My algae issues

[True Blue]

What a great forum! I've already learned so much.

When I opened up my pool, the water was clear, but there was a dark sediment on the bottom, though I could see the liner quite a bit. When I turned on the pump, within a short time, the pool became murky.

Yesterday morning, after having a problem with my multiport (that has its own thread), I returned with chlorinating granuales. While I was working on the multiport, I put the granuales in, along with algaecide, and within minutes, my water was green and had a brown slurry on top. I assumed this to be algae. That's when I began an internet search for advice and found this forum.

I added bleach about an hour ago and tested the water with my basic test kits. The chlorine was clearly WELL above the 5 ppm value, but the pH was showing up as 6.8. The pH was also low yesterday, so I added some pH plus last night, so I expected that to go up, though after reading around on here, I have learned that a high pH might make that reading off.

I also used a "dip and stick" test and the results show:

A free chlorine completely off the charts...it goes up to a 10 ppm (which is indicated by blue and mine is purple)
An alkalinity of about 100 ppm
Stabilizer...hard to tell, originally it looked to be less than 30 ppm, but later looked to be above 50 ppm

I have an above ground, sand filtered pool.

My main question is do I need to do anything to remove the brown slurry from the top? It doesn't go through the filter (which I read on here is actually a good thing), but when the pump is running, it just seems to get worse. I scooped a great deal of it out last night with the skimmer. That seems to be a waste of time, though.

I'm a little afraid that I will look out the window and my pool will be overflowing with brown foam. :lol:

Any advice is appreciated.

[Watermom]

Send some pics to poolforum AT gmail DOT com showing the problem.

When you do, reference this thread by copying and pasting the url so we will get the pics with the right thread.)

[True Blue]

Photo has been sent. The slurry is now more of a scattered mess, so it is disappating.

[PoolDoc]

Dunno what you've got. How much chlorine did you add, and what kind was it?

Ben

[True Blue]

It was either a di- or tri-chloro product. It was 8 oz, I believe. This photo is an "after" photo...after adding 6 3 qt. bottles of chlorine. Originally, it looked like the foam on from a tap beer.

[Watermom]

My bet is that it was caused by the algaecide that he added. Some of those will cause foaming.

[True Blue]

My bet is that it was caused by the algaecide that he added. Some of those will cause foaming.

"He" is a "she" but nonetheless, I think that you are right. It continues to dimish.

[Watermom]

Oops! Sorry about that. Glad to hear it is improving. This is one reason that the only algaecide that we recommend for use is 60% Polyquat and even at that, most times you don't need any algaecide at all.

[True Blue]

Oops! Sorry about that. Glad to hear it is improving. This is one reason that the only algaecide that we recommend for use is 60% Polyquat and even at that, most times you don't need any algaecide at all.

Trust me, I've learned my lesson. I'll be interested in what you all recommend for winterization...particularly to prevent algae next season.

[Watermom]

We'll still be here in the fall. It's a big cycle. We help clear green pools in the spring. Then, when fall rolls around, we help with closing so that hopefully there will be fewer green pools next spring! Actually, the Pool Forum staff typically all pop onto the forum at some point most days in the winter, too. Just to see if anybody needs help and also because this forum is such a part of our lives that we would be kind of lost without it!