Mustard Algae Problem

[McIntyre87]

Also, the problem is getting worse. The amount of algae now present at the bottom has tripled.

 

[McIntyre87]

I’ve already added the liquid chlorine (1 gallon and 48 oz) should I throw in some of the packs of shock in the small pouch bags too? That stuff seems to work even for a couple days but this liquid chlorine doesn’t seem to be helping matters

 

[frogabog]

Well, those strips are junk and are commonly referred to as "guess strips", but for the moment you can use them to "guess" the FC till your kit arrives. Or if you can call around to another Walmart or whatever other stores local to you maybe there's an OTO kit somewhere you can pick up.

The chlorine you put in probably knocked a bunch of the invisible algae out of suspension. It's not dead if it's green. It's probably feeling a little squiggly though...

I wouldn't use the bags of "shock product". They are likely dichlor and will increase your CYA. Which you probably need but you don't know that for sure yet. Keep on with the liquid chlorine and expect that much of it will be consumed pretty quickly as it's working on attacking the algae. Keep the pump running, and when the strip shows you that's it's not guessing that it's 10 anymore, you can add chlorine again to get it back to 10. With the guess strips being so inaccurate it's hard to give advice to use them at all, but with the algae you're seeing, if you add a little too much over 10ppm, it won't hurt and could possibly help.

Your test kit should arrive soon since you're so close to NC.

 

[McIntyre87]

Well, those strips are junk and are commonly referred to as "guess strips", but for the moment you can use them to "guess" the FC till your kit arrives. Or if you can call around to another Walmart or whatever other stores local to you maybe there's an OTO kit somewhere you can pick up.

The chlorine you put in probably knocked a bunch of the invisible algae out of suspension. It's not dead if it's green. It's probably feeling a little squiggly though...

I wouldn't use the bags of "shock product". They are likely dichlor and will increase your CYA. Which you probably need but you don't know that for sure yet. Keep on with the liquid chlorine and expect that much of it will be consumed pretty quickly as it's working on attacking the algae. Keep the pump running, and when the strip shows you that's it's not guessing that it's 10 anymore, you can add chlorine again to get it back to 10. With the guess strips being so inaccurate it's hard to give advice to use them at all, but with the algae you're seeing, if you add a little too much over 10ppm, it won't hurt and could possibly help.

Your test kit should arrive soon since you're so close to NC.

Thank you for your help, advice/ expertise. I also enjoy your sense of humor about the products and me putting that scumfilled hose back into the pool I got a few good laughs.

 

[McIntyre87]

Update: Still waiting on pool kit which should arrive tomorrow.

Based on the unreliable pool sheet it said my cya was about 20-23. FC was 2.34 on Friday around 1:00 PM. By 5 PM I had put in 1.46 gallons of bleach into my 12,500 gallon pool. Taking advice from one poster who said get FC to 10 (approx SLAM level given my pool results. I added 1 gallon initially to bring the 2.34 to 10 but another poster said I wasn’t taking into account the sun that day eating up 3-4ppm so I added 1.46 gallons in total yesterday. Today at 3 PM my guess strips read that my FC wasn’t at dark purple 10 ppm range but instead was somewhere between 5-10. I added 80 ounces of 10% liquid bleach to equate 5 ppm.
1.)Am I doing this correctly?
2.) Is there a consequence for adding way beyond my 10 ppm suggested to me by a member here? (While I await the kit)
3.) Attached is an updated look for how the algae appears on the bottom of the pool. I brushed it yesterday and it got all stirred up and resettled. Do I need to keep disturbing it with a brush?

 

[frogabog]

You're doing fine. The algae is going to eat up most of the chlorine you put in. 10ppm or greater will only be that high for a few minutes anyway. The fact that it's still green and settling tells you that what you've added isn't killing it yet. When it is being killed, it'll turn the water milky white. Which is a good thing because that means you've gotten ahead of it.

Don't be discouraged or think you're not making any headway right now. What you're doing is holding off a major green bloom. When your test kit arrives your SLAM will go much faster than if you did less or nothing right now.

Keep brushing whenever you have time.

 

[McIntyre87]

Update: Just got my tf100 kit and ran the tests. My results are the following:

TA- 90
pH 7.5
FC- 5 ppm
CC- 0.5 ppm
TC- 5.5 ppm
CYA- Filled it all the way while viewing the tube and at no point did it become totally obscure but when it was completely full it had started to cloud the black dot at the bottom but was still pretty easy to see.

I’ve been adding a gallon of 10% bleach to this 12,500 gallon pool for the last 3 days while waiting for this kit. An updated picture of the pool and the algae within is provided. Tips for fixing this will be MUCH appreciated. Thank you

 

[McIntyre87]

Going on a limb here to self diagnose based on what I’ve read the last few days. I’m going to soft assume that I have 10 CYA even though I filled it all the way up. Right now I have a sock dangling over the return with 2 lbs of CYA in it that equates to 20 ppm. I plan to periodically squeeze it and retest to see where I am. I am guessing I want to get to 30 CYA. At which point I should get my pool to SLAM level?

 

[frogabog]

You can bring the water up to SLAM level before the sock is fully squished. But otherwise it sounds like you've got a good understanding of it! Just remember to test and maintain SLAM levels as often as you can. If you can do it every hour at first, it will speed up the process.

Note, that if you maybe overestimated CYA and your test shows above 30ppm, call it 40ppm for your SLAM level FC.

Happy SLAMming!