I've been combing through this forum on and off this summer. We bought a house last fall, which came with a pool, and everything was going "swimmingly" until about one month ago, when mustard algae hit hard, and i have been fighting a battle, initially losing, but now i think i have the upper hand, and i'm just trying to get my water back in balance.
when the algae took over, i ended up pouring "tons" of stuff in, and shocking repeatedly......i ended up with cloudy water, which i figured was due to either high TA or high CH.....i did some diluting, i won't bore you with all my past set of numbers, but, now, thankfully, my water is back to clear, and i have the following values:
FC = 15
CC = 0
pH = 7.7
TA = 140
CH = 220
CYA = 80
using the fc/cya table, it looks like i need to maintain an FC around 9 until i dilute the CYA (it was higher, and i've brought it down a bit). the FC = 15 is the result of shocking it last night, because my CC level had risen (due to all the #$%$#! i threw in there to kill the algae!). obviously, i'll be checking the FC level tomorrow, and hoping that it'll come down a bit......but, this raises two questions in my mind:
thanks to all the great advice on this list - i feel much less alone in this adventure, which my husband was very dubious about, and not at all supportive of trying to manage - the only reason he didn't fill in the pool when we moved in was because it cost too much to fill it!! i'm a life-long swimmer, including lifeguard/swim instructor in high school, and swim team in college, but i've never dealt with the chemistry end!!
when the algae took over, i ended up pouring "tons" of stuff in, and shocking repeatedly......i ended up with cloudy water, which i figured was due to either high TA or high CH.....i did some diluting, i won't bore you with all my past set of numbers, but, now, thankfully, my water is back to clear, and i have the following values:
FC = 15
CC = 0
pH = 7.7
TA = 140
CH = 220
CYA = 80
using the fc/cya table, it looks like i need to maintain an FC around 9 until i dilute the CYA (it was higher, and i've brought it down a bit). the FC = 15 is the result of shocking it last night, because my CC level had risen (due to all the #$%$#! i threw in there to kill the algae!). obviously, i'll be checking the FC level tomorrow, and hoping that it'll come down a bit......but, this raises two questions in my mind:
- what's my next step with these numbers? this is the highest the pH has been all summer, and i'm thinking i should bring that down, which would give me the opportunity to do the whole aeration thing to bring down the TA a bit...but is that my priority?[/*:m:3rvfxq02]
- how much higher than the fc/cya table target fc values is it safe to swim in? esp for little kids? specifically, is FC = 15 OK to swim in with the CYA = 80? [/*:m:3rvfxq02]
thanks to all the great advice on this list - i feel much less alone in this adventure, which my husband was very dubious about, and not at all supportive of trying to manage - the only reason he didn't fill in the pool when we moved in was because it cost too much to fill it!! i'm a life-long swimmer, including lifeguard/swim instructor in high school, and swim team in college, but i've never dealt with the chemistry end!!