Having issues with Algae

[pamandring]

I'd read a forum before I registered that gave advice for a 17,000 gallon pool. The problem the original poster was having was that live algae was plugging up the DE filter. Responder advised bypassing the filter so that there is circulation, then pour six gallons of household bleach in each day for three days in order to kill the algae. If ph was below 7, responder advised to add 8 boxes of borax.

I have a 40,000 gallon in ground pool. I wanted to know how those dosages changed for my pool.

Thanks,

Pam

[kelemvor]

Ideally you need to get a good test kit to know how to accurately dose your pool. Assuming you currently have no chlorine and no cya then you would need to get to 10ppm for "shock" based on the chart here: http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/best-guess-swimming-pool-chlorine-chart.html#a In 40,000 gallons of water that's a little over 6 gallons of 6% "ultra" bleach. You may need significantly more if you have stabilizer (CYA) in the water. Also, you're going to need to be able to test your water and add more chlorine frequently. What you add will be quickly used up killing off the algae. If you can test and add chlorine 2 or more times a day, you'll be doing yourself a favor. That's where having a good test kit comes into play.

[pamandring]

Thanks for getting back. Is there a test kit that's relatively easy to use?

[Watermom]

The test kit we recommend is the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy). Not available locally. Link in my signature below.

Welcome to the Pool Forum! Be sure to read on our sister website as well. www.poolsolutions.com

[PoolDoc]

When people report having 40k gallon pools, more often than not, they have gotten an erroneous value for their pool volume.

Let's assume a 30K gallon pool: each gallon of PLAIN 8% bleach from Walmart will add about 3 ppm of chlorine to that pool. Effective algae doses, on stabilized outdoor pools, start around 10 ppm of chlorine, or 3.5 gallons

So . . . go to Walmart, and get a cheap OTO /phenol red kit, and 12 gallons of bleach. (If they have an HTH 6-way test kit, get that, too). Go home and add 4 gallons in the PM. Wait 1 hour (with pump ON), and then test with OTO. If the result is not DARK yellow, add another 4 gallons.

Meanwhile, if you got the HTH kit, test your CYA (stabilizer) level. (Read the instructions carefully -- you can only do the test 1 or 2 times.) As this page:
http://pool9.net/cl-cya/
correct chlorine levels are determined by your CYA level.

You're gonna the need the K2006 (both the HTH 6-way and the K2006 are made by Taylor), so go ahead and order one: http://pool9.net/test/

Most people find the kit somewhat intimidating, at first, but watching these videos will help: http://pool9.net/tk-guide/