!?!?!?! It's supposed to rain again tomorrow and drop to the mid 50's for the next few days. Maybe the algae will die?? Yeah right. I will drain some more after the rain and test the CYA again but I swear if it jumps again I will FLIP! Oh yeah, only losing .5 FC over 2 days. Figured it would be more since there is algae. I am so confused and tired. Might just leave it as it is until it gets colder then worry about it. :tongue:
 
poolmomma said:
I was down to 70 CYA, drained 1/3 water, circulated 24hrs and my CYA was back up to 100! :scratch: Algae is DEFINITELY the problem. Took out the ladder and it was all over the ladder. Ick. Tested the CYA today and it was definitely 100. The ONLY thing I did was add my normal Clorox to keep the FC at 8 and scrub the algae around since I don't want to shock until I get the CYA lower. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH BLEACH IT TAKES TO SHOCK WITH THAT HIGH CYA?!?!?!?!?! It's supposed to rain again tomorrow and drop to the mid 50's for the next few days. Maybe the algae will die?? Yeah right. I will drain some more after the rain and test the CYA again but I swear if it jumps again I will FLIP! Oh yeah, only losing .5 FC over 2 days. Figured it would be more since there is algae. I am so confused and tired. Might just leave it as it is until it gets colder then worry about it. :tongue:
Click to expand...
Are you certain that a Trichlor puck hasn't been hiding somewhere in the pool? It seems just strange that after a 1/3 drain and refill the CYA level has increased. I can't think of any explanation but I think you're correct in wanting to reduce the CYA, no matter what it takes, before embarking on the process of shocking your pool to kill the algea. Try draining another 1/3 and test the CYA again.
 

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polyvue said:
poolmomma said:
I was down to 70 CYA, drained 1/3 water, circulated 24hrs and my CYA was back up to 100! :scratch: Algae is DEFINITELY the problem. Took out the ladder and it was all over the ladder. Ick. Tested the CYA today and it was definitely 100. The ONLY thing I did was add my normal Clorox to keep the FC at 8 and scrub the algae around since I don't want to shock until I get the CYA lower. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH BLEACH IT TAKES TO SHOCK WITH THAT HIGH CYA?!?!?!?!?! It's supposed to rain again tomorrow and drop to the mid 50's for the next few days. Maybe the algae will die?? Yeah right. I will drain some more after the rain and test the CYA again but I swear if it jumps again I will FLIP! Oh yeah, only losing .5 FC over 2 days. Figured it would be more since there is algae. I am so confused and tired. Might just leave it as it is until it gets colder then worry about it. :tongue:
Click to expand...
Are you certain that a Trichlor puck hasn't been hiding somewhere in the pool? It seems just strange that after a 1/3 drain and refill the CYA level has increased. I can't think of any explanation but I think you're correct in wanting to reduce the CYA, no matter what it takes, before embarking on the process of shocking your pool to kill the algea. Try draining another 1/3 and test the CYA again.
Click to expand...

I don't use pucks.
 
dschlic1 said:
Cloudy water will make the CYA test read high. No real way around that.
Click to expand...

I thought about that and turned off my pump, let all the algae settle to the bottom after it died and rechecked CYA and it is now within normal limits at 55. I did a diluted test and came up with 65 when I got 100 one day and thought about the cloudy water so I decided to let it all settle. I just have to let it all settle, vac it out and then let it settle, vac, let it settle...get what I mean? PITA, but will be worth it eventually.
 
The discussion of cloudy water clouding ( :shock: :shock:) the CYA turbidity test has been discussed at length in a thread from last summer. I am not a subscriber to that idea.

So, what we came up with is test your pool water first without CYA reagent. If it is cloudy enough so that you can get a 20 or more reading in the view tube simply subtract that amount from the reading you get when you do the test using the CYA reagent.

In this case pool water alone would have to test around 40ppm before reagent is added......meaning a black object would disappear from view if held about 2 1/2 inches under the surface....roughly the heighth of the 40ppm mark on the view tube.

a-discussion-of-cya-turbidity-t8639.html?hilit=CYA turbidity
 
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