hey guys, new member of the site here. just for a bit of background, i live in the Ontario, California area. my pool info is below. i HAD a pool company for the past couple years here and had some issues with them recently. mainly, i would constantly have to be calling them for pool issues i saw when they were supposed to be coming out weekly. they would never say anything about it until i brought these issues to their attention and eventually i got to the point where i just didn't want to use them anymore.
the last issue was algae related. i had seen some spots on the bottom of the pool that looked like dirt and it turned out to be (i believe) algae. again, weeks went by where they didn't say or do anything about it, only when i brought it to their attention did they try to fix the problem. so they tried to fix it (not exactly sure what they did, they said they shocked it but i don't know the specifics). eventually they said well the pool isn't showing that it has any chlorine in it despite the fact that we shocked it so you'll need to empty your pool and put new water in because the water isn't taking to the chlorine which is causing the algae to stay.
not saying they were wrong but by this point i was pretty annoyed with the entire thing so i advised them that i no longer wanted to use their service. i ordered the k-2006 testing kit from taylor. i did the testing today and it's not looking so hot. i followed the directions as they were in the manual so unless i screwed something up badly then these are accurate:
FC = 10.5
CC = .5
PH = 7.4
TA = 200 ppm
CH = 800 ppm (i did this test twice because i was kind of blown away by how high this was but again i followed the directions.... 32 drops X 25!)
CYA = Appox. 130 (again I did this test twice also because of how high it was.... i say appox. 130 because the kit starts from 100 and goes down from there, the water line is below the 100 mark so im guessing)
so there it is. i have read a bit online and i'm not sure what my options are. i would obviously prefer to NOT have to empty my entire pool and fill it back. beyond the cost involved for hiring someone to do this and the water bill it just seems like a waste.
i am also including a photo of what i BELIEVE to be algae. i don't know for certain. i have a steel bristle brush and what you see in the photos will not come out. i brush it repeatedly and nothing happens. there is one weird thing. when i said before that i thought it was just dirt, the algae problem was looking much worse than in the photos. there was a bunch in the deep end of the pool. i scraped it up with the steel bristle brush and it mostly all went away.... except for the type of algae (or whatever it is) that you see in the pics. it's not all over the pool but it is in a few spots here and there.
anyhow, any advice would be welcomed. this whole ordeal has gotten me to look into the chemistry of pool maintenance and i would like to handle this myself from now on but i also don't want to pour double or triple the money into it only to screw things up. thanks fellas!
the last issue was algae related. i had seen some spots on the bottom of the pool that looked like dirt and it turned out to be (i believe) algae. again, weeks went by where they didn't say or do anything about it, only when i brought it to their attention did they try to fix the problem. so they tried to fix it (not exactly sure what they did, they said they shocked it but i don't know the specifics). eventually they said well the pool isn't showing that it has any chlorine in it despite the fact that we shocked it so you'll need to empty your pool and put new water in because the water isn't taking to the chlorine which is causing the algae to stay.
not saying they were wrong but by this point i was pretty annoyed with the entire thing so i advised them that i no longer wanted to use their service. i ordered the k-2006 testing kit from taylor. i did the testing today and it's not looking so hot. i followed the directions as they were in the manual so unless i screwed something up badly then these are accurate:
FC = 10.5
CC = .5
PH = 7.4
TA = 200 ppm
CH = 800 ppm (i did this test twice because i was kind of blown away by how high this was but again i followed the directions.... 32 drops X 25!)
CYA = Appox. 130 (again I did this test twice also because of how high it was.... i say appox. 130 because the kit starts from 100 and goes down from there, the water line is below the 100 mark so im guessing)
so there it is. i have read a bit online and i'm not sure what my options are. i would obviously prefer to NOT have to empty my entire pool and fill it back. beyond the cost involved for hiring someone to do this and the water bill it just seems like a waste.
i am also including a photo of what i BELIEVE to be algae. i don't know for certain. i have a steel bristle brush and what you see in the photos will not come out. i brush it repeatedly and nothing happens. there is one weird thing. when i said before that i thought it was just dirt, the algae problem was looking much worse than in the photos. there was a bunch in the deep end of the pool. i scraped it up with the steel bristle brush and it mostly all went away.... except for the type of algae (or whatever it is) that you see in the pics. it's not all over the pool but it is in a few spots here and there.
anyhow, any advice would be welcomed. this whole ordeal has gotten me to look into the chemistry of pool maintenance and i would like to handle this myself from now on but i also don't want to pour double or triple the money into it only to screw things up. thanks fellas!
with your current CYA level of 130ppm, you will continue to have black algae. That is a lot of bleach.
