Still Cloudy after 2 weeks. Thoughts?

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I see what you mean by "stairs"!! Holy Cow those things are huge!!! You're going to need crane to move that thing (joking). Lots of pizza and beer for everyone that helps you with those :)


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Yeah the stairs are a beast! Lol! I can't thank everyone enough. And the chem kit is really helpful. Does anyone know how to purchase some of the chemicals separately? I don't forsee checking CYA in the near future but I'll need more of that chemical when I do.
 
jennsnoopy said:
I can't thank everyone enough. And the chem kit is really helpful. Does anyone know how to purchase some of the chemicals separately? I don't forsee checking CYA in the near future but I'll need more of that chemical when I do.
Click to expand...

I'm an Amazon Prime junky so I usually get all my stuff from there. I'm pretty sure TFTestKits sells refills on everything in the kit (TF-100).



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One more point - given the rather "unique" stairs you have there, good water circulation is going to be hard to achieve at that end of the pool. It's probably why the algae started there and has persisted there.

In the future, try to focus cleaning those areas really well.


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yeah we didn't reall think about circulation or anything. We were complete newbies and I needed a safe way for my 68 year old parents to get in and out of the pool. My father tried the ladder and about broke his neck. Thus the stairs and the deck. My worry is we won't be able to fully clean out this stairs. They have holes in them to allow water in them for weight (along with the 80 lbs of sand).
 
Oh, I totally get it. My 69 year old mother in law fell trying to get out of our pool (I have no hand rails) and she cut her legs up good on the flagstone coping.

So if it has holes in it for water weight, I'd bet a box of Dunkin Donut that you've got algae in those stairs. They are going to need to be cleaned out. If you figure out away of getting more circulation over there, it would help. Anyone good with PVC plumbing and willing to punch a hole in the Intex liner?


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ok so current FC=18 now. All the algae in the corners is now gone. Yes! Water still is not sparkly yet. Should I bump FC up to 20 again or wait another few hrs and test?

Those stairs are gonna be a real bugger. I see nothing on the front of them at all. I know we can scrub the back of them. It's the insides. Ugh. My husband will freak if I mention cutting a hole in the liner.
 
June 4th update. Ok so here is where I'm at. When I checked FC yesterday afternoon I recorded 18. However, I realized about a half hour after that I did not multiply my result by .5 so FC was actually only 9. So we went from FC=20 to FC=9 in 4 hours. This was the time I went to run errand, pick kids up from camps, etc. it got up to 95 degrees here yesterday so not sure if that's a contributing factor. Of course at FC=9 there was a re-emergence of that dust algae in the corners. I brushed corners and entered more bleach to bring up to FC= 20 again. It kept that value when I tested this morning but still some algae in corners. I assume I just keep brushing and checking? I left the solar cover off all day yesterday because I didn't want the water to get really hot but it seemed it didn't help because the sun burnt off the FC pretty fast. I'm getting discouraged because I'm dumping so much bleach in there and I'm worried the rest of the summer is going to require at least a gal of bleach a day just to keep up with things. Which starts to get pricey. The water looks clearer but I do have some small areas of algae in those corners. I can't even get to the stairs until this weekend and even then, I don't see honestly how we will be able to get them out of the pool and even clean inside them. They are formed plastic. I'm feeling pretty defeated.
 

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Don't feel defeated. It is a process. It does not happen over night. It can take anywhere from 1week to a month generally. All pools vary on the amount of time.

Keep the cover off and keep at it until you pass all the criteria.
CC.5 or lower
Pass a OLCT
Pool is crystal clear.
 
You can do this!

I really think water circulation is your enemy right now. I hate to say it, but those stairs are causing you a lot of problems. When you do pull them, you might want to discuss with the family the need to get the water clean and leave them out while you work on that. Perhaps a little bit of time spent looking them over might give you some insights into how to keep them clean.

It may require some disassembly, but if you can get all the stagnant water out of it that would help greatly.

I'm so sorry you feel frustrated and down. I know the stairs were purchased in good faith to help your in-laws enjoy the pool. But I also know you can do it as so many others have.

Once your water is algae free again, you might give some thought to how to best add some extra FC near the stairs and do some additional brushing since that is going to be your problematic spot.


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You really need to get the steps out and have LOTS of bleach on hand as they will be dumping a LOT of algae into the water. Do a SUPER clean of them while they are out.

The sand that you have holding down the steps will also have algae all over it.

Here is what we did when we had that kind of steps. We used PVC pipes filled with cement to hold them down. We had 7 different ones so that I could pick them up one at a time if/when needed.

We also cut some holes in the steps on the side and back using a hole bit. We cut 2" holes. We tried to place them so they were staggered so they did could still hold the weight of people walking and sitting on them.

I would take a turkey baster and fill it with bleach every third day and squirt the bleach inside the steps instead of just pouring it in from the the return. I would have the pump off for 15 mins. so it could sit in there and work. I would then turn the pump on high and stand on one side of the steps and use a straw broom as a "wave machine" and force the bleach out of the steps by waving it in the water on one side of the steps.

This worked for me. I hope it works for you.

I did take the steps every other month just to scrub and clean.

GOOD LUCK!

Kim
 
gonna be hard to pass OCLT with those steps in there. its gonna be a pain, but take them out. once your pool is under control after the SLAM and you are maintaining FC at correct levels, you can put them back in. but with the algae that's definitely in there, its gonna keep eating FC and not go away.

I had a light niche with algae in it, and it kept eating FC...and that's a lot less than that ladder is most likely hiding.
 
Ok thanks everyone. I'll have to arrange a bunch of folks to help. Until the stair extraction I'm assuming I just keep doing what I'm doing, right. In other words, the longest SLAM on record until stairs come out. Besides that water looking pretty clear. I think I need hubby to just approve getting an In ground pool with stairs in the design. ;) Lol! Thanks all.
 
Hahaha, your impending pool build will make the current woes seem like child's play!!! Stick with TFP and we'll help you keep some of your sanity throughout that process.

You can actually swim in shock level pool water, it's just harder on the clothes. With an active algae problem, I'm not sure how others feel about swimming.


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We got the Stairs out! Found a culprit, and question.

For those following our algae journey, we were able to get the stairs out. No visible algae sign anywhere on the stairs although we will completely dismantle. Form what we've taken apart so far we've seen no algae at all. However, the stair pad we had the stairs sitting on was another issue. On the underside part of the pad (where it lays next to pool vinyl) was covered in algae! We threw that out. Now we have a stair pad sized algae rectangle of green gooey slippery stuff on the vinyl where it was. I guess we found one of the sources. We can't vaccumm it up its stuck and slippery. So I'm guessing scrub and Keep on with the Slam correct?
Feeling more confident now.
 
I wondered about that from the picture; I thought it looked like a pad but did not ask. Yeah, having that pad there meant a thin layer of trapped water with no possibility of the chlorine reaching it. It's the perfect algae habitat.

Yup, shock level chlorine should kill it. Scrub, scrub, scrub too.

Good Job!!!


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