Help with bugs!

Jan 19, 2018
23
Henderson, NV
Pool Size
18000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
So this morning I came out to test the pool to discover a ton of these little bugs hugging my vac hose and the walls of the pool (oddly not the attached spa). I've never seen them before but after a quick Google search, I believe they are boatman.

Are these present because algae or some other microorganisms are starting to appear? I test everyday and never have any CC. Although this morning my FC level was lower than normal, 3.8, and below the min for my CYA (~55). But my CC was still 0. Water still looks very clear.

Aside from the slightly low FC, the only thing that's a little different is that for the past couple days I've been working on slowly lowering TA to 70 in preparation for adding borates. So I've been adding acid to drop it to 7.0-7.2 and then running my spa jets with the pool spillover enabled in order to provide aeration to raise it back up. It's at 7.4 this morning and TA is 70.

Next question is, what should I do to get rid of them? Just get my FC back up? Or do I need to shock (which I've never had to do yet).
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They do not like chlorine! So push your FC up to SLAM level (or just under if you want someone to be able to swim today). Keep it right at SLAM level for a couple of days then keep it on the higher end for your CYA for a while to make sure they are gone.
 
Chlorine doesn't kill them, it kills their food source. If you can get them out with a net then dump them in a bucket with a 1/2 cup of mineral oil or baby oil they'll drown and die. Catching them is the hard part. I've also had a few get stuck in the hairnets in my skimmer so i wonder if they would stick to hair nets in the pool then you could just grab it and throw it in the bucket of oil/water.

I added boric acid from duda diesel a couple of weeks ago. I have WAY fewer bugs now and the water quality is amazing and I thought it was clear before!
 
I added boric acid from duda diesel a couple of weeks ago. I have WAY fewer bugs now and the water quality is amazing and I thought it was clear before!

It was ironic timing for me since I was prepping to add the boric acid too. I just added it yesterday. This morning there are far fewer of them. Saw only 1 or 2 alive ones although I didn't have time to inspect a larger area. Not sure if the chlorine or borates did the trick, probably both.
 
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