Found the hidden algae

[Sweep49]

My pool water has been clear but my fc usage has been too high causing me to run my swg IC40 at 80%. Also, getting a lot of milky debris coming off the cartridge filter when I clean it. So, from past experience and comments here, I knew there must be algae hiding somewhere in the system.

It finally dawned on me yesterday to look at the outlet from the auto fill well. I poked my finger in there and dislodged some small pieces of green algae. Then looked into the auto-fill well and poured a small bucket of water into it to flush the pipe into the pool. Bingo! This flushed out a considerable amount of algae slime from the pipe. I then poured bleach into the auto-fill well to kill and flush it. I am going to get a bottle brush to clean the pipe properly; it's 2" diameter and less than a foot long.

Hopefully, this will solve my problem and maybe help others to find where chronic algae is hiding in their pool. An auto-fill system like mine is the perfect place for algae to hide. The fill reservoir contains mostly low chlorine tap water and it has minimal flow into the pool making ideal conditions for algae growth near the outlet where there is some light present. I will be cleaning mine regularly henceforth.

 

[Richard320]

I never thought to include the autofill when I discuss hiding places. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[woodyp]

Good catch!

 

[BattleOfYakima]

Awesome find! You've improved TFP forever! Thank you!

 

[pzloo]

:tu to daily testing catching things. my pool was clear, but i was losing a good bit of fc a day, so i figured there had to be some organic contaminants somewhere. decided to pull the light out of the niche, and voila. a plethora of clear (i assume dead?) algae along with some green algae all over the back of the light and the niche itself. i turned the filter off, scooped out what i could into a bucket using my skimmer net, pulled the light out of the pool, cleaned it thoroughly w/ a few paper towels and then soaked in a bucket w/ some liq chlorine. also shocked the pool until i passed the OCLT. cut my fc loss from 4-5 ppm/day down to about 2ppm/day.

 

[mswlogo]

Speaking of hiding places. What about the main pipes underground. Is there a method to brush those out? Does it tend to collect in the pipes with so much agitation?

I had brush I tried once on one of the outlets but they immediate hit a 90 degree turn I could not get past.

 

[poolneophyte]

Along the same line as the question about the underground pipes, now that I have a robot, I no longer use my pressure side pool cleaner. As such, the dedicated line for the pressure cleaner never gets used. Should I plug off this pipe at the pool wall fitting so algae doesn't get into the pool

 

[Sweep49]

I don't think algae will collect in the return or suction lines because there is too much flow.

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I got rid of my pressure side cleaner too, but hooked the line up that went into the boost pump into the ps return line. At the pool wall it's a 2 inch fitting so I added a return nozzle and just use it as another return line. If you don't want to do this then, yes I think you should plug the line at the wall.

 

[domct203]

It's pretty much next to impossible for your common pool algae to grow in pipes & filters as it needs sunlight to grow.

Bacteria however can flourish in total darkness like unused pipes etc.