Halp! Backswimmers/water boatmen!

[Mdragger88]

Alright, ya’ll know I am on Team run Hot.
This morning I was greeted by a mass hatching of teeny tiny swimmers! I mean tiny. The lowest my fc has been this year was 6ppm & that was 4 months ago.
This morning I was at 10ppm - I normally am 8-10ppm - my last cya check 2 weeks ago was 70.
Since my discovery I have -
Yanked the steps (time to remove the handrail anyway)
Scrubbed them with clorox cleanup-
There was a tiny green dot on one of the nubs to the rubber feet. The ballast weights seemed to be sealed well still & no water intrusion (all was scrubbed)
There was gross dirt in the crannies & under the steps that i scrubbed & vac’d
My bleach bottle weights have started cracking so they have been tossed & replaced with 2 plastic 20# weights (like for weightlifting) i don’t know why i didn’t think of that before.
I raised fc to 15ppm with the lc I had on hand. I am letting the swg/pump run all night.
I brushed the whole pool & all its wrinkles
Especially the water line.
Robert is now on his third round of the day - i also scrubbed him & his pleated filter with clorox cleanup (probably not recommended lol) the basket was filled with the boogers after each run!
They were alive so I sprayed em!
I am posting because I am on the fence of if a slam is necessary just because of the swimmers and/or the tiny speck of green (maybe the size of a bb) which has now been bleached to death & scrubbed away outside of the pool.
The pool is crystal clear as always- no poofing when brushing.
I am on the fence as to let swg run all night and do an oclt tomorrow night or do an oclt tonight.
Btw- the bleach store is closed tomorrow so slam can’t happen until monday morning.
We do also have a big pond within view of our pool & my neighbor’s pool is likely unkempt- how far do these things travel?
The thought of the jugs being compromised has me definitely leaning towards slam but even if i pass oclt & the criteria do the bugs presence mean i should automatically slam/keep slamming?

 

[Texas Splash]

We get those critters just about every season for no particular reason. I get them out and hopefully don't see them again. They just end up in the water regardless of our chemistry. As for the green dot, hopefully an isolated incident. You're doing everything right (as always), so just keep an eye on things. As long as you don't see any unusual FC loss, I suspect you're fine.

 

[Mdragger88]

I actually had unexpected fc increase after reducing my run time to 8 hrs. This should produce 2.2 ppm/day & my fc went up so I assume my consumption is less than that.
The weather has taken quite the turn towards fall.
I was just contemplating scoping out the dollar general for bleach tonight after dinner (walmart is out).
I’ll try to relax, hopefully war isn’t necessary.

 

[duraleigh]

I am not sure you have skimmers or boatmen.......they sound smaller than that. They usually don't show up in a pool as clean as yours.

I personally would not SLAM. I think whatever they are will be gone in just a day or two

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Chlorine probably won’t kill them anyway. Waterborne insects are very hearty and hard to kill. An algaecide might kill them but it probably would have to be at such a high concentration that the pool will turn into a bubble bath.

Just stay the course and they’ll be gone soon.

 

[Mdragger88]

They are tiny- i will get a pic when the bot is done again.

 

[Mdragger88]

Well, at least it led me to change out my weights. I have been searching for the right container for 5 seasons- the answer was in my garage the whole time!
Thanks to this thread for making me realize it - duh
Post in thread 'Backswimmer Infestation'
Backswimmer Infestation
Also in this thread he says he uses dawn - i am skeered to do so. Hopefully they just leave!

 

[kul]

Yikes. Keep us posted! I hope they just go away on their own!

 

[Newdude]

Last season (1st time with a farm in the backyard) I kinda panicked a little when they showed up. I google rabbit holed how they are attracted to algae but that wasn't a concern in the least. (GO team !!!)

This year a lol'd when they showed up the exact same 2 weeks. They'll move on soon.

 

[Mdragger88]

Here’s a pic of them in the basket, most are dead- way less than yesterday- there was a bunch & they were all alive!

Here’s one swimming & a pic of my fingernail next to that hole for a size reference

Note* what I assumed was dirt around the base of the steps each morning or so has now changed color from brown/orange to more whitish so I will probably start slam tomorrow anyway.
It looks darker in the pics than in real life

It also seems that my lc was probably a bit degraded-
Should’ve raised fc to 15 but this morning after also running the swcg all night I am at 15.5ppm.
This all makes me very nervous to try to remove any stains in the future as it seems I absolutely must keep fc on the higher side to avoid funky stuff due to the steps.
That will most likely be a project for the early spring instead of before closing.
I am now regretting not adding more holes to the steps yesterday while I had them out. Its an ongoing science experiment.

 

[Mdragger88]

Did the oclt & lost 1.5ppm.
I didn’t beat the sun out this morning so I’m hopeful that was slight part of my loss.
Just got armed with my liquid chlorine which was still $4/gal whoot!
Got 10 gallons
Gotta recheck my cya & ph before commencing SLAM.
Poor dude infront of me spent $70 on some bottle of copper potion
They had the rubber feet for my steps but they are $10 each - I need 4 - I’ll live with what I have. They did look different- like maybe they are latex rubber or something, not white like the originals.

 

[kul]

How frustrating! I wonder how algae was able to build when your chlorine is within range?
Hopefully the OCLT result is due to the sun. Sorry you’re having to deal with this.

 

[Mdragger88]

How frustrating! I wonder how algae was able to build when your chlorine is within range?
Hopefully the OCLT result is due to the sun. Sorry you’re having to deal with this.

I think it grew in the sand/concrete filled bleach jugs I was using for weights hanging under my steps. More than 1 was cracked & had water sloshing in them when I pulled them out.
In their defense, 5 years of holding 16# each while submerged was more than they were designed to do. It was a good run. I have replaced them with 3 round 20# sealed plastic weights from our weight set which I should have used in the 1st place.

 

[Mdragger88]

Update:
Got busy with other people’s threads & life lol so I forgot to update this thread.
Missed the next morning’s oclt so I just went another day & passed with zero loss.
Did another at lower fc the following day and passed again.
The little “swimmers” left around day 3. Many were manually removed via the robot & skimmer. Pool remained crystal clear the entire time. The “dirt” is gone.

 

[duraleigh]

Over the years, anecdotal evidence suggests high chlorine gets rid of these swimmers, I don't understand why they get in there in the first place in a properly chlorinated pool like mdragger's

 

[Mdragger88]

We get alot of weird bugs/wildlife around here that just love to find their way into my giant blue circle - so who knows! It seems like they thought it would be a good place to hatch or however they are born
My pool is smack dab inbetween a scummy pond & two other pools of questionable sanitation practices.
You’d think with all the chlorine in the pool & all the insecticides I use around my pool/house that nothing could live!
I find it interesting that they were around the stairs - that leads me to believe there was funky stuff festering in the bleach bottle weights. Hopefully my new solution won’t have that problem.