Fighting the Algae Monster in a Sustain pool..... Ready for War!! Need Advice....

[GDDYUP]

Hello TFPC! This is my first post although I have been lurking around the last couple of weeks reading up and getting schooled!

Here's my dilemna...

I have a 24' round, 54" high, 13,500 gallon pool that was installed last year. The pool has been on the Sustain pool chemical regimen since new. We had some green algae issues towards the end of last season that my "pool store" said should not be an issue after using the winterizing kit before closing. Well, that didn't turn out like that. Opened the pool about 2 weeks ago and it looked like the home for the Creature from the Green Lagoon. Used the opening kit the store supplied me with, which contained a pound of shock, algecide, and clarifier. Ran the pump for 2 days continuous. No change. Brought a water sample in to the "pool store". Everything looked "great" accept that the pool was green. Was sold a metal sanitizer. Put it in and ran the pump continuous for 24 hours. No change. Went back to the "pool store". Tested the water again. Now I had high phosphates. Was sold another concoction that would cure all my problems. Dumped the phosphate remover in and ran the pump continuous for 2 days. You guessed it, no change. I did have to clean and re-gen my filter 4 times that day though. But, still green....

Found TFPC online and started reading. Boy was I an idiot!! I ordered a Taylor K-2006C test kit that just arrived today. Got all my numbers that I'll list below. After finding TFPC, I started shocking the pool, kinda sorta doing the SLAM, with the numbers I had from the pool store as a guideline. I now have a kinda blue pool after 10 gallons of liquid shock over the last 3-4 days along with skimming, vacuuming, and wall and floor scrubbing. But before I continue on the road I'm now on, I wanted to put up a post and see what you guys think of my numbers and what my strategy going forward should be. This is a Sustain pool and I already have $300 worth of the those maintenance chemicals for this season so I don't really want to dump it all if I can help it.

Here are my numbers from the Taylor kit :

FC = 40
CC = 2
Ph = 7.8
TA = 150
CH = 300
CYA = 70

Before doing anything else, I'm wondering if I should dump some of the water and do a partial water change. With the CYA hovering at 70, I'm assuming that would be the first thing to do. But I figured I would see if you guys could take a peek and let me know if that's where I should be headed right now. I have uploaded 2 pics of my pool, the green is where I pretty much started from when I opened it, and the blue one is where I stand right now for reference. If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you everyone for taking a peek at my post and I appreciate your time.

 

[jblizzle]

The sustain products appear to just be cal-hypo which will add calcium to your pool with the chlorine. If you get enough rain, your CH may not rise too much.
The summer shield likely contains CYA, which you do not currently need.
You can find more info about these chemicals here: Sustain Pool Chemicals

You likely can use them, but you must ensure the FC stays in range for your CYA according to the [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA] to avoid getting algae again.

You need to complete the SLAM Process process (whether you drain some now or not). It currently looks like you have raised the FC higher than we recommend which could eventually be damaging to your liner.

 

[GDDYUP]

Thanks JB! I appreciate your input!

I plan to let the FC come down until it's in the proper range for the SLAM process to finalize. We're getting some nasty Tstorms through here right now so I'm sure those will play around with the numbers a bit. I'll keep at it until I get to the magic 3 that tells me the SLAM process is complete. Once I have those final testing numbers, I'll have a better idea of where I need to be.

I have not added the summer shield product or any of the other maintenance products yet due to the ongoing SLAM process. I'll skip the summer shield this time around since the CYA is already pretty high.

Again, thank you for your help JB!!

 

[jblizzle]

If you dig into the links I provided, the Shield might not really be CYA, but something that acts similar to it. Looks for the posts by chemgeek. But, certainly seems best to just avoid ever adding that again.

 

[funandsun]

Welcome to TFP GDDYUP!

Nice results considering what you had to work with in terms of test results and all. You will have that whipped into shape in no time!

 

[PoolguyinCT]

Sustain product line contains zero CYA, across all of its members.

 

[GDDYUP]

UPDATE

It's been about 10 days and it's just about ready! I ended up draining about 11 inches of water yesterday afternoon and refilling finished this morning. Just cleaned the filter a short time ago. We have some wind blowing tree junk all around so it's been fun skimming, then skimming, then skimming again! I have to do a scrub and vacuum this afternoon and then we should be close.

FC - 10
CC - 2.5 (just dosed to bring the FC to 20 according to the chart)
CYA - 50
PH - 7.2
TA - 100
CH - 300

 

[jeffchap]

CH is meaningless in a vinyl pool, so don't even bother to test. Don't worry too much about TA either unless you have trouble keeping the pH under control.

Everything else looks good except for the low FC, which you've already stated you will be raising to 20. That's perfect!

Maintain FC at 20 until the water is perfectly clear. Have you read up on the overnight chlorine loss test (OCLT) in Pool School? Once your water is perfectly clear, that's how you'll know if it's safe to end your SLAM.

Once you pass that test, you can let your FC drift back down to 4-5 and maintain it there. Do that and you'll never have to do this again.

 

[jblizzle]

I disagree a bit with the the CH is "meaningless" in a vinyl pool. Too low does not matter, but too high can still cause problems.
It is good to test for it so you know roughly where you are at (maybe just start, mid and end of season) and to feed the CSI calculations in PoolMath.
The OP's level is fine at this point and given your location and assuming you avoid cal-hypo, you likely do not even need to test it again this season since it will not likely go up as you probably get plenty of rain.

 

[GDDYUP]

Thanks for the added advice guys! I'll keep all that in mind. It only takes a few minutes to do all the tests anyways and it's somewhat therapeutic for me! Keeps my eyes in the game.

I need to do another vacuum this afternoon to get some silt and leaves that blew in over the weekend but otherwise, it's ready! Crystal clear water and numbers look good as far as OCLT and everything!