To begin, I have an above ground pool that contains 16,500 gallons and it's a saltwater pool. I opened the pool and maintained it (well, it pretty much maintains itself with the Chlorinator) until we went on vacation from June 15th to June 29th. We set the Chlorinator at 25% and covered the pool, which has never been an issue. Upon returning, I found what looked like mud on the bottom of the pool after uncovering it. Upon vacuuming, I realized it was a huge algae bloom. I immediately brought the pool to a shock level 16 after getting the ph to 7.4. I cleaned the filter and scrubbed the pool floor, stairs and walls. I continued to watch the levels ... for 2 entire days ... 16 to 11, add more ... test 4 hours later, back down to 11. This went on for 2 days! I got in on the 2nd day and scrubbed everything again and then I remembered the horror stories on here of mustard algae. After getting out of the pool from scrubbing and cleaning the filter again (paper filter), I raised to 16 so that I could go buy supplies to shock it to 30 that night. I shocked it last night to 30, turned the chlorinator to 75% duty cycle and this morning at 8:30AM it was down to 27. Brought it back up to 30-31 and tested again at 12:30 ... down to 21! Just brought it back up to 31-32 and I'm getting ready to head out to buy more bleach. I'm using standard 6% bleach ... been through 30 jugs and I'm down to my last 1! Keep at it this way to should I buy some shock? BTW, CYA is right at 40.
