Re: Mustard Algae
PoolDoc,
Thanks for responding. This is Andrea's husband, Tim. She's finally handed the reigns over to me and I can assure you I have the patience your looking for. I don't think there's as much chemicals in our pools as you've been led to believe, but we'll walk through it one step at a time to be sure. Honestly, we've been using only bleach for at least two months now. About two month ago after reading one of your POP pieces, we shocked with only bleach with chlorine levels over 15ppm for 10-14 days brushing every other day at least. While the pool was clean, the water was still greenish-brown and cloudy. I began to question the filter. I had a pool maintenance guy out who said it looked as if anything that may have been in the pool was dead but the filter was not filtering. He added some DE to the skimmer but it shot out the jet, and he recommended we replace our filter sand (no additional chemicals added). I purchased 125 lbs of good pool filter sand from a local/accredited pool store and replaced the sand in the filter myself. I made sure to clean and inspect the fingers in the bottom of the filter and all checked out good. Refilled with sand and ran the filter for days with no real change to water color/cloudiness. I decided to turn off the pump as I had seen once before that dirt/debris sank to the bottom of the pool when the pump was not running. Sure enough, after 4-5 days everything that was in the water settled out. I was able to vacuum to waste and for a few days I had a clean pool. Unfortunately days later, in late March, the pine trees rained down the pollen as they do every year and the top of our pool was covered with yellow dust. To boot early spring sprigs (for lack of a better term) began falling from nearby tees and again we had a pool that was cloudy/green by time the pollen and tree debris stopped raining down. For the life of me, I'm not sure how previous owners dared to keep this pool uncovered during the winter months. There is so much debris that falls from nearby trees, my wife and I have skimmed or vacuumed with a leaf bag vacuum attached to the hose almost every day since November. Now on to your questions:
1. Is your liner slippery, or not?
No, I don't feel it's slippery.
2. Is your pool clear, or not?
I would say the pool is clean but the water is not clear. I can see the bottom of the deep end which is about 8' and the shallow end looks pretty clean. The water has a green color, but as I'm a new pool owner, I can't determine if the water is cloudy and the blue liner makes the water look green or if the water is actually green. When I take a pool sample using a small pitcher, the water looks clear in the bottle, not green.
3. Are there orange or brown stains on your steps, and inside your skimmer, or not?
No, there are not distinct brown or orange stains on the step or inside the skimmer. I would say they are a dingy in color, but not sure if that's from age (pool is 7 yrs old) or from a metal in the water. I think it's important to note we live in GA so even the toilets will get a pink/orange ring if not cleaned regularly. We do have other neighbors with pools though and they don't have green water nor do they treat for any metals from their tap water.
4. Is brown dust still dropping to your pools bottom?
I would say the bulk of remaining dust/dirt/organic material or metals are contained in the cloudy water.
5. Have you ordered a Taylor K2006 (links in my sig) and if so, when will it arrive.
Yes, we ordered the Taylor K2006 and have been testing for more than two months. We've recorded many of our tests so I can send them to you. We recently ran out of the Chlorine test solution, but have ordered more which should be here very soon.
6. If you fill the pool with same water that is in your bathroom, tell me what color the INSIDE of your toilet tank is. (Brown, orange, dark brown, light tan, etc.).
Yes we fill our house water. The tank is orange/brown. I can send a picture if it will help.
I have been interested in adding a floc, so I did add 5 oz. directly to the filter tonight. I want to say my filter pressure has kept me guessing as well. With only the skipper open and all other valves closed, my pressure is at 10 PSI. When I open the main drain at the bottom of the pool, it raises to about 12 PSI, but when I open the outlet to far side of the pool, PSI drops to 1-2 PSI. To add the floc, I used mainly the skimmer, but opened the main drain and outlet valves only half way keeping filter pressure at 5 PSI. The pump has now been running for 6 hours with no pressure increase. I'm beginning to wonder if my sand filter is actually catching anything. Please read over and provide your thoughts.
Thanks again,
Tim
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Re: Mustard Algae
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