Mustard Algae-help

[albacore45]

Trichlor is stabilized chlorine and has CYA in it when it's pure. Dichlor is also stabilized and yields 9ppm CYA for every 10ppm FC.

Leslie's CYA test also is unlikely to be able to tell 100ppm CYA from 200ppm CYA.

If your water's new, How did it get so much CYA in it?

Note to self......dont trust Leslies. I stopped on the way home at Walmart and picked up the 6 way test. Heres the results I got.

CL 5 PPm
PH 7.6
ALK 150
Hardness 120
CYA 40 PPM


Borax 45 PPM Not tested (but I know how much I put in)

[Watermom]

How does your water look? That chlorine reading of 5ppm means it could be 5 or higher but there is no way to know. You really need to order a Taylor K-2006 or 2006C as it is the only type of kit that can measure chlorine higher than 5. For now, you can use a dilution method to force your kit to read higher. It does lose accuracy with dilution, but it is better than nothing.

Testing Without a Good Kit

[BigDave]

albacore45,
Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday. Those numbers look alot different. Watermom is right, you really need a K-2006. You'll also need alot of R-0871 to monitor your yellow algae battle, you may want to consider buying an extra 2oz bottle of R-0871 should you choose to buy the K-2006 instead of the K-2006C.

The plan for killing Mustard Algae is: raise the FC level to the +Shock+ level in Ben's Best Guess Chart for your CYA level and keep it there for an extended period of time. Brush the pool daily - including everywhere the algae might hide (inside the light niche, behind, around, and under ladders and ladder feet). Also make sure anything that's touched the algae (brushes, nets, etc.) gets a nice long soak in the high chlorine pool.

Please do not use the trichlor powder you have to reach these chlorine levels, it will add CYA and make it harder to kill the algae.

Calcium Hypochlorite may be a good choice for you as you could also stand to raise your Calcium Hardness some. Cal-hypo comes in different strengths so read the labels carefully. 10lbs of 53% cal-hypo should raise your FC by 30ppm and raise your Calcium Hardness by 21.

[albacore45]

thanks for all the help. I worked the pool over good this weekend. first I lowered the ph to 7.2. My alkalinity also came down to 130. i ran the filter all weekend with the salt cell at 100%. I also took 2 large red solo cups of Trichlor and sprinkled the powder around all the walls. I scrubbed like crazy. saturday morning i checked the Chlorine levels and used the dilution method. My reading was 30. The pool water looked really good. The Algea stain looked like it was fading. No visible Algea. Now my big question is, the algea stain, is it mustard algea imbedded in the plaster somehow? i looks like stripes on a zebra. . so I just took another water sample and here are the readings I got

PH 7.2
Alk 130
Free Chl 20
CYA 50
Hardness 380
Borax 45 PPM

[albacore45]

Well I though I would check in and say my Algea problem seems to be gone. My walls are lookiing much better, and I see no visable algea. even the little corners where i would get a little spot are clean now. Not sure why, but what i did is listed above.

[aylad]

Thanks for the update...now go swimming and enjoy your pool!!


Janet