Possible Algae or Nothing??

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alanrmeadows

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LifeTime Supporter
May 5, 2010
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My test results are:
FC - 8.5
Ph- 7.5
TA - 120
CYA - 27
CH - 260

I posted a couple of days ago saying that I was in the process of trying to clear up my water. Up until today, I was using a simple OTO test for Chlorine. Because of that, I was just guessing as to whether or not I was reaching my shock level with my bags of Turbo Shock. Anyway, this morning my water looked great...sparkling blue. I checked my FC level and it was 8.5. I was really pumped about the pool, and then I noticed something that caught my attention. The previous owner of my fiberglass pool did something that caused blisters on several locations. This afternoon I noticed little spots on the blisters. They went away easily when brushed. They weren't really bright yellow. I fought mustard algae for a while when I purchased the house last year but got rid of it...I think. Any idea as to what these spots might be?? Should I get my pool up to mustard shock level for a day or so to be on the safe side?? Any advice would be appreciated.

PS. Not yet coverted completely to Trouble Free. Plan to convert completely when my tablets raise my CYA to about 50.

Thanks,
Alan
22,400 Gallons
Sand Filter
Inground
Fiberglass
 
Alan,

Start right now and do an overnight FC loss test. it will tell you definitively if you have an algae problem. There's an article in pool school to tell you how but if it doens't make sense, post back and I or someone here will tell you how to perform this important test.
 
This may be a dumb question, but is there a way to keep the pool calculator "locally" on your computer? In other words, store it as a file so I don't have to access internet to retrieve it?

Another question...I also posted a few days ago that I had already bought a 35lb bucket of trichlor tabs and 55lbs. of Turbo Shock before I discovered this site. I plan on converting to Trouble Free methods but hate to waste all of these chemicals. Someone suggested that I use the tabs to help raise my CYA to 50 and then covert to bleach. My question is this...if I'm currently at 27 CYA and have a 22,400 gallon pool in South Arkansas, and typically open my automatic chlorinator to approx. 1.5, how often do you think I should test my CYA for increases...every couple of days, weekly?? As soon as it hits 50, I'm moving on to bleach.

Thanks,
Alan
 
Alan,

Some where in one of the articles in Pool School I think is where I read that it takes a week for the CYA to show a change in the test when you add stablizer/conditioner to the water. I think it recommended checking the CYA a week after you add it. So I would think weekly for this too but I've just now converted to full fledge test kit of my pool after years of listening / letting the pool store do the tests.
 
alanrmeadows said:
is there a way to keep the pool calculator "locally" on your computer? In other words, store it as a file so I don't have to access internet to retrieve it?
Click to expand...
When you have The Pool Calculator open in your web browser, do a "File - Save Page As..." command in Firefox or similar command in other web browsers and save as either a "Web Page, complete" if that is an option or if that isn't available then as "Web Page, HTML only" or "HTML" if that is an option. You can then use it offline without being connected to the Internet.
 
Thanks for asking...yes I did. I lost 3ppm overnight and noticed the spots again at about 6:00 am. I went ahead and used the pool calculator to calculate my algae shock level...it was 18. The pool calculator indicated 3lbs 3 oz. of cal-hypo 73%. I put in approximately 3lbs 3oz. of cal-hypo 78%, tested one hour later, and my FC level is 31.5!! I'm not sure how that happened? Is my pool OK for now?

Is there anything else I should be doing other than maintaining my algae shock level? I assume I need to perform another overnight test to check my progress.

Thanks,
Alan
 
alanrmeadows said:
Thanks for asking...yes I did. I lost 3ppm overnight and noticed the spots again at about 6:00 am. I went ahead and used the pool calculator to calculate my algae shock level...it was 18. The pool calculator indicated 3lbs 3 oz. of cal-hypo 73%. I put in approximately 3lbs 3oz. of cal-hypo 78%, tested one hour later, and my FC level is 31.5!! I'm not sure how that happened? Is my pool OK for now?

Is there anything else I should be doing other than maintaining my algae shock level? I assume I need to perform another overnight test to check my progress.

Thanks,
Alan
Click to expand...

Well, a couple of things could have happened...
Are you sure of the gallons size of your pool?
Did you select 78% cal-hypo from the drop down menu?
What was your "now" result? Because I'm not getting 3lbs 3 oz of 78% if your starting "now" was 8.5
I'm getting more like 2.7 lbs...

Even so, the "effects of adding chemicals" at the bottom shows 3 lbs 3 oz of 78% would only raise it by 12, in your pool, so something else is going on.... testing error, before or now?

Review your testing procedures - make sure you are doing the test correctly... :wink:
 
I would be very surprised if there was any harm at all in the overdose. That said, BBB is all about very accurate testing and dosing but I'm sure your pool will be fine.

I would let the FC drift back down to around 18 or so and then hold it there for maybe another 24 or perhaps 48 hours. That'll probably kill off the organics and then I would do the overnight FC loss test to prove to myself they were gone. Brushing those reappeared spots is a good idea.

You are finished shocking when....
1. Your pool water is sparkling
2. Your CC's are .5ppm or less
3. You can hold your FC overnight without losing more than 1ppm.
 

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I think I'm going to start shocking with bleach while trying to rid my pool of these algae spots. I'm thinking I'll get a more accurate dosage using the calculator and bleach. After I attempt to reach my shock level by adding bleach, how long should I wait to test to get a new FC reading that is hopefully accurate?

Thanks,
Alan
 
alanrmeadows said:
Someone suggested that I use the tabs to help raise my CYA to 50 and then covert to bleach. My question is this...if I'm currently at 27 CYA and have a 22,400 gallon pool in South Arkansas, and typically open my automatic chlorinator to approx. 1.5, how often do you think I should test my CYA for increases...every couple of days, weekly?? As soon as it hits 50, I'm moving on to bleach.
Click to expand...
In the Pool Calculator, I put in your gallons at the top (22400) then went to the Effects of Adding Chemicals section near the bottom. I plugged in 160 oz trichlor and found that would raise your CYA by about 30. Assuming you have 8-oz tabs, that's 20 tabs to get 30ppm, so each tab is worth about 1.5ppm CYA in your pool. You want to raise CYA by a bit over 20, which works out to around 14 tabs.

So, if you decide to use the tabs to raise your CYA, you'd use them at whatever rate is appropriate to maintain your FC, until you've used up another 14 tabs. (If you have 7-oz tabs, then you'd want to use one or two more.)

After all those tabs are completely dissolved, then you can test CYA again to verify you've reached your target.
--paulr
 
I had my water retested this morning at the pool store...still waiting on my TF100 test kit. Somehow my CYA is 10...not sure how this happened since I added 2 4lb. jugs about a week and a half ago. However, the pool store guy was very confident in his result...he said my water for that test was very clear and should have been cloudy. I just scattered the stabilizer in the pool and did not place it in the skimmer (I was not familiar with this site when I added the initial stabilizer). Maybe that's the reason for the low reading. Anyway, I'm still fighting the algae spots on the bottom of my pool...I also just put 3.5lbs of stabilizer in a sock in my skimmer. My question is this...what number should I be using for CYA to determine my mustard algae shock level? It's 10 now but will obviously start to rise as my stabilizer dissolves.

Thanks,
Alan
 
24 hours after the CYA in the sock has dissolved, 'assume' it is there and adjust your chlorine accordingly.

It would be helpful if you added your pool and equipment specs to your signature.
Go to User Control Panel (upper left under TFP logo), select Profile, then Edit Signature. :)

Have you been backwashing lots? If so, you could have b/w'd out much of your CYA.
 
After using the calculator myself, I'm starting to question the number of gallons in my pool. I'm thinking my guesstimate is high. I'm going to do a few more tests and try to "back in" to the proper gallons. When I figure that out, I'll create a signature.

How long should it take 3.5lbs of stabilizer to dissolve in a skimmer...1 day, 1 week??

I think you're right about the backwashing...I stupidly backwashed tons after I put in the stabilizer.

Thanks,
Alan
 
alanrmeadows said:
After using the calculator myself, I'm starting to question the number of gallons in my pool. I'm thinking my guesstimate is high. I'm going to do a few more tests and try to "back in" to the proper gallons. When I figure that out, I'll create a signature.
This may help you figure the gallons:
One gallon of bleach will raise 10,000 gallons of water approximately the percentage of the bleach in FC (i.e, one gallon of 6% ultra bleach will raise 10,000 gallons approx. 6 ppm FC).

How long should it take 3.5lbs of stabilizer to dissolve in a skimmer...1 day, 1 week??
Well, if you squish it many times during the day, it could happen in a day.

I think you're right about the backwashing...I stupidly backwashed tons after I put in the stabilizer.

Thanks,
You're welcome :)
Alan
Click to expand...
 
Still fighting algae spots and CONFUSED!

Topics Merged by Moderator. Please keep related posts together rather than begin a new thread with each question.

I need an explanation as to how the following can happen:

I tested my chlorine at approx. 5:00pm yesterday afternoon. At that time, it had a reading of 12. My goal was to bring it up to 15 to get it a little above my mustard algae shock level. So I put in enough bleach to raise it to that level. I then waited for exactly an hour and retested. My reading for that test was between 16.5-17. That's when I decided my gallons were closer to 15,300. I didn't do anything additional to the pool after that test. When I woke up this morning around 6:15, I tested the water again. For some strange reason my chorine was reading 19 AND I still had algae spots. How in the world can my FC increase overnight without any chemical additions. I do have CYA in the skimmer that is currently dissolving...can that cause an increase in FC overnight. This issue is "double confusing" to me because not only did I raise my FC overnight without any chemical additions, I still have algae spots. And I'm confident I'm doing the FC test correctly...how hard can it be to add one drop at a time in a 10mL solution? Any ideas or suggestions on both the overnight increase of FC and the algae spots?

Current Readings:
FC - 19
TA - 140
CH - 237
Ph - 7.8
CYA - 10 (but with 3.5lbs currently dissolving in the skimmer)

Thanks,
Alan
IG
Fiberglass
Sand Filter
15,300 Gallons ?????
 

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