Fighting Algae for months

This is not in any way a recommendation but you could probably get your cya levels to somewhere between 70-90. I wouldn't go any higher than that though. Be sure to read the best guess chart here to find out the recommended CL levels for your CYA.

BUT... Get your algae under control before you do anything else. Any effort and money spent otherwise right now would be a waste. Did you receive your kit today? If you have questions regarding how to use it, look here. These videos are great to help you learn about using your kit. Get those test results and then a plan can be more accurately formulated. Also, be sure not to waste your CYA tests. There are only about 6 testings in the K-2006.

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Originally Posted by jwhouse

Usually, the dead algae will settle to the bottom and need to be vacuumed by hand.

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This isn't necessarily so. It depends on circulation patterns, pump run times, and more. What often happens on AG pools is that the water goes from green cloudy to gray cloudy.

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Originally Posted by rkrgk

What would be an ideal amount of CYA to hold the Cl levels relatively stable considering the fact that we live in Phoenix where its 100+ almost everyday throughout the summer?

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As jwhouse notes below, you need to get the algae resolved first. You may not have a lot of choice about CYA levels, unless you drain and refill. 1. Test the water. 2. Kill the algae. 3. Fix any other URGENT chemistry issues. 4. THEN worry about ideal CYA levels.

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Originally Posted by sabres07

You have to add chlorine as often as it takes throughout the day to hold your pool at shock level. For my algae battle, it was every couple of hours on the first day.

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This isn't completely necessary. Not everyone is at home during the day. Very large chlorine doses added each evening will do the trick, once you get the doses high enough.

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You have to be very persistent.

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But this IS completely necessary.

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Originally Posted by jwhouse

BUT... Get your algae under control before you do anything else. Any effort and money spent otherwise right now would be a waste.

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Absolutely correct -- unless you have very low pH that could damage your pool, or very high pH that could interfere with killing algae. Then you need to do both at the same time.

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Originally Posted by PoolDoc

As jwhouse notes below, you need to get the algae resolved first. You may not have a lot of choice about CYA levels, unless you drain and refill. 1. Test the water. 2. Kill the algae. 3. Fix any other URGENT chemistry issues. 4. THEN worry about ideal CYA levels.

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Definitely, I am talking about the case when my pool is clear off any Algae. And in my case I have very low CYA (<30ppm) and thats the reason I suspected that all the chlorine is gone by evening even though I add about close to 20 ppm (at a minimum) each night. Even though I can not confirm with certainty how much I loose during the night, I think i dont loose more than 1ppm since last few days.

Before a month or so, I had good CYA levels (60-80ppm if I remember correctly). I was using trichlor tabs as well. I would think it added some CYA on top of what I already had. Not sure where all the CYA disappeared suddenly. Even though I backwashed few times during this process hard to believe it disappeared that way.

About the cloudiness in my pool, I have a high CH, which can also cause cloudiness I assume? Due to Calcium Carbonate? Apart from the dead Algae (if thats not already filtered out still)?

BTW, I got the taylor test kit, but didnt test yet. Will give the results once I am home from work.

Thanks again for helping me out. This site is really cool. Lots of useful info.

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Originally Posted by rkrgk

Before a month or so, I had good CYA levels (60-80ppm if I remember correctly). I was using trichlor tabs as well. I would think it added some CYA on top of what I already had. Not sure where all the CYA disappeared suddenly. Even though I backwashed few times during this process hard to believe it disappeared that way.

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It doesn't take very long for an algae outbreak to break down your CYA, and if you've been fighting it for this long, that's probably where your CYA went. If that's the case, one of the frequent byproducts of that process is ammonia, which creates a HUGE chlorine demand in the pool until it's broken down by the chlorine. Measuring your Cl at night and again in the morning will tell you a lot more about what's going on in your pool, because if you're still losing chlorine overnight, it's due to the water, not the sun.

High CH can cause cloudiness in the pool, especially with high pH and high TA, although my money is on dead algae that hasn't been filtered out....

Ok, So finally I got to test with the new Taylor kit. Here is the result
FC - 0.8 ppm
CC - 3.4 ppm
pH - 7.3
TA - 80 ppm
CH - 400 ppm
CYA - too low to show in test

I also need to change my signature to show that mine is an in ground pool.

-- Signature updated --

+ Shock nightly with 3 gallons of PLAIN 6% bleach (~12 ppm)
+ Dose daily with 1 lb of dichlor (5 ppm FC, 4 ppm CYA)
+ Continue with bleach until FC overnight drop is less than 1 ppm
+ Continue with dichlor until CYA > 30 ppm
+ Use borax as needed to maintain pH > 7.2

Ben

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+ If you need stabilizer, and have access to a Sams Club, buy their 24 pack of 1# bags of dichlor shock. Each bag will add about 7 ppm of chlorine, and about 6 ppm of stabilizer, per 10K gallons of water. Otherwise, order dichlor from Amazon:

Kem-Tek Dichlor 22 lbs

We do NOT recommend buying dichlor locally, otherwise, at least until you are an EXPERT reader of chemical labels. The chlorinating pool chemicals sold at Walmart, Kmart, Costco, and most other local stores are diluted blends, sometimes with copper and other products with bad side-effects.

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Originally Posted by PoolDoc

-- Signature updated --

+ Shock nightly with 3 gallons of PLAIN 6% bleach (~12 ppm)
+ Dose daily with 1 lb of dichlor (5 ppm FC, 4 ppm CYA)
+ Continue with bleach until FC overnight drop is less than 1 ppm
+ Continue with dichlor until CYA > 30 ppm
+ Use borax as needed to maintain pH > 7.2

Ben

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I dont have sams club membership, and I would like to buy dichlor locally unless its impossible find the good one locally. Amazon orders takes a week to receive. What do you think about the pooltime dichlor sold by home depot? Are they bad as well? I do have some trichlor tabs from Costco, can I use them? That is 94.5% trichlor and nothing on the label (atleast) about Copper or any other fillings.
Or else how about buying some cyanuric acid as it is?

If you join Amazon Prime for their trial period, you get free 2-day shipping. If you decide you don't want to keep the Amazon Prime, you can cancel before 30 days have passed and owe nothing. Just a thought. (I joined it and sometimes when I order stuff it doesn't even take two days. Several times now I have ordered one day and gotten delivery the next.)

Using trichlor takes awhile to build up a CYA level so is not an ideal way to add CYA initially. You can just use bleach and add CYA outright if you want to. That is what I always do. I'm not familiar with the Home Depot pool products so can't comment on them.

Most of PoolTime dichlor products I've checked are a blended mess, made by BioLab/BioGuard. Not all the blends are equally bad, so try it if you like. If you get lucky, you won't do any damage to your water.

So I tested pool before adding bleach tonight and 1 hr after adding.
Before adding bleach
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FC - 0.2
CC - 1.8

1 hr after adding 4.26 Gallons of bleach
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FC - 9.5
CC - 2.0

But I think the math doesnt add up. 4.26 Gal of 6% bleach for 15K Gallons should add it upto ~24 ppm, correct? I think my pool is bigger than I thought. I think my pool could be 25K Gallons (which would make it approx 10ppm). I never got our pool info when we bought our house, I just assumed that it is just 15K.
I will post the results in the morning after I test again to see the loss of FC.

Thanks for the suggestions watermom and Ben. I have not bought the cya yet.