Can't get rid of tons of dead algae on the bottom of my pool

Due to a completely torn ACL at the most inappropriate time I was unable to open my pool. By the time I finally got to it I double shocked it to kill all the nasty stuff. Unfortunately, all of the dead algae settled to the bottom of the pool. I'm not talking just a little bit of algae. I have vacuumed this thing 3 times now. 2 times to waste. I couldn't afford to keep filling up the pool with fresh water. It is less now, but still way too much to "open" the pool.

The pool size is a round 24' x 52" Intex. l do have a brand new Hayward sand filter. Tonight I vacuumed it once again, shocked it with 4 lbs. of Bioguard Smart Shock, and tried to stir up the remaining matter on the bottom as per the directions. I did this once the sun was down and will see what's in store for me in the morning. It seems no matter what I do the dead algae just settles to the bottom and my vacuum doesn't seem to have enough umph to remove it all. You talked about adding liquid chlorine, however I don't know the dose. Or even if it will help with this matter. I'm so tired of messing with it I'm about to give up. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm lost.

What is the pressure on your filter? Have you backwashed the filter? By the way, what are the ingredients in the Bioguard Smart Shock? What else have you added to the pool, meaning ingredients.

Do yourself a favor and order a good test kit. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C (link in my signature below).

The filter pressure is 5. I backwash and rinse it every time I attempt to vacuum the pool. This morning there is still sediment on the bottom of the pool. It's less than yesterday but I feel as though the vacuuming just stirs it up more than vacuums. I will order a good test kit per your recommendation, however for now all I have are the HTH test strips. Everything is dead on except for the chlorine which doesn't even register.
Here is what I found for ingredients for Bioguard Smart Shock:

Product Information:

63% sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione
0.26% Copper (metallic)
Approximately 39% available chlorine
pH 4.7
Patented technology
Multifunctional formula
Shocks, clarifies, and kills algae
Contains blue algae killing crystals
Sunlight protected
No need to pre-dessolve
Maintains brilliantly clear water
Step 2 of the 3-Step and once-a-week 3-Step Programs

The only other "chemical" added to the pool is the Bioguard chlorine block I place in the skimmer.

If the BioGuard stuff has copper in it, you do NOT want to use it! Contrary to popular belief, it is not chlorine that turns blonde hair green, it is copper!

A filter pressure of 5 doesn't sound right to me. I'm going to ask PoolDoc to look at your thread.

@ Watermom: 5 psi probably *is* normal for some Intex systems.


@ amillionpets:

"Contains blue algae killing crystals" = "contains cheap copper sulfate crystals, which saves Biolab money, and turns your blonde hair green, but may kill some algae, if you manage to get enough copper in the pool to stain it!"

"Multifunctional formula" = "we diluted your expensive dichlor with cheap stuff, like copper sulfate, alum and borax, so we could lower our cost, but keep the retail price high!"


For us to help solve your filtration problem we need to know what sort of filter you have (cartridge or sand) and which model it is.

It is a Hayward sand filter VL series.

Is that enough information regarding the filter or do you need more?

I'm going to let Ben handle your filter issue. He'll be back around later.

Here's the page on that filter: http://www.hayward-pool.com/prd/Abov...01_14018_I.htm

Did you get just the filter, or the pump + filter combo? If you got only the filter, the Intex pump may not be sufficient to drive water through it.

Regardless, open the filter, and inspect the sand's condition (should not be gummed up, hard or in balls) and level (add more if needed.).

This parts diagram shows how it comes apart: http://www.hayward-pool.com/pdf/Part.../VL_Series.pdf
Here's a screen shot:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...2520filter.jpg

According to the manual [ http://www.hayward-pool.com/pdf/manu...es-VL40T32.pdf ] the fill level is not designated, but the filter takes 40lbs of sand. As a good guess, the sand should be at least at the level of the upper indentation in the filter's profile.

We got the filter & pump combo. We bought & assembled it about 2 weeks ago with sand bought at the same pool store. I have not yet taken it apart to check the sand due to nasty thunderstorms in our area this afternoon. I did just come in from cleaning leaves from the pool and the emptying the skimmer. I went ahead & checked the water with an HTH test strip (as that's all I have at the moment). I could smell chlorine in the water as I pushed it around, but here are the results:

TH: 200
FC: 0 to maybe 1. The top of the square was 0. The bottom of the square was around 1.
pH: 7.2
TA: 120
CYA: 30-50

There is still quite a lot of settlement on the bottom of the pool. I will try to post a picture if it makes any difference.