Help for Neighbor

[pooladdict]

Hi All;

I have a neighbor that is having major troubles with Algae, and neither of us can figure it out.

He has a 26' round on Ground, 60,000 litres of water (approx. 15,000 gallons). One skimmer, one, I repeat 1 jet. As I type this his steps are green.

Here are the numbers, we dont have the TFP Kit yet as we are in Canada, but taking water samples to pool company's this is what we get.

Temp 80
Stabalizer 40
Sanitizer -
Total - 5
Free - 5
PH - 7.4
Alka - 0
T.A. 160
CH - 180
Copper - 0
Iron - 0
Mang - 0
Quat- 0
Algae- Green
Clarity - Grn/Cloudy

After these results from a pool store, they tell him this.

Sanitize! Use Bioguard Smart Sticks
Oxidize! Use 2 Bags of Smart Shock
Prevent Algae Add 120.32mls of BioGuard Banish.

After all this being said, I believe his whole problem is due to Circulation.

Your thoughts.

Waterbear if you are out there, HELP!

Rik

 

[Marillion Fan]

I have an 18x33 oval that only has one jet so unless his pump is undersized I don't see that being a problem.
I'm no expert but I would buy a couple of cases of bleach get it up to shock level per the best guess chart assuming that the 40 stated for CYA is close to being correct and have at it.
run the filter 24/7 vacuum everyday and keep the chlorine level up and she'll be crystal in no time.
It took me less than a week to clear my pine oak maple leaf tea pot up from over the winter it shouldn't take much longer to clear up a little algea.

 

[DrC]

One skimmer, one, I repeat 1 jet. As I type this his steps are green.

After all this being said, I believe his whole problem is due to Circulation.

Your thoughts.

The emphasis you placed on 1 jet (return) seems surprising to you I guess. This is not uncommon in above ground pools. Mine only has 1 also. Is the green on the steps on the outside surface or growing inside where the water doesn't circulate enough?

Either way he needs to get the chlorine level up to shock level and maintain it there to kill the algae. You can check the Best Guess Chart for levels, I don't have it handy right now, sorry.

Hope this helps and am sure more help will follow.

 

[pooladdict]

That is the problem, he is telling me his Chlorine is through the roof, will not get a number due to it being so high, I gave him two jugs of Chlorine the other evening, told him to pour it in, wait an hour, check chlorine, then the next morning check chlorine level again, if it was lower then at nite, it meant he had algae that was using up his Chlorine. So in essence he needed more.

 

[chem geek]

It is very surprising to have the Free and Total Chlorine numbers be the same implying that there is no Combined Chlorine yet there is visible algae. These numbers are strongly suspect. If there is algae in the water, it will get consumed by the chlorine and generally one finds near zero Free Chlorine with measurable Combined Chlorine. You should retest with a known good test kit of your own.

The advice about shocking is correct, but unless you get your own test kit, you won't be able to measure chlorine levels accurately. Even if you do not get a FAS-DPD test kit right away, see about getting an inexpensive OTO test kit that turns yellow when chlorine is present. This won't bleach out at high chlorine levels and you can use the dilution method to measure higher chlorine levels, at least approximately.

[EDIT] Sorry, you posted while I was writing. Yes, you are absolutely right about adding chlorine and seeing if it holds. Something about this scenario doesn't add up. Either the chlorine measurements are wrong or it is also possible that the CYA level is far higher than stated in which case the algae is able to grow faster than the chlorine kills it (i.e. higher chlorine levels are needed for shocking).

Maybe when he is measuring chlorine and saying it is through the roof, it is actually Total Chlorine that he is measuring and that Free Chlorine is really near zero. The OTO test really only reliably tests Total Chlorine (when waiting long enough). The DPD test can more easily distinguish between Free and Combined Chlorine. Though one can use time to try and distinguish between Free and Total Chlorine in the OTO test, this is tricky to do accurately except with the DPD (red color) or FAS-DPD (pink/red color) tests. [END-EDIT]