Greetings experts. Yesterday while reading up on mustard algae issues on the site here, I saw CYA referenced. I have taken care of pools at houses I've lived in and had never checked CYA. Today I jumped in, so to speak, and did so. The pool's CYA appears to be low, at ~25 ppm(?). How can I raise it? And is that one reason that I have bad mustard, and perhaps black, algae that is so hard to get rid of? Thanks ahead of time. Cheers.
Stubborn algae and low CYA.
- Thread starter PoolHandLuck
- Start date
- Jul 17, 2019
- 4,078
- Pool Size
- 13000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Your CYA may be a contributing factor but hold off on adding CYA for now if you have algae.
Do you have a full set of test results from a reputable kit that you can post?
Do you have a full set of test results from a reputable kit that you can post?
Thanks for your response JJ_Tex. I have to look into what is considered a full set of test results from a reputable kit. I will do that shortly. Cheers.
kul
Bronze Supporter
- Oct 1, 2021
- 1,434
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
BTW, I just read a post regarding mustard/yellow algae morphing into black algae and embedding itself into the plaster. I'm pretty sure my ward has that. I suspect I'll have to convince that pool owner, my mom, to drain the pool and get it acid washed. I don't think she'll go for it so it'll probably be all about making the pool water plaster surface look as good as it can. Honestly, that won't be that good. I've argued for an emptying until she starts the renovation, but she's not going for it. Since there is an iron fence around it, it's not really a safety factor. And truly, hardly anybody spends any time in the backyard at her house anymore. The worst thing would be dealing with the rainy season and it getting nature's refilling.
I will look into getting a better kit. I just have a basic kit for chlorine and acid, so an upgrade is in order. Sadly, I just bought a CYA kit. I probably should have put that $20 towards the Taylor, or? Thanks, folks. Cheers.
I will look into getting a better kit. I just have a basic kit for chlorine and acid, so an upgrade is in order. Sadly, I just bought a CYA kit. I probably should have put that $20 towards the Taylor, or? Thanks, folks. Cheers.
The two taylor kits are all that people here will help with since they’ve been proven reliable and most everything else has proven unreliable.
You don’t want to empty a pool for very long as the surface can be damaged.
The algae is simply an under-chlornation problem. It’s probably not mustard or any fancy algae. If you have records of test results that would help but it’s very common for pools to have too low chlorine levels.