Add some treatments, low flow to follow

[BoernePoolGuy]

So my wife and I noticed some spots of algae in the pool, over the course of a few weeks they seemed to multiply. This past sunday I wanted to treat it somehow, my normal pool store (local) was closed, so I decided to go to Leslies with a water sample.

He did all of his tests and started telling me my phosphates were too high, CYA was too low, and I needed some black algae cleaner.

The liquid CYA stuff was crazy expensive, and I have never had a problem with water balance before, it always looks excellent, except for this algae, so I skipped on that. He sold me on the phosfree stuff, and black algae cleaner.

I took everything out, cleaned the filter, cleaned the baskets, etc, ran the pool on high, added the required amounts of this new treatment. Pool got kind of slimy and sudsy for a day or two, and it seemed to start to get back to normal as of the last couple of days. But now, my water flow was almost half of what it had been.

After tinkering with things, I decided to try and run it without a filter, and it was roaring again. I put in my backup filter and I was once again fine.


So...What is in this Phosfree stuff, or Black Algae cleaner that would have gummed up my filter to this extreme? The filter doesnt appear dirty, and I had just thoroughly cleaned it before the treatment.

Is the filter ruined now? Should I just be able to clean it again?

My guess is the moral of the story is to avoid going to Leslie's Pools. I felt like a sucker the minute I got out of the truck there, but I thought I would risk it...If I would have got all the things he wanted me to get, I would have been about 250 dollars poorer...all for some black algae spots...

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By the way, that signature block is not me. Not sure where it came from. I cant seem to edit it.

 

[JasonLion]

It is best to avoid PhosFree, it frequently clogs up the filter and doesn't do anything you can't do more easily other ways. The filter will clean but for a little while you are going to need to clean it more frequently than normal.

We also don't recommend black algae cleaner.

And for CYA we recommend granular, less than half the price and just as effective.

I cleared out your signature for you. You can edit it by pressing "Settings", towards the top right, and then on the next page pick "Edit Signature" on the left.

If you post your water test results and describe what the algae looks like we can give you some advice about how to clean it up.

 

[Casey]

Test results will get the ball rolling on some suggestions for you.

Can't really do anything til we have numbers.

 

[BoernePoolGuy]

It is best to avoid PhosFree, it frequently clogs up the filter and doesn't do anything you can't do more easily other ways. The filter will clean but for a little while you are going to need to clean it more frequently than normal.

We also don't recommend black algae cleaner.

And for CYA we recommend granular, less than half the price and just as effective.

I cleared out your signature for you. You can edit it by pressing "Settings", towards the top right, and then on the next page pick "Edit Signature" on the left.

If you post your water test results and describe what the algae looks like we can give you some advice about how to clean it up.

Thanks. I had a feeling I should probably hold off and either check here first, or go to my normal pool store when they were open. Shame they try and push all this stuff on you, and dont even tell you about the possible side effects (filter getting gummed up).

The algae seems to have "greyed" out some, and seems to brush off really easy now. So I think the Black Algae cleaner must have done some good. Wife threw away the sheet I had with the detailed test results printed out.

Everything on the sheet was fine and well within normal ranges, except for CYA which was 20 I believe, I needed some muriatic acid, which is normal for my pool, and phosphates were high.