But I don't want to shock every week. . .

[Whatrymes]

Good morning:

I can’t find any other problems. I perform the OCLT frequently and it is at most .5 ppm loss, the CC is always zero to at most .2 ppm and the water is always blindingly sparkling, clear and beautiful. All my numbers are near perfect and my FC never falls to 4 ppm or below with a CYA no higher than 50 ppm (seems closer to 40, room for error).

There is never any visible alga (and there hasn’t been in 11 years) EXCEPT; there is always a battle of green algae that gets in all the nooks and crannies of our removable, PVC, above ground pool ladder. No matter how well I maintain sanitation, if I do not physically get in the water and brush all the holes, it will be back in a week, always has. I have always believed this to be a circulation problem not a CL problem but the advice here is to shock (at 20ppm!) whenever I see algae. So in essence I need to shock every week. Back to old school I guess.
FC = 5.0
CC = .2
pH = 7.6
TA = 120
CH = 260
CYA = 50
OCLT = ~ .5

PS. The ladder is not designed to be removed frequentlyit will ruin it. Removing and sanitizing is not the answer.

Thank you.

 

[dmanb2b]

Can you snap a pic of the ladder? IMO if it is causing that much work, I would just replace it

 

[linen]

That is frustrating! Anyway you can inject bleach directly in the ladder holes (with a syringe or turkey baster, etc.)? You would be shocking just the inside of your ladder. Do it everyday for a week and then maybe do it once a week? It might be that you have a major crop of algae in there that you can not see.

 

[Whatrymes]

Can you snap a pic of the ladder? IMO if it is causing that much work, I would just replace it

Well, that's kind of the point. It never was much of a hassle. I never even knew algae was growing behind it till I removed it at seasons end because I never had a pool wide algae problem with the old scholl methods of pool care. I'm new to TFP and its philosophy and I've been told seeing algae means shock, so now it is a problem.

 

[linen]

I'm new to TFP and its philosophy and I've been told seeing algae means shock, so now it is a problem.

True, that is the general method of reducing/elimanting pool algae. Most new posters here have more problems then they think they have, therefore requiring getting all of the water clean. The apparent problem with your steps is that they are a "seed" or starting point for contaminating the rest of your pool. If you get a large organic load (swimmers, leaves, etc.) that extra algae in your steps might push your pool into a bloom.

If you are not going to replace/remove the ladder, then if I was you, I would do the injection I mentioned above along with shocking the pool. You can google this site (search is on lower left of this page) and read about people with wedding cake step algae problems and solutions (maybe some ladder stories in there as well).

Question: Why is "removing it and sanitizing it not an option"?

 

[Whatrymes]

I'm new to TFP and its philosophy and I've been told seeing algae means shock, so now it is a problem.

True, that is the general method of reducing/elimanting pool algae. Most new posters here have more problems then they think they have, therefore requiring getting all of the water clean. The apparent problem with your steps is that they are a "seed" or starting point for contaminating the rest of your pool. If you get a large organic load (swimmers, leaves, etc.) that extra algae in your steps might push your pool into a bloom.

If you are not going to replace/remove the ladder, then if I was you, I would do the injection I mentioned above along with shocking the pool. You can google this site (search is on lower left of this page) and read about people with wedding cake step algae problems and solutions (maybe some ladder stories in there as well).

Question: Why is "removing it and sanitizing it not an option"?

What I meant to say is removing it frequently is not the answer.

It is bolted to the rail, requires two people to remove, the bolts are very hard to reach under and behind the deck and repeated tightening and loosening will wear it all out I'm sure.

 

[zea3]

Injecting bleach behind the ladder or pouring bleach around the ladder and swishing it with the pool brush should take care of the problem. Also it looks like you are staying at the bottom of the FC range instead of the top of the range. Keeping the FC at the top of the range (in your case 8) should also help take care of the algae under the ladder. One more thing I found when plugging your numbers into the pool calculator using the dimensions of your pool I get 12000 gallons instead of 10800. You may not be adding enough bleach for the volume of your pool.

 

[Whatrymes]

Injecting bleach behind the ladder or pouring bleach around the ladder and swishing it with the pool brush should take care of the problem. Also it looks like you are staying at the bottom of the FC range instead of the top of the range. Keeping the FC at the top of the range (in your case 8) should also help take care of the algae under the ladder. One more thing I found when plugging your numbers into the pool calculator using the dimensions of your pool I get 12000 gallons instead of 10800. You may not be adding enough bleach for the volume of your pool.

How did you get 12,000? I have been trying to get to the bottom of this number. I seem to get different results all the time. My agp is oval, 30 x 15 x 3.6. I did list it as 4' deep and haven't edited that but the true depth is 44".

I measure very often after adding bleach to be sure and if anything my numbers are too high. I raise my FC up to 8 in the evening and add about 24 hrs later. It never gets down to 4 and I would say spends the majority of time around the target of 6 ppm.

Sorry for all the editing but I like that idea of swishing it around and/or injecting bleach.
Thanks

 

[loop_pea]

That is frustrating! Anyway you can inject bleach directly in the ladder holes (with a syringe or turkey baster, etc.)? You would be shocking just the inside of your ladder. Do it everyday for a week and then maybe do it once a week? It might be that you have a major crop of algae in there that you can not see.

That sounds like great advice. Why shock the whole pool if the problem is confined to one small area? It sounds like the regular shock process might not reach those places inside the ladder anyway, and you need to target them specifically.

 

[Whatrymes]

I did the "Google" search Linen suggested and it was encouraging. It is common for algae to get behind stairs/ladders because of circulation problems. JasonLion said the algae won't be killed without brushing and jumping into panic mode and shocking was not mentioned. That's what I'm hoping is true.

A lot has been written and my concern may have been lost. I don't feel I need to, and I think it would be impractical to shock the pool because of this situation but that seems to be the belief here. I was hoping to see that was not necessarily the case.

 

[dattia]

The whole point of BBB is to put you in control of your own pool... no one will care about it, or take care of it as you do. You have the knowledge and a good test kit, that is all you need. If you get in and scrub these suspect areas every week and bump up your FC a bit and you never get an algae bloom, then you will know that this is what works for your pool... if you do get a full blown algae bloom, you will know what to do. For me, that sounds like win/win.

 

[duraleigh]

Dattia has made a very nice post that should put you at ease. You are practicing BBB because you know your pool and pool water chemistry and what to do to keep your pool sparkling. BBB is not always following black and white rules but rather understanding and testing to keep you pool in tip top shape.

My pool has an underwater crevice where my liner meets the tile and I get algae in that crevice from time to time. I do not shock the pool but rather brush that area and then up my FC to above normal for several days and it goes away. That's BBB.

 

[Whatrymes]

As my wife would say, "Ya'll have been too kind."

Thanks