Cannot defeat algae and party coming this weekend

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Hello ALL
Update on my Charlotte pool from Atlanta (not easy)
This morning at 6 i did another "hokey" Free chlorine test with my cheapo pool kit. It showed maybe 3-4 which again when multiplied by 8 i thought put me in the ball part for target of 24 ppm.

However, once i jetted of to Atlanta, the new TF100 kit arrived. My son did the FC test and got a result of 1 !!!! This puzzled me.

1. It seems to mean either the readings yesterday and early this morning were completely false. (seems strange as i started with a reading of 1 ppm and as a result added 6 x 182 bottles of Walmart bleach and then the reading showed equivalent of well over 24 ppm.)
2. The algae ate away at all of the bleach i added to the pool yesterday - 6 bottles in AM and then 3 more at around 11 PM.

PH is 8.2
CYA is >100 - apparently way off the register This could potentially explain the problems - do i understand correctly chlroine is far less effective at high CYA. Do i now need to drain say half the pool? (re pool school)

Any thoughts?
 
How does the pool look? Hoping for a blue-grey rather than greenish.

Your extra high CYA is of course a big problem. The CYA protects the chlorine from the sun, but it also makes it less active. That can make it hard to hit the algae hard enough to get it under control, and may explain why you've had so much trouble. It's not impossible to deal with, but long-term you will certainly want to replace some water.

It would be normal for the algae to use all of the chlorine from yesterday, but I can't explain your previous readings. Did your son use the FAS/DPD test? If he is confident that he is performing the test right, I'd go with the assumption that you need more chlorine.
 
If it were me in this situation and things hadn't improved I would pull the trigger and drain to a safe level and get the CYA in check (as long as the testing was done correctly). The weekend is almost here. When I have that many folks headed my way I have a ton of other things to do on top of normal life. Add clearing a 24,000 gallon pool on top of that, it might be a bit overwhelming.
 
My wife did a retest
FC - 40
TC 41
CyA 125
PH 7.4-7.6
Water is creamy/blue/some green
Chlorine count v high (assuming my son did it wrong) and maybe more understandable and inline with previous tEsts.
Am draining half of pool water and will refill due to cya result

Any other advice?
 
Update - In case anyone still monitoring this!

Well its making progress albeit not at the rate i would have preferred.
Pool is a milky creamy colored blue. There was algae still on the bottom. Today have emptied about 40% of the pool water (in attempt to bring the CYA down). Think i should have done more!! Have brushed vacuumed and back-washed maybe 3 times.

These are some recent readings with the TK100 test kit:

Note

Free Chlroine
6/6 15:00 40
6/6 21:00 36.5
6/7 07:00 30
6/7 19:00 24

CYA
6/6 15:00 120
6/6 21:00 130
6/7 07:00 130
6/7 19:00 24

PH
6/6 15:00 7.5
6/6 21:00 7.5
6/7 19:00 7.5

My take- chlorine is slowly working. As chlorine dropped quite some today am beefing that back up to 24 with 2 x bottles of bleach.
Anything else i can do at this point?

Anyone think it will be clear by Saturday evening? Will the chlorine level be safe to swim in if it is?
 
Is that 24 for CYA a typo?

Also, the pH test is inaccurate for FC >10 ... no need to keep testing it.

Pool is safe when FC > min and < shock level for your CYA. CC < 1. And water clear.

TBD.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
 
Greater than the minimum FC level listed in the CYA /FC chart or that the poolcalculator states.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
 
mjtraynor73 said:
Thanks
Yup CYA for 6/7 19:00 should read 100. (cut and paste error).
Jason I don't understand the formula you posted. What does "Free Chlorine is greater than min" mean????
Click to expand...

If you look at the pool calculator, it will show you a suggested normal range of fc level. This level should never go below the minimum or things have a chance to grow.
 
Morning
Day of Party is here- pool is getting clearer and blue in color - somewhat cloudy can see bottom of deep end - just. Certainly not crystal clear.
The question is now what should i do. I took a reading last night and this morning.
CYA is at the top end of the acceptable scale 80 both times.
The shock level for this according to pool calculator is 21. Last night my FC reading was 20 this morning at 7:00 before sun morning 17.
Conclusion algae still eating chlorine - correct?

The question is should i let the FC level drop a few more points today so that the pool can be used - then pick up on it again heaviily tomorrow. Or continue and add bleach to bring up to target FC level for shock which is 21.
Also can i put in a clarifier of some sort to help clear the water?

Thanks for all the help so far.
 

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Do update us on how the party goes, it sounds like you are just about there, although will certainly want to bring it back up to shock level after the party to make sure all traces of algae are gone. It may still take some time for your filter to clear out everything.

Ike
 
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