Grackles - Blackbirds

[Oscar7]

I know this topic has been discussed, and the previous posts led me to know exactly what was dropping white feces sacs in my pool and why, but now that I've more or less eliminated the bird problem and cleaned the coping with a hose and got as much off the floor with a leaf rake as I could, brushing the rest towards the main drain, how concerned with the water's sanitation should I be? Should I SLAM? No problems otherwise. pH is rising by .2-.3 every 2 days, and chlorine falling by about 3 ppm every 2 days. CYA at 65. No CC. Just washed the 90 sq ft cart out a few days ago with TSP, then this started, will wash again after. Running the pump 24 hrs to keep filtering but small cart takes a while, skimmer sock helps all around.

Just concerned about bacteria, all other threads address getting rid of the birds but not cleaning the water after.

 

[jblizzle]

If you have the recommended level of FC (for your CYA), then all the nasty stuff will be taken care of. Unless you are seeing excessive losses (3ppm in 2 days does not really qualify in my mind), then you are probably good. But, there is no harm in temporarily raising the FC up toward shock level and letting it drift back down ... safe to swim with FC all the way up to shock level.

 

[zea3]

You can raise it up to slam level if it gives you peace of mind, but normal levels or chlorine should be enough if you have kept it in range during this time. If you allowed the FC to drop out of range while there were a lot bird droppings in the pool then you may want to run the overnight chlorine loss test to see if you need to slam.

 

[fjd726]

This has been a major problem every year since I've had my pool. The grackles are out there in full force in my yard. See them dropping that mess in the pool every 30 minutes. Has anyone beaten this behavior yet? Nasty every spring.