The good news: I just discovered this site tonight.
The bad news: I just discovered this site tonight.
Kit was ordered tonight.
Background: Bought current home in April. Has 22,000 gallon kidney shaped IG pool (built in 2014) with sand filter and salt water generator. I Had pool professionally opened 30 days ago. Was a green monster — neighbors said they let it go towards ends of the year last summer...but it was professionally closed. When we opened the pool, not only was it as green as a baseball field, but we pulled out a wicker patio furniture seat that had been in it all winter. Just proof that I think it was closed poorly.
Anyway, I originally hired someone to help me get it ready for swimming as I knew nothing. He put a few gallons of shock in and the green went away - but very cloudy. He said there were phosphates - added flocculant (revive) and turned filter off for 48 hours. Was still cloudy but could see the milky sand-like powder/dead algae at bottom. He was coming back to vacuum when I received a call from him saying he would be unable to continue to help me due to some personal issues he was dealing with (blessing in disguise for me as it forced me to start learning). Had no idea how to manually vacuum..but figured it out. Didn’t know about vacuum to waste so kept vacuuming to filter (but I did backwash). Figured out how to vacuum to waste and started doing that. Cleared up very quickly — leveled out water chemistry (from pool store water test results). Used pool, was 90% clear and I thought things were good.
I had about 10% remaining of the dead/grey/white algae to vacuum up on Monday of this week when I noticed it looked a bit more green/yellow. Saw some green algae on the ladder and what looked like “mustard drops” on the shallow end. Added a few gallons of shock and a solution 60 Algecide (polyquat). Went out the next day and seemed to be getting worse — with the brush got the brown dust “poof” down sides and bottom. Pool was still clear and not horrible but knew something was up. Went to pool store, tested and tc/fc were about 2ppm. After speaking with store owner (who built actual pool at my home), recommend sodium bromide and 8 gallons of liquid shock for the mustard algae. I went home, vacuumed to waste the large algae spots (some of the pieces had “curled” into a little ball), then brushed like crazy to try and get all of it loose. Shocked 8 gallons and added sodium bromide. Swept several more times that night.
Woke up today, and looked better (pool very clear...almost sparking clear, no large deposits) but brushing most areas still resulted in the dust “pool”...this stuff is really hiding). Brushed in morning (about half of what was observed yesterday was present), brushed at noon, tested water (pool store) and got a whopping 0.2 Tc/FC!!! Less than 24 hours from the 8 gallon shock.
Went back and swept like crazy again - took apart ladder, used colorox/bleach and cue tips to get all crevices in ladder, behind light, on skimmers, etc. much deeper clean. Swept again. Added 8 more Gallons of shock and swept some more.
Hoping this goes away. Seems to be diminished today so maybe tonight’s efforts killed the rest of it. But even after that shock tonight, still getting some cloudy “poofs” when brushing. Here are my numbers just PRIOR to tonight’s 8 gallon shock.
Tc 0.2
fc 0.2
ta 135
ph 7.2
calcium 250
cya 45
salt 3100
Any thoughts? Also, stupidly ran my brand new robot Thro this stuff the other day so the filter I’m sure has mustard algae. What’s the best way to clean? I can wipe down the robot with a Clorox beach solution but what about the filters? Didn’t want to put it in the water during this super shock.
Thanks for any input!
The bad news: I just discovered this site tonight.
Kit was ordered tonight.
Background: Bought current home in April. Has 22,000 gallon kidney shaped IG pool (built in 2014) with sand filter and salt water generator. I Had pool professionally opened 30 days ago. Was a green monster — neighbors said they let it go towards ends of the year last summer...but it was professionally closed. When we opened the pool, not only was it as green as a baseball field, but we pulled out a wicker patio furniture seat that had been in it all winter. Just proof that I think it was closed poorly.
Anyway, I originally hired someone to help me get it ready for swimming as I knew nothing. He put a few gallons of shock in and the green went away - but very cloudy. He said there were phosphates - added flocculant (revive) and turned filter off for 48 hours. Was still cloudy but could see the milky sand-like powder/dead algae at bottom. He was coming back to vacuum when I received a call from him saying he would be unable to continue to help me due to some personal issues he was dealing with (blessing in disguise for me as it forced me to start learning). Had no idea how to manually vacuum..but figured it out. Didn’t know about vacuum to waste so kept vacuuming to filter (but I did backwash). Figured out how to vacuum to waste and started doing that. Cleared up very quickly — leveled out water chemistry (from pool store water test results). Used pool, was 90% clear and I thought things were good.
I had about 10% remaining of the dead/grey/white algae to vacuum up on Monday of this week when I noticed it looked a bit more green/yellow. Saw some green algae on the ladder and what looked like “mustard drops” on the shallow end. Added a few gallons of shock and a solution 60 Algecide (polyquat). Went out the next day and seemed to be getting worse — with the brush got the brown dust “poof” down sides and bottom. Pool was still clear and not horrible but knew something was up. Went to pool store, tested and tc/fc were about 2ppm. After speaking with store owner (who built actual pool at my home), recommend sodium bromide and 8 gallons of liquid shock for the mustard algae. I went home, vacuumed to waste the large algae spots (some of the pieces had “curled” into a little ball), then brushed like crazy to try and get all of it loose. Shocked 8 gallons and added sodium bromide. Swept several more times that night.
Woke up today, and looked better (pool very clear...almost sparking clear, no large deposits) but brushing most areas still resulted in the dust “pool”...this stuff is really hiding). Brushed in morning (about half of what was observed yesterday was present), brushed at noon, tested water (pool store) and got a whopping 0.2 Tc/FC!!! Less than 24 hours from the 8 gallon shock.
Went back and swept like crazy again - took apart ladder, used colorox/bleach and cue tips to get all crevices in ladder, behind light, on skimmers, etc. much deeper clean. Swept again. Added 8 more Gallons of shock and swept some more.
Hoping this goes away. Seems to be diminished today so maybe tonight’s efforts killed the rest of it. But even after that shock tonight, still getting some cloudy “poofs” when brushing. Here are my numbers just PRIOR to tonight’s 8 gallon shock.
Tc 0.2
fc 0.2
ta 135
ph 7.2
calcium 250
cya 45
salt 3100
Any thoughts? Also, stupidly ran my brand new robot Thro this stuff the other day so the filter I’m sure has mustard algae. What’s the best way to clean? I can wipe down the robot with a Clorox beach solution but what about the filters? Didn’t want to put it in the water during this super shock.
Thanks for any input!