Algae with no combined chlorine?

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SummerDay123

Member
Jun 26, 2020
14
Long Island, NY
Hello Forum!

It's been a great summer, thanks to this website!! I'm closing the pool in a few days, and for the first time since I opened the pool, I saw some green on the pool walls. My FC is within my CYA range (My CYA is 50, I keep the chlorine around 6.5, it usually dips down to 5 by the end of the day). I check it everyday, and I replenish the chlorine with liquid chlorine. My CC is at 0. I'll be honest, I don't check PH everyday. It usually never changes. It's almost always 7.6 or 7.5. So it rained last night, like a lot of rain, maybe an inch and a half of rain. So I checked the PH and it was 7.8 maybe 7.9. Is this why I have algae? Can I have algae and no CC?

Thanks in advance!!!
 
pH does not cause algae. Yes, you can have algae and no CC.
Have you been brushing the pool regularly? This time of year with less swimming you need to brush more.
You should raise your FC to Slam level and complete that prior to closing.
 
mknauss said:
pH does not cause algae. Yes, you can have algae and no CC.
Have you been brushing the pool regularly? This time of year with less swimming you need to brush more.
You should raise your FC to Slam level and complete that prior to closing.
Click to expand...

No, I haven't been brushing regularly because it's been so clean.
I guess I figured if my CC was 0, I didn't have anything growing in the water. Good to know this is not true.
Why does less swimming mean more brushing? Is it because the water needs to be flowing and moving around the sides of the pool? I got a really late start this morning turning on the pool filter. I wonder now if that helped the algae.
 
SummerDay123 said:
I got a really late start this morning turning on the pool filter. I wonder now if that helped the algae.
Click to expand...
If I may step in, no, that probably wasn’t the case. You can have dead areas in your pool that the pump won’t create a good flow of water to, but the role of the filter, for the most part is to remove debris from the water. Algae is a water chemistry issue, ie not enough chlorine. Filtration does not prevent algae.

Brushing does break up the protective film that algae produces allowing chlorine to get at it, so less activity in the pool, as Marty suggested, could mean you need to brush more. It could also mean you have something else consuming your chlorine so you should remain vigilant, but starting your pump late shouldn’t contribute to algae settling in unless you’ve greatly reduced your waterflow and distribution of chlorine in some way.

Apologies to the experts if I’ve misspoken, but I thought it important to point out the role of the pump and filtration in algae prevention in this case.
 
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Guys I made a mistake :oops: I wasn't thinking, and I tested the PH during the slam. I was so puzzled that it was so high, I put in enough dry acid to bring it down from 8 to 7.5. But then it dawned on me that the PH is wonky during the slam and I shouldn't have done that. My last PH reading before the slam was 7.5 but it usually creeps up to 7.6 and stays there. So that would mean my PH is now 7.1 or 7.0 .... yikesssss should I try to bring the PH up or should I just leave it alone?
 

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