Mustard Algae

[CUTURHAIR]

Hi,
I need some advice on mustard algae. I have it and the owner of the pool store I used for my liner and repairs was just here to check on something I was not happy with that they did (a repair) He said I have mustard algae, and said I need to come in to their store and use something they sell that will take care of the mustard algae. I think he said it was a copper based product. My pool is vinyl liner, inground, and I have never used anything other than what Ben reccomends, and like the idea of having no "outside" chemicals in my water, other than the grocery store chemicals. There are no "outside" chemicals in my pool water since I had the liner changed, and I would prefer to keep it that way. However, he said chlorine alone will not take care of mustard algae.

I am still trying to get my cya up a bit. It is finally getting a little cloudy but not quite enough when I test the cya levels, as I didn't have enough on hand when I put it in last week. My cya drops to zero over the winter every year.

So, my question is, once I get my cya to about 30 or 40 ppm, is it possible to get rid of this mustard algae with consistent shock levels, and for how many days would you reccomend? OR, do I HAVE to get the pool store, copper based stuff, and will it mess up my water balance, once I add that, and create a summer full of problems???

One thing he said, was that when I treated the mustard algae with this product they have, he said I should put all floats, brushes, vacuum heads, nets, etc in the pool to be treated as well, because if they are not treated, they could reinfect the pool with the mustard algae again. Sounds reasonable, do y'all agree with that thought?

Thanks for any advice. I really don't want to add this copper product if I can shock it, and vac to waste, brush, brush, brush, etc instead. On the other hand, if I need to go ahead with the "store" product, I would like to get that going soon and get rid of this mess.

Thanks!
John

[duraleigh]

Hi, John,

I've not had mustard algae but I would be very reluctant to put the copper based stuff in your pool. I believe you can control and probably eradicate mustard algae with Cl (or perhaps polyquat) from things I've read here on the forum.

My reason for posting is that you have absolutely nothing to lose by shocking your pool. If for some reason, it doesn't solve your issue, you can consider other methods.

Folks smarter than me will be chiming in soon but I'll bet you'll hear that Cl is the way to go. :)

[CUTURHAIR]

Yep, that is true! Try CL, and see what happens and go from there! I am interested to see if people have successfully conquered mustard algae with CL alone. I really don't want a copper based product in my "virgin" pool! LOL!

[jv4nu]

I had a bout of mustard algae last summer (my first summer as a pool owner) which was preceded by a bout of green algae. This all occurred due to a combination of my lack of knowledge (which hopefully won't happen this summer!) and a power washing of goo from my deck into the pool. After I got the green cleared up and my pool fairly clear which took a good week of lots and lots of shocking and brushing, I kept seeing brown dust all over my steps. It was very fine and would dissapate after brushing, only to return after a few hours. I had never had dirt settle on my steps like that within a few hours, because I ran my Legend pretty much all the time when we weren't in it. My builder told me it was mustard algae and to try the method you mentioned above with the copper algaecide and putting the tools in the pool, etc. I tried it and within 3 days, the "dust" was gone and hasn't returned. I put in a "metal out" product in on about the 7th day to remove the copper. I know folks don't advocate using it, but it worked for me! You may want to consider it if chlorine doesn't solve your problem completely after you try that first, and if you really think it is mustard algae that you have.