Do we have Algae? Advice please.

[J4A]

We just moved into a house in Orangevale, CA- near Folsom, Sacramento County. The pool is underground and the pool guy says it’s about 15000 gallons. The pool guys has been taking care of the pool since we bought the house. I know when we were closing the pools pump broke and the water was green. The pool guy treated it and when we moved in June 7, it’s wasn’t green. However, we had to scrub the all’s because brown stuff kept showing up. We told the pool guy and after a while I got annoyed because they kept “treating it” but it wasn’t better. Still had brown or green stuff growing on stairs and wall. So recently I bought the Taylor kit and tested the water.

I can’t remember the readings and find the paper ??‍ , but I know cc was .5, cya was 80, PH was below 7 and TA was low too. Chlorine was like 4.5 I think. So we shocked the pool, that was Wednesday. We added 4 jugs of 12.5% liquid chlorine. The next day the pool guy came. The pool didn’t grow as much stuff so I figured we beat it. I added borax for PH and baking soda for TA. See image below:
But today the pool again had brown stuff on the sides. Is that algae?

And my husband tested the after again and we got:
FC: 15
CC: 1
PH: 7.3
TA: 70
CH: 200
CYA: 60

Does this mean it’s an algae issue? Should we re shock the pool? Anyone have any recommendations? I am getting so annoyed. Hubby and I already paid pool guy for this month but we are letting them go after this month. Just want to be able to wake up and do laps Without worrying about this brown stuff on walls daily. Thank you for any help.

 

[IceShadow]

Welcome! It does sound like algae. You already have a good test kit and that’s half the battle right there. What are you using to add chlorine to the pool?

I recommend reading nearly every article on the Pool School here. They are short and fast to read and have lots of good information. Especially the SLAM process as that is what we would recommend and the Recommended Chemicals so that you know what you’re putting into your pool.

 

[J4A]

Welcome! It does sound like algae. You already have a good test kit and that’s half the battle right there. What are you using to add chlorine to the pool?

I recommend reading nearly every article on the Pool School here. They are short and fast to read and have lots of good information. Especially the SLAM process as that is what we would recommend and the Recommended Chemicals so that you know what you’re putting into your pool.

Thanks. I think I know what we did wrong. We need to raise our ph, and let our CYA fall and then slam it. Maybe that’s what the issue is, we need to keep the chlorine high but our cya is really high and PH is low so I guess we need to fix all that first.is that right?

We are using the liquid chlorine bottles and pouring them into the pool at different spots then running the filter. We ran it overnight on Wednesday’s and it runs daily about 3-4 hours. We have a Polaris sweeper running with the pump and the pool has solar heating panels. The pump is a Pentair super flow high performance 3/4 horsepower cartridge pump.

 

[mknauss]

Your pH is fine. Your CYA is also OK.
Follow the SLAM Process. For a CYA of 60, your SLAM level FC is 24 ppm. Add liquid chlorine to reach that level and every 2-3 hours test your FC and add liquid chlorine to reach that level. Keep your pump on 24/7 during this process. You can run the Polaris. Brush any areas it does not reach.

 

[J4A]

My husband is stressed out because we had FC at 25 this morning around 8. When I checked it tonight it was at FC: 15. He thinks that is too high a loss. But this morning cc was at 0 and this evening cc was at 1. Is this all just a normal part of the slamming process? I am
Going to get more chlorine in the morning and cya. Ill check FC, CC, and CYA in am, I just want to make sure we are doing this right and out my husbands mind at ease. I will start adding mid day chlorine since it dropped so much, but does that sound normal?

 

[IceShadow]

Yes. The sun will get some during the day, and higher levels means more burnoff to sun. But you need to maintain the high levels to eradicate the algae. Check how much you lose overnight. Test and then add enough liquid chlorine to get back to 24 ppm as often as is practical, up to once an hour. The more often you can push the levels back to 24ppm the faster the process will go.

 

[IceShadow]

Add chems with the pump running. That will help the pool mix everything together. And you want the pump running constantly during a SLAM anyway to keep filtering as much as you can. How does the water look now?

 

[J4A]

Add chems with the pump running. That will help the pool mix everything together. And you want the pump running constantly during a SLAM anyway to keep filtering as much as you can. How does the water look now?

Thanks for reply! I am trying to keep it up, it’s burning off a lot. But the water looks pretty clear. Still stuff growing on the sides though. I had to go to pool store to get chlorine. Two stores because I’m running out of r0871 from all the testing. One tried to sell me a obsolete treatment, the other tried to sell me copper algeacide. But... I want to stick to my guns and keep slamming...the pool guy(this month is last month- already paid) wants to do a phosphate treatment. Should I let him do that?

 

[J4A]

Water currently.

 

[mknauss]

A phosphate treatment, being unnecessary, includes a clarifier to gum up your sand filter. And I doubt he does it for free.

 

[J4A]

Thank you everyone. Pool looks stellar and FC has decreased by les a than 1 with a CC less than .5! Woohoo. Thanks for the help. Truly brushing has gotten better too. Not a daily issue like it was before.