Hi,
I'm not sure how the sig is going to come out so let me start by saying I have a 21 foot, circular ABP with 10-11,000 gallons in it. It has a Hayward 2 HP pump. We bought the pool three years ago, along with a Zodiac Nature2 Chlorinator that also comes with some expensive little cartridge (A30) that is supposed to put minerals in the pool and allow you to save money on chlorine because you only need to keep it at .5 PPM. Feel free to comment on the validity of that claim...
The first year, things went smoothly. Last year, we went out of town for a couple days and a lightning strike tripped a breaker on the pump. We came back to a green pool. Since then, we have battled algae continuously.
This year, things started off okay but quickly turned murky. Did the usual pool store shocking with mixed results. The FC levels seem to be quite low most of the time, which would account for some of the problems...but my CYA is also low. All this based on strips (ordered a TF100XL last night).
Anyway, against my better judgment (hadn't found you folks, yet) I called the pool store one more time and they talked me into some algaecide. They also sang the phosphate song and sold us a (relatively) inexpensive cartridge to put in the Zodiac unit for 15 minutes, then swap it for the A30 cartridge.
I poured the required amount of algaecide in the pool and let it run for an hour, then came inside and started searching for better alternatives and found this site.
This AM I had lots of green particulates that I did my best to vacuum (though the very act of turning on the pump stirs things up quite a bit). We also have a little robot of some sort that will pick up debris on the pool bottom so I can use that, although with the pump running, I assume relatively little will settle at this point.
With no (reliable) test kit, I was impatient to move in some direction and reluctant to give up whatever ground the algaecide bought me, so I started pouring in bleach. We had a gallon and I sent my wife out to get more. While she was out, I had her grab some CYA, too. I added a little just so I wasn't running on 0, but based on other comments figure I won't really know how much is in there until the algae is all gone.
As of right now, the pump is on 24x7 and I plan to keep pouring in bleach to keep the test strip up at 10 (where it stops talking). Generally, I plan to follow the instructions for getting rid of algae, but since I've already started off on the wrong foot with the algaecide and no appreciable CYA, I thought I'd wave my hands to see if there is anything else I should do at this point other than keeping the FC up and waiting for a decent test kit to arrive.
thanks,
sf
I'm not sure how the sig is going to come out so let me start by saying I have a 21 foot, circular ABP with 10-11,000 gallons in it. It has a Hayward 2 HP pump. We bought the pool three years ago, along with a Zodiac Nature2 Chlorinator that also comes with some expensive little cartridge (A30) that is supposed to put minerals in the pool and allow you to save money on chlorine because you only need to keep it at .5 PPM. Feel free to comment on the validity of that claim...
The first year, things went smoothly. Last year, we went out of town for a couple days and a lightning strike tripped a breaker on the pump. We came back to a green pool. Since then, we have battled algae continuously.
This year, things started off okay but quickly turned murky. Did the usual pool store shocking with mixed results. The FC levels seem to be quite low most of the time, which would account for some of the problems...but my CYA is also low. All this based on strips (ordered a TF100XL last night).
Anyway, against my better judgment (hadn't found you folks, yet) I called the pool store one more time and they talked me into some algaecide. They also sang the phosphate song and sold us a (relatively) inexpensive cartridge to put in the Zodiac unit for 15 minutes, then swap it for the A30 cartridge.
I poured the required amount of algaecide in the pool and let it run for an hour, then came inside and started searching for better alternatives and found this site.
This AM I had lots of green particulates that I did my best to vacuum (though the very act of turning on the pump stirs things up quite a bit). We also have a little robot of some sort that will pick up debris on the pool bottom so I can use that, although with the pump running, I assume relatively little will settle at this point.
With no (reliable) test kit, I was impatient to move in some direction and reluctant to give up whatever ground the algaecide bought me, so I started pouring in bleach. We had a gallon and I sent my wife out to get more. While she was out, I had her grab some CYA, too. I added a little just so I wasn't running on 0, but based on other comments figure I won't really know how much is in there until the algae is all gone.
As of right now, the pump is on 24x7 and I plan to keep pouring in bleach to keep the test strip up at 10 (where it stops talking). Generally, I plan to follow the instructions for getting rid of algae, but since I've already started off on the wrong foot with the algaecide and no appreciable CYA, I thought I'd wave my hands to see if there is anything else I should do at this point other than keeping the FC up and waiting for a decent test kit to arrive.
thanks,
sf