mustard algae, pollen need help

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rndog43

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Aug 12, 2012
30
First year pool owner, and I left my pool open over the winter because by the time my pool deck cured fully most of the leaves had fallen so I decided against a cover. Over the winter I felt like I was doing a pretty good job, I'd get leaves out daily and added shock to the pool every couple of weeks or when I saw the hint of any algae. So forward to spring, my water looks great but I noticed some small areas of what looks like sand in on the bottom but when I brushed them they poof away. its the same spots every time shallow end near the left skimmer near the seam. Store associate said it was mustard algae so on his recommendation I purchased Yellow Out, 12 pounds of shock (powder plus) and administered over a 36 hour period to get rid of it. After a week i thought I had got rid of it but after putting pump back on 14 hour schedule I noticed today that its back. I live in southeast Virginia and there's a significant amount of trees around me, the pollen has been a beast around here and I'm wondering is there any chance that's what it is? My pool builder looked at it and said it wasn't mustard because it was just in the seams. He said to it was finite junk the filter couldn't catch and said to vacuum to discharge. Any way i'm pretty frustrated, this was to be our first full summer with the pool and I think I have something...can anyone help me out

We had a good rain storm last night and I had to drain a little bit of the pool and i'm wondering if I should shock it based on pool school procedures. I noticed in the shock segment it recommends the overnight test for algae, should I do that to test for algae? One thing I noticed under shocking was to bring PH levels down before shocking but Yellow Out directions say to raise PH to 8.0 before using yellow out... that sound contradicting to me. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds like you might have mustard algae. You'll need a full set of test results (and don't trust the store - remember, they exist to sell products) so you know what your CYA level is, and if it or the CH are too high, which might require a partial drain. If they're good, set the pH and hit it hard with bleach according to the instructions for the shock process and don't bother testing or adjusting anything else but FC & CC until it's clear.

Have you studied Pool School? You do know those powdered products marketed as shock may add unwanted chemicals, right? And I don't mean to heap on the abuse or anything, but the money you spent on yellow out could have been better spent on bleach.

Plenty of people here have cleared worse than what you've got following our directions.
 
Whatever you do don't use Yellow Out. Plain-ole chlorine will kill Mustard Algae but I don't think that's what you have. The best way to confirm organics like MA is to do an Overnight FC Loss Test but you need your own test kit for that.

And that info on PH is wrong too. Richard is right, do some studying in Pool School and post back with any questions.

Welcome to TFP! :)
 
thank you all for the quick responses..... after I posted I dug into pool school (wish I would have read about before). I'm going to purchase chlorine kit today, I really don't want to go back to that same pool store, I had a hunch he was trying to sell me a bunch I didn't need. do big box stores carry these kits or should I try online?
 
rndog43 said:
thank you all for the quick responses..... after I posted I dug into pool school (wish I would have read about before). I'm going to purchase chlorine kit today, I really don't want to go back to that same pool store, I had a hunch he was trying to sell me a bunch I didn't need. do big box stores carry these kits or should I try online?
Click to expand...
It is rare to even find a pool store that carries the K-2006 test kit. They will tell you the K-2005 is the same and it isn't.

:testkit:

The TF100 is available online and has the exact same reagents but in more realistic quantities. If you do end up needing the shock process, you'll use a whole lot of the FAS-DPD reagents, so you may as well spring for the XL option now. And no one who has a speedstir has said it's a waste of money. All that together is a nice chunk of change, but it may well end up being your biggest expense all season, because you will save a ton of money by only buying what you actually need and not getting pool-stored buying buckets of miracle powders.
 

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I have the same problem but have determined mine is dust/pollen. I have a sand filter and didn't see what kind of filter you have. I went and got as D.E from lowes. Poured enough in the skimmer to raise Pressure by a couple PSI( mix with water in a bucket 1st). For mine it was 5 cups in a 500lbs sand filter. If you have a drain set it to run on drain only and brush the Crud out of the pool and push all dirt/pollen towards the drain. Run filter for a few hours and backwash. After this I personally put half of what I put in to start and run my pump as normal and don't worry about it until the next time I need to backwash. I have not had my pool for long but it looks better and cleaner this past month than all of last year. In theory the DE puts a fine top layer on top of the sand and collect smaller particles much better. If it is pollen/dust it will help and not blow it right back into your pool.
 
Guys, Kit arrived today..seeing a little bit of spotting on the bottom that could be mustard along with a few leaves from the storm. I was planning to vac early tomorrow morning should vac to discharge then commence testing?
 
well... here's what I came up with after testing:

FC=12
CC=1
CYA= did register, I could see the black dot all the way through the tube. I'm not sure if I did everything right but I really thought I did. I'm going to stop by my pool builders office and have him run my sample to sanity check mine. Should I turn my SWG off for now? I added conditioner to maintain chlorine about a month ago so I don't understand my CYA not registering and with a FC of 12 I'd imagine I'm holding chlorine. When I get back , I'll test again. not sure what I could have done wrong.
 
PH, TA? CC of 1 something still lurking. You may have CYA just maybe not quite 20. Did you use a cold water sample? Let it come to room temp or warm it under hot water. Do the test outside in direct sunlight with your back to the sun.

You need to hold FC of 12. You can hold it with the SWG running or use liquid to maintain the level.
 
I didn't do the CYA test outside...my fault. my drops must not have been big enough for Chlorine; here's what got from pool builders electronic system, water temp was 70 F. I'm going to run another set of test. I really need to get this stuff straight...please help.

FC 5.83 ppm
TC 5.83 ppm
CC .45 ppm
PH 7.8
hardness: 30ppm
Alkalinity: 42ppm
CYA: 10ppm
Cooper: 0
Iron: 0
Borate 27ppm
Salt 2800
 
Ok. First, play with the Pool Calculator - the link is in my signature. You will determine how much of each chemical to add.
1. Adjust your TA to 70 with Baking Soda. Allow it to circulate for several hours, retest and confirm you reached 70.
2. Once TA is at 70, lower the PH to 7.2 with Muratic Acid. Again, you will determine how much with the Pool Calc.
3. Once PH is down to 7.2, raise the FC with liquid chlorine up to 12ppm, your shock level - and HOLD IT THERE until the FC HOLDS OVERNIGHT. The SWG must be OFF during the OVERNIGHT portion of the test. You are looking for any loss overnight of FC. You want your CC to be less than .5 If you tested 12 FC and 1 CC I believe your testing is accurate - did you remember to divide by 2? If not, then your results would match his. If you did remember to divide, then his are not accurate... I trust our FASDPD test above all else (provided there is no testing error by the pool owner)
4. At any time during this process, you need to add CYA. You can purchase it from Walmart, called Stabilizer/conditioner or at a pool store. You need to raise it to 30ppm for now, you can finish raising it to 60ppm once your FC is holding overnight and your numbers have stabilized.
 
so I had my wife double check my chorine count this morning it took her 26 drops to turn the water clear so that equaled to 13ppm.... also used the pool calc to determine how much Baking Soda I needed to reach a TA of 70 from 42 . It said 196oz, I put on 194 and 3 hours later Im getting a reading of 130...my pool is toxic right now. I'm getting depressed what do I do now?
 

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