very slight algae

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Lisaheidinger

0
Apr 29, 2013
91
Port St. Lucie Florida
Last week I notices a very slight bit of algae on sides and bottom of pool...only noticed it while brushing the pool. I had about made up my mind at this time to stop going to the pool store and I found your website.

I used my last pool store water test (day I found algae) and calculated my shock level and used pool calculator and added the appropriate amount of bleach and then promptly ordered a TF-100 kit. Since I did not have anything to test with to keep the chlorine at shock levels, I just added a little each day to keep the algae from taking over until my test kit arrived.

The kit arrived late yesterday, so this morning I started working on a plan. First....visually my water is clear as can be and most all visible algae is gone....I only see a slight cloud of green when i brush the bottom.

Here are my test results from this morning: First let me say I have a SWG, 10,000 gunite pool with a cartridge filter.

FC -25
CC-0
CYA- 80
PH-7.8
TA- well...that reads almost 200 but i thinkg that is because of the high FC

Does the 0 CC mean i have gotten rid of algae? What should my next step be? the OCLT? tonight?

Thank you for any an all help.

Lisa
 
0 CC doesn't really tell you much. It is quite possible to have algae with CC at zero the while time.

The next step is an overnight FC loss test.

I'm a little concerned about the PH reading 7.8. Very high FC levels tend to make the PH read way higher than it actually is, so your actual PH might be quite low. The next time FC is below 15 test the PH again and adjust as needed.
 
Lisaheidinger said:
Last week I notices a very slight bit of algae on sides and bottom of pool...only noticed it while brushing the pool. I had about made up my mind at this time to stop going to the pool store and I found your website.

I used my last pool store water test (day I found algae) and calculated my shock level and used pool calculator and added the appropriate amount of bleach and then promptly ordered a TF-100 kit.
Click to expand...
applause-smiley-emoticon.gif



Since I did not have anything to test with to keep the chlorine at shock levels, I just added a little each day to keep the algae from taking over until my test kit arrived.

The kit arrived late yesterday, so this morning I started working on a plan. First....visually my water is clear as can be and most all visible algae is gone....I only see a slight cloud of green when i brush the bottom.
Click to expand...
Not done yet. When it's no longer green, then worry about the OCLT.

Here are my test results from this morning: First let me say I have a SWG, 10,000 gunite pool with a cartridge filter.

FC -25
CC-0
CYA- 80
PH-7.8
TA- well...that reads almost 200 but i thinkg that is because of the high FC

Does the 0 CC mean i have gotten rid of algae? What should my next step be? the OCLT? tonight?

Thank you for any an all help.

Lisa
Click to expand...
Open a can of POP. That's Pool Owner Patience. A couple more days and it will be clearer than ever and you'll have the testing down pat and everything will be balanced. But get rid of the green first! Also, don't forget to brush hard-to reach areas like under ladder rungs and inside the skimmer.
 
Well my test results were not what i expected or hoped for this morning.

After keeping the FC at required shock levels all day and brushing often by the end of the day the pool was clear with no more "green cloud" when I brushed. It was not hard to keep at shock levels , I thought because of the cloudy day and because I was beating the algae.

At bedtime I recorded
FC- 31
CC-0

This morning at 7am

FC-22
CC-0

Now here is my question: when I read pool school and the shock process I completely understood the need to add Bleach to quickly raise my FC levels and not use my SWG to try and do it. However, it never said to turn it off and it never occurred to me to turn it off. Maybe that is why is was so easy to keep the FC at shock levels because my SWG was also still producing chlorine. When I did my last test of the night, I all of a sudden thought that I need to turn the SWG off or my OCLT reading will not be correct.

So....did I screw up my numbers? :hammer:

If not....then where is the Algae hiding because it looks beautiful.

I will stay the course today.......
 
There is nothing hiding....steps are built into pool and I have no ladders or anything else...just smooth rounded edges that i have brushed very thoroughly.

I have raised the chlorine back up this morning....brushed again and still see no green :-D . Should I leave the SWG turned off today?

Also, I'm concered that I may have screwed up my "drop" size.

On the reading late last night I held the bottle horizontal and let drops fall.......then during my continued education ( I kept reading posts and pool school all day) I learned I should hold bottle vertical and lets drops hang from nozzle. That is how i did it this morning....along with sleepy eyes and not contacts! Maybe my drops this morning were larger? so it took less drops?


Will keep FC at shock level today and then try and do a uniform OCLT test tonight/tomorrow.

Thanks
Lisa
 

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Ok... Now I think I did do the OCLT test correctly...SWG ran during the day helping me keep FC at shock levels.....then at bed time I turned it off and left it off for the night and did my final test. in the morning my test showed a 9ppm drop.

for reference can you tell me how to interpret this? since water is clear with no visible algae I expected ( hoped for) no drop , or at least a much smaller drop by now but again.....I have no previous experience by which to compare.

Continuing with process today...will repeat OCLT test tonight....again water today is partly clean with no algae visible while brushing...also cleaned cartridge filter real well.

Any advice about properly keeping drops the same size?

Thanks

al
 
On an unrelated side note - you mentioned the TA at 200 and wondered if that was due to high FC - no its independent of the FC levels that won't affect your result. High TA is something you can deal with later - nothing major now. First past the OFCLT. Then you can address the TA.
 
Don't trust the pool store over you TA measurement...I trust yours more. Your TA is high but that can be dealt with later.

The shocking process is what you need to do now. With your significant OCLT drops, you still have some killing to do. Keep it up, hopefully your OCLT will lower soon.

Lisaheidinger said:
since I'm needing to keep my FC at 30 ppm for shocking...is there a procedure to use less regent? 60 drops each time to be sure I'm keeping at shock level is using up a lot of regent.
Click to expand...
This is not good for the OCLT test, but for testing during the day to know how much chlorine to add, you can go with a 5 ml sample and use 1 level scoop of the powder, then each drop will be 1 ppm.
 
I still did not pass the OCLT test this morning.

I kept FC close to 30 again all day...I tested at 4 pm using only 5 ml drops x1 and it was still good so I added nothing and went to a previously planned event. I got home later than expected any my timer had turned off the pump at 7pm ( I wasn't there to turn it back on). When I came home at 9:30 I turned it back on and let it run for an hour then did a 10 ml FSL/DPD test and it was down by 5ppm again! It was too late to add more and do another test ....this morning it registered another 2.5 drop.

I'm really questioning my chemistry ability......

Since pool looks great could there still be algae in my cartridge filter? I've been
Hosing it off regularly should I be doing something more? Searched forums looking on alive about properly cleaning these but I didn't find anything.
Thanks

Lisa

My family thinks I'm crazy because pool looks great..we have guest coming and I need time for chlorine to drop to swim able levels so I need to figure this out?
 
I'm not comfortable having my guest swimm at 30 ppm....ruins swim suits, horrible for hair not good for baby skin. I will need to stop adding chlorine soon to be sure it's down before they come this week.


I have one light in pool and one in spa...I've brushed around them and the stainless ring around each light but I have not taken anything apart...should I?
 

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