Organic debris affect

[Padre Pool Padawan]

Being a Palawan I put my AG pool under a palm tree and next to a juniper. The season here is late spring and the palm trees are dropping their berries, pollen, and misc junk, while the juniper wanted to join in by shedding some if it's green buds, into my pool. We had a recent algae bloom that we probably could have beat, had I found this site sooner but instead I was forced to visit the pool store. I was told to drain the pool (not a difficult task with such a small pool), and that i needed to still buy Phos Free (lanthanum based phos remover) and add it weekly as directed and this would help manage the organic matter-food for algae.
I read on this site that phosphates are not a big deal. Is this still true for me? Or given my high potential for organic buildup, do I have to actually follow this and if so is this phos free stuff the right product?
Also,
We strain the pool daily and get all but only the fine organic material collects at the bottom. Our bottom cleaner is one of the hose based ones with a marginal strainer bag that does ok but does not get it all. I am not ready to get a sand filter and since the only circulation comes from a skimmer hole tied to a recirc pump that has a discharge only about 30degrees around the curve (circular pool). I do not get enough total pool circulation to warrant adding a more effective filter system. I do intend to modify the discharge to be directly across from the skiimmer and thus improve the surface circulation but it still will not address my settled organics.
Are there finer mesh bags for my vac system or do I just have to get a new, better one?

Df

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP!

Phosphates are really never an issue as long as you maintain proper sanitizer levels in your pool. That being said, you can save some money by avoiding the Phos Free and by testing regularly to ensure that you have enough chlorine in there at all times.

Have you started reading Pool School? There is important information in there that will help you operate your pool efficiently.

 

[duraleigh]

At some point, you must address how you intend to sanitize your pool.....I see no mention of that in your post. Filtration will not sanitize your pool.

 

[Padre Pool Padawan]

Sorry, I should have mentioned my santizer program.
I have read the pool school articles and am in the process of implementing as appropriate. Starting with Chloring and pH
After refilling the pool I dose the pool to 6 ppm with dichlor to begin raising my FC and CYA levels. It dropped to 3 by the next evening (i am assuming due to not enough build up stabilizer). I have continued to add back up to 6 and will continue to do so every evening until I build up the proper level of CYA. I cannot as yet test for CYA but will be getting it in the next couple days. I read that the CYA can take a long time to dissolve anyway so I did not feel rushed to get it. I have just been keeping track of the daily CL ppm increase and totaling it up as a rough CYA number for now as I understand they are 1:1 increase; thus 6+3=9).
After I build up enough CYA (I am assuming 30-40 is sufficient but would be interested in hearing other suggested target levels).
I will switch to unstabilized santization using straight bleach (6% or higher depending on how it prices out) and monitor the CL at a 3-4 ppm level morning and evening to make sure there is no unusual decrease in cl overnight and thus a potential algae bloom, along with pH and adjust into 7.2-7.8 range as needed. Is this range correct or to high?
BTW It seems the pH increases as I add my dichlor. Maybe I missed this point in pool school but is that expected?
I will also monitor CYA, CH, TA weekly.
since the general feeling here is that i still should not have a phos level problem so I will then shift to TA as my next condition to get in line.
Any thoughts ?
thanks for all the feedback...

 

[Padre Pool Padawan]

Did any of you have an input to my situation?

 

[linen]

Welcome to tfp, Padre Pool Padawan

I think you've got a good handle on it...just make sure you keep track of how much dichlor you have put in.

The ph increase you are seeing may be due to higher TA. Dichlor is acidic and should lower it.

Have you gotten your test kit yet?

 

[Padre Pool Padawan]

I did get my test kit with cya. It seems to have leveled out at 35-40. I have switched to bleach and am maintaining to 5ppm. I still loose 3-4 ppm on sunny days. Should I bump my cya up to 50ish? Also my ph finally dropped to 7.2 after holding at 7.5-7.6 for a week. It happened right after I moved to bleach. Will bleach do that?
Also my TA is about 100 so maybe there is not enough buffering. Thoughts?