I broke my hip a month ago and have not been tending to the pool. It got out of control quicker than expected and is completely covered in a brown algae. Worst I've even seen in this pool for 30 years. Unfortunately I cannot do any manual work on it for the next 6-8 weeks beyond testing and adding chemicals - and I'd rather not pay to have it cleaned up. I'm not sure how high a chlorine level to maintain for the next 6-8 weeks. My gut tells me that something like around 10ppm might be helpful for a holding pattern as it doesn't feel right to bring it up to SLAM levels for that long without being able to do other cleanup. But I suppose that might just make what is left more chlorine resistant. (My CYA is ~40)
Algae Bloom While Injured
- Thread starter sparcel
- Start date
- May 23, 2015
- 24,447
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I think in your current situation you are completely justified in paying someone to clean it up. Hip fractures are no joke and you need to recover and heal so it doesn’t become a long term issue. My mom fractured one of her lumbar vertebrae last summer doing something she shouldn’t have done and she landed in the hospital for it a week later when the pain became overwhelming. She got the message loud and clear from her neurosurgeon that she was very close to getting a spinal fusion of she didn’t rest and recover with a back brace on 24/7 for 6-8 weeks. She wore it for 12 weeks and her vertebrae healed up completely. During that period of recovery I had to remind her many times of her age and her responsibility to listen to her doctors and heal up so she could get back to being part of the family. She didn’t like that kind of talk coming from her youngest child but I wasn’t backing down and she knew she had to comply. Stubborn old mule doesn’t begin to describe her …
Anyway, heal up, that is your top priority. Let some young’ish goon cleanup your pool. There’s not much harm they can do if you keep them on tight leash about chemicals to use. The money you spend on the pool guy pales in comparison to damage you can do re-injuring your hip.
Anyway, heal up, that is your top priority. Let some young’ish goon cleanup your pool. There’s not much harm they can do if you keep them on tight leash about chemicals to use. The money you spend on the pool guy pales in comparison to damage you can do re-injuring your hip.
+1. Donating up to 2 gallons a day just to limp along is going to cost more than a pro cleanup.
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,775
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Sorry about your injury, that sounds painful!
Definitely pay someone to do the manual labor(scooping, brushing, vacuuming) - you can be in charge of the chems they add & monitor the testing. Perhaps a teen looking for a weekend & afternoon job that you could guide through the
SLAM Process. Several folks here have been able to have liquid chlorine delivered so that may be something to look into as well.
Otherwise it’s time to call in a pro & get it handled
Your signature says you have a stenner pump, did you just happen to not refill it or forget to adjust it? After clean up the stenner should make maintaining fairly easy.
Definitely pay someone to do the manual labor(scooping, brushing, vacuuming) - you can be in charge of the chems they add & monitor the testing. Perhaps a teen looking for a weekend & afternoon job that you could guide through the
SLAM Process. Several folks here have been able to have liquid chlorine delivered so that may be something to look into as well.
Otherwise it’s time to call in a pro & get it handled
Your signature says you have a stenner pump, did you just happen to not refill it or forget to adjust it? After clean up the stenner should make maintaining fairly easy.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 52,908
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I broke my hip in 2014 and had it replaced so I know what you are going through.
Get the SLAM Process going and use your Stenner pump to maintain FC of 16+ the best you can.
Find someone who can refill the Stenner for you as necessary and help backwash and clean your filter.
Chlorine and filtering can overcome the algae and once you are along in your PT you can finish the pool cleanup.
You have a hip replacement or did they screw things back together?
Get the SLAM Process going and use your Stenner pump to maintain FC of 16+ the best you can.
Find someone who can refill the Stenner for you as necessary and help backwash and clean your filter.
Chlorine and filtering can overcome the algae and once you are along in your PT you can finish the pool cleanup.
You have a hip replacement or did they screw things back together?
Thanks. They screwed it back together, but there is still a chance that they may need to do a full hip replacement.
To the earlier question about why my Stenner was not running, I had turned off the Stenner to do some work on the tubing. Big mistake that I did not turn it back on ASAP.
--scott
To the earlier question about why my Stenner was not running, I had turned off the Stenner to do some work on the tubing. Big mistake that I did not turn it back on ASAP.
--scott
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,775
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Glad to hear the stenner is operational- that should be helpful if you can employ it for the slam as @ajw22 mentioned.
Hopefully things are on the mend with your hip! Keep us updated with how things go. Around here they do full hip replacements out patient now - my friend just had one. She got in trouble for going caneless after the 1st week
they’re not as daunting as they used to be. She only has a tiny incision on the front compared to the large hook like incision all the way down the back side my mom got several years ago. Many people prefer joint replacement to a repair & say it’s much easier to recover from.
Hopefully things are on the mend with your hip! Keep us updated with how things go. Around here they do full hip replacements out patient now - my friend just had one. She got in trouble for going caneless after the 1st week
they’re not as daunting as they used to be. She only has a tiny incision on the front compared to the large hook like incision all the way down the back side my mom got several years ago. Many people prefer joint replacement to a repair & say it’s much easier to recover from.
Thabks for all the well wishes!
They gave me a choice of repair or hip replacement but with only minutes to decide. Indeed replacement is a faster recovery. My doctor thinks repair can have benefits if it does not fail but I’m not fully clear on all the pros and cons. I think technically this was outpatient because I was at the hospital about 16 hours.
As for the pool, I called around a bit and since where I live service people are expensive it seemed that the cleanup may cost me $500 to $800, so I guided my wife through brushing and vacuuming to waste yesterday with a little help from me where I could. We need to do more of that today and then we will start SLAMing. (There was so much algae on the bottom I prefer to get that to waste instead of into the filter.). Fortunately the water was clear to start with and the algae was not kicking up into the usual micro suspended particles the way it usually does, so we could vacuum immediately after the brushing to get out the biggest mass and now today we can hopefully vacuum again to get it mostly cleaned of algae. Then after a SLAM and a bit of time I will hopefully be well enough to do another round of SLAM and filter cleaning.
They gave me a choice of repair or hip replacement but with only minutes to decide. Indeed replacement is a faster recovery. My doctor thinks repair can have benefits if it does not fail but I’m not fully clear on all the pros and cons. I think technically this was outpatient because I was at the hospital about 16 hours.
As for the pool, I called around a bit and since where I live service people are expensive it seemed that the cleanup may cost me $500 to $800, so I guided my wife through brushing and vacuuming to waste yesterday with a little help from me where I could. We need to do more of that today and then we will start SLAMing. (There was so much algae on the bottom I prefer to get that to waste instead of into the filter.). Fortunately the water was clear to start with and the algae was not kicking up into the usual micro suspended particles the way it usually does, so we could vacuum immediately after the brushing to get out the biggest mass and now today we can hopefully vacuum again to get it mostly cleaned of algae. Then after a SLAM and a bit of time I will hopefully be well enough to do another round of SLAM and filter cleaning.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,447
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
This is the perfect opportunity for a teenager to make a nice chunk of cash at 1/5th the cost of hiring a pro …
Yes! If there was a teenager nearby that we knew we would have tried to hire them.
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,775
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Put the call out on your community Facebook page/group if you have one - there’s parents & grandparents on ours every day trying to hunt up odd jobs for their idle teens
- Jul 21, 2013
- 52,908
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
- May 23, 2015
- 24,447
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I may be old … ok, I’m old … but I remember as a kid that there was a cork board in our highschool attendance office where there were dozens of 3x5 index hanging up with the names and phones numbers of local school parents and community members looking for highschool kids to do odd jobs (mow lawns, babysitting, wash cars, clean up jobs, etc). You could call the school office and they would post the job. It’s like the Facebook Community Board @Mdragger88 mentioned BEFORE the internet age (yea, I’m that old … and we only had one TV growing up with an aerial antenna on the roof and broadcast transmissions ended at 1am …).
- Dec 13, 2020
- 755
- Pool Size
- 19600
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
Sorry you are going through this. Hope it turns out well. Long ago in my 20's I had a wonderful boss who used to mutter under his breath now and then "old age is h**l." He was 63. I'm past that now and finally know what he was talking about.
Anyway, you might try the Next Door app. In some communities it's a great way to connect with a neighborhood person who wants work like this. In others not so much. But worth a try.
Anyway, you might try the Next Door app. In some communities it's a great way to connect with a neighborhood person who wants work like this. In others not so much. But worth a try.
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