Recurring Green Algae One Week After Treatment

[cvan1971man]

My Dad has a green algae issue for a couple of years and cannot get rid of it. He has gone in, got the water tested and Leslie's will sell him a slew of chemicals to fix the problem.

Today my Dad was grumbling about filling the pool in with dirt and being done with it. Obviously, that isn't the best solution.

It is a 25,000 gallon gunite saltwater pool. The pool pump is typically run 8 hours per day.

The tech at Leslies told him not to use a wire brush.

My dad cleaned the pool filter before the treatment and scrubbed the algae on the walls. but there was a shadow of the algae on the walls that the bristle brush would not remove.

Here is the test results from Leslie's.
- Free Chlorine - .06 PPM
- Total Chlorine - .23 PPM
- PH - 8 PPM
- Total Alkalinity - 115 PPM
- Calcium Hardness - 319 PPM
- Cyanuric Acid - 36 PPM
- Iron - 0 PPM
- Copper - .2 PPM
- Phoshates - 0 PPM
- Salt - 3344 PPM

Here is the treatment plan that they sold him.

Add:
Green to Clean - 3 pounds 6 oz
Waited 5 min.
Power Powder Plus 73 - 3 pounds 6 oz.
Wait 12 hours - repeated the above treament
Wait another 12 hours - repeat above treatment for the 3rd time.

The green algae comes back in the same places every time.

What treatment plan would you recommend for my Dad? Any issue with him using the wire brush on the pool. The gunite seems to be in great shape.

Thanks for your help and expertise.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
You need to follow the SLAM Process. To do that, you need a proper test kit. I suggest the TF-100 or Taylor K2006C. A proper test kit is needed to get the accurate water chemistry results needed to follow the TFP protocols.

While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.
I suggest you read through Pool School - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool

 

[Bperry]

My Dad has a green algae issue for a couple of years and cannot get rid of it. He has gone in, got the water tested and Leslie's will sell him a slew of chemicals to fix the problem.

Today my Dad was grumbling about filling the pool in with dirt and being done with it. Obviously, that isn't the best solution.

It is a 25,000 gallon gunite saltwater pool. The pool pump is typically run 8 hours per day.

The tech at Leslies told him not to use a wire brush.

My dad cleaned the pool filter before the treatment and scrubbed the algae on the walls. but there was a shadow of the algae on the walls that the bristle brush would not remove.

Here is the test results from Leslie's.
- Free Chlorine - .06 PPM
- Total Chlorine - .23 PPM
- PH - 8 PPM
- Total Alkalinity - 115 PPM
- Calcium Hardness - 319 PPM
- Cyanuric Acid - 36 PPM
- Iron - 0 PPM
- Copper - .2 PPM
- Phoshates - 0 PPM
- Salt - 3344 PPM

Here is the treatment plan that they sold him.

Add:
Green to Clean - 3 pounds 6 oz
Waited 5 min.
Power Powder Plus 73 - 3 pounds 6 oz.
Wait 12 hours - repeated the above treament
Wait another 12 hours - repeat above treatment for the 3rd time.

The green algae comes back in the same places every time.

What treatment plan would you recommend for my Dad? Any issue with him using the wire brush on the pool. The gunite seems to be in great shape.

Thanks for your help and expertise.

Yep, it’s green cause there’s no chlorine if leslies test is correct (dont trust them) so don’t add anything the store sold you and take it back if you can. Follow the advice mknauss explained.

 

[Newdude]

Hey Cvan and Welcome !!!

My Dad has a green algae issue for a couple of years and cannot get rid of it. He has gone in, got the water tested and Leslie's will sell him a slew of chemicals to fix the problem

Why would they ever care to address the root of the problem when they have $275 band aids for sale. Ok. Off you go, see you in 3 weeks,

We get most of our members this way. We call it being 'pool stored'. @PoolStored even used it as his handle.

We got you now. Marty has you WELL covered in post #2

 

[cvan1971man]

Welcome to the forum!
You need to follow the SLAM Process. To do that, you need a proper test kit. I suggest the TF-100 or Taylor K2006C. A proper test kit is needed to get the accurate water chemistry results needed to follow the TFP protocols.

While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.
I suggest you read through Pool School - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool

Thank you so much for the above info. With a 25,000 gallon SALTWATER pool, what amount of liquid bleach would you add initially while he is waiting on his test kit?

 

[mknauss]

While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach (1 gallon of 10% is sufficient) to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.

 

[jark87]

By all means, follow the advice of experts here, starting with a good test kit. Once you get the algae issue corrected by following the SLAM procedures, you (or your dad) won’t spend more than 5 minutes each week “maintaining” the pool. Maybe 10 minutes if you’re better about brushing than I am. And you won’t need to rely on the pool store for any advice.

And if you can only find 7.5% bleach, each 121 oz jug will raise your chlorine by roughly 3 ppm, per the free Pool Math app provided by TFP. There’s also a subscription version that lets you keep logs and maybe some other features.