Algae Problem with Cloudy Water

[bmlocal175]

Just tried a strip after vacuuming and swimming a little to see what the FC reading was. It shows around 4.

So hopefully you guys have all the info you need to let me know how much of the 18 gallons of 6% I need to dump in. Not sure how I would monitor it for I have nothing that goes to around 15ppm. The test strips do show up to 10 so maybe a darker color than that.

[bmlocal175]

Found the bleach calculator.. Typed in all of the info and it told me I need to add 16.7L of bleach to raise my ppm by 11 from 4 to reach 15. My pool is around 24,000 gallons which is about 90,850L. So that would be 3 of the jugs I got from Walmart. This thread might have some comments before this gets posted so I'm waiting until later tonight to do this so I can see what you guys think. The water does look a lot better from the 5 galllons of 12% yesterday but still cloudy. Maybe it just needs a little more time but I still would like to shock it to make sure.

[PoolDoc]

"Mountain Lake" is not a geometric shape, or at least not one I've ever heard of -- but if your pool is more or less a rectangle, your volume is more likely to be MORE than 30K gallons, than it is less than 30K. With algae, too much chlorine is much better than too little.

So . . . I'll assume a PF of 3.5 (~35,000 gallons) rather than 5 (24,000 gallons). With a PF of 3.5, a gallon of bleach will increase your FC by 0.5 lbs Cl2 equiv/gal 6% bleach x 3.5 or 1.75. So you need evening doses of 8 gallons of 6% bleach.

You can test with an cheap OTO kit -- you can skip the evening dose, IF your OTO reading in the EVENING is DARK yellow with an orange tint. Otherwise, 8 gallons of 6% bleach EVERY evening till there's no trace of algae left. After the 2nd dose, BRUSH the pool carefully.

BUT . . . if you find that your chlorine has NOT dropped after a full day of sun, THEN we know your CYA is very high. And in that case you need to NOT skip, but go ahead and take your chlorine level into the 30 - 40 ppm range (orange with an OTO kit), and keep it there, until you get your K2006.

By the way, once your chlroine goes above 10, your phenol red pH test results won't be reliable, so if your pH needs major adjustment fix it now. But, if it's between 7.0 and 8.0, you can worry about that, later.

[bmlocal175]

Here is my pool. The men who set up the salt system have 24,000 listed in the menu so I went by that.

[bmlocal175]

Alright I will wait until evening to check chlorine again. I have the HTH 6 from walmart so that is TC . Your saying if it shows higher than what the kit can show I'm good through the night? Should I leave the filter running all night with the salt system running? I have the purifier running now at about 60% on level 2 just to maintain really what I have. The water does look better but I did have to vacuum up what looked like brown stuff scattered all over the floor of the pool this afternoon.

[aylad]

The brown stuff on the pool bottom is probably dead algae, which indicates that you're making progress. Keep your filter running but turn the SWCG off so you're not wearing it out. Use the bleach/liquid chlorine to keep your chlorine up, and follow Pooldoc's directions...
"You can test with an cheap OTO kit -- you can skip the evening dose, IF your OTO reading in the EVENING is DARK yellow with an orange tint. Otherwise, 8 gallons of 6% bleach EVERY evening till there's no trace of algae left. After the 2nd dose, BRUSH the pool carefully.".

That's a beautiful pool!

[bmlocal175]

Just checked and we were at the top of the walmart kit for TC which was 5. So I just dumped in 8 gallons of bleach and ill let it run overnight and check it when I get up.

Now the kit I have only shows TC up to 5 so in the morning am I looking for the DARK yellow with a little orange look? If it is low do I add more in the morning or another 8 tomorrow night? Do I leave the salt system off all day? Do I check the TC during the day or just again tomorrow night?

[Watermom]

You can force your OTO kit to read higher with a dilution method. You do lose accuracy with each dilution, but it is better than nothing until your K-2006 arrives.

Testing Without a Good Kit

If your CYA is around 50, you'll want to keep your chlorine level around 15ppm. Go ahead and test it again in the morning and add more bleach to bring it back up to 15. Each gallon will add approximately 2ppm. You can use that as a reference to help you figure out how much to add when you test. You can test as often as you have time for but at least twice per day and each time, take the chlorine back up to 15.

Run your pump 24/7 while you are working to clear this up but leave your SWCG off.

Hopefully, you'll see a big improvement in the morning.