I have recently begun maintaining my pool after repeat lackluster performances by our pool guy. There was black algae everywhere that I have scrubbed with a stainless steel brush, pretty much eliminating it. Every now and they it will start to grow in some of the pitted grout around the tiles, but this is easy to kill with the brush and some bleach in a spray bottle. The yellow/mustard algae has been a lot more problematic though. When first taking over the pool, I shocked it at 40+ ppm chlorine for a week, scrubbing everyday and it appeared that the algae was gone. There were still some yellow areas, but I could not tell if it was staining or algae. In some places our plaster is very rough, and the scrub brush doesn't get in to the little nooks and crannies. After shocking and scrubbing, I backwashed the DE filter (actually completely disassembled it and thoroughly cleaned it) My CYA has been as high as 100, but I am slowly lowering it, draining about 10% of the pool every weekend and refilling.
FC: 9-15 (one 128oz bottle of 5% every night)
CC: 0 (with an occasional jump to .5 if the FC drops to the low end after excessive rain or hot sunny days)
PH: 7.4
TA: 120
CYA: 80
CH: 460
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jparr/sets ... 433681083/
The pics show both the north and south sides of the deep end. The south side is shaded most of the day, and home to most of the algae, while the north side gets direct sun and has very little algae.
FC: 9-15 (one 128oz bottle of 5% every night)
CC: 0 (with an occasional jump to .5 if the FC drops to the low end after excessive rain or hot sunny days)
PH: 7.4
TA: 120
CYA: 80
CH: 460
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jparr/sets ... 433681083/
The pics show both the north and south sides of the deep end. The south side is shaded most of the day, and home to most of the algae, while the north side gets direct sun and has very little algae.