Fighting Algae for months

[Watermom]

Go ahead and add 2 of those big jugs of bleach. Each of those should add about 5.7ppm of chlorine. Since your CYA is below 30, let's have you use around 12pm as your shock level. Test your chlorine as many times per day as you can, and each time, add enough bleach to take your chlorine back up to around 12. You want to continue to keep the chlorine at shock level until you can go from sundown one evening to within two hours of sunrise the next day without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine, you have a CC reading no greater than 0.5 (your K2006 kit will be able to measure this) and the water is clear. Then, keep it high for one additional day. For reference, each quart of 6% bleach will add 1ppm of chlorine in this size pool.

Until you get the good kit and are having to use the HTH kit, your limited to measuring chlorine levels to 5. But, you can force your kit to read higher by using a dilution method explained here: Testing Without a Good Kit


Go ahead and use some muriatic acid to lower your pH. Please read the link in my signature about using it safely. Please note that your pH test results will be inaccurate when your chlorine levels are high so do pH testing when the chlorine is below 5.

Run your pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear this and clean the filter as needed. Live algae clogs DE filters fast!

I would not worry about adding any stabilizer until you get the pool cleared up. By the way, look at the ingredient label on the trichlor. Any mention of copper?

Hope this helps.

[rkrgk]

I usually pour bleach walking around the pool, hope thats the right way to do it? Or putting it slowly through the skimmer is better?
The trichlor that I mentioned (tabs from costco) does not mention any copper in the label.

My pool looks like this now.

[Watermom]

Most people either pour it in front of a return jet or slowly into the skimmer. I use the skimmer. Another advantage of putting it in the skimmer is that it will kill anything growing in the filter, too.

Actually, since this is not a vinyl pool, you don't have to be so careful of not taking the chlorine too high. So, you can hammer it with bleach.

[rkrgk]

Ok, so I added 3 x 1.42 Gallons of 6% bleach and did a chlorine test after 1 hr. The results show somewhere in between 3 and 5ppm. I did the dilution method that you mentioned and got the results to be 5ppm. So I would think its about 4.5ppm currently. Its 104 Degrees hot here in Phoenix, so may be all the chlorine that I put might be evaporating faster than I can pour!
I brushed the pool a bit. Didnt backwash the filter yet, Did backwash and added DE just two days ago.
The pool has bit of powdery particles floating on top, Dont know if its due to me brushing the pool and some DE is floating or if its the bleach reacting with Algae. And the fact that my pop up cleaning system is not really popping up and cleaning makes me worry.. Should I be buying a vacuum cleaner? Other than that how will I remove the debris? And how can I make sure my drain is working? I can not see much of water movement at the deep end of the pool. Could it be that my drain is somehow clogged?

Here is the picture of partcles floating on the top

[Watermom]

I can't help with the popup system question. Hopefully someone else will come along who can. If you can't get it to work, then you will have to buy some other type of vacuum system to use.

Keep adding bleach. As many times per day as you can, test and take the chlorine back up. The more consistently you can do this, the faster you'll clear the pool.

Chlorine does not evaporate. The reason your level is low so soon after adding it is because 1) you have a low CYA reading and 2) it is being used up fighting algae which is what you want.

Bleach, bleach, bleach. Lots of bleach.

[PoolDoc]

In the immortal words (about the only words!) of Keanu Reeves:

Woah!

That's some serious algae -- pictures are SO helpful to letting us see just what you are dealing with.

You've got a concrete pool, and a PF:8. Each gallon of plain 6% bleach will add about 4 ppm of chlorine to your pool. So, Monday evening, add 15 gallons of bleach to your pool -- about 60 ppm, and plan to add 8 more the following evening.

Don't mess around -- you don't want to wrestle with your algae; you want to kill.

BUT . . . if at all possible lower your pH tomorrow AM -- try 1/2 gallon of muriatic acid (see guide linked in my blue signature!) and see if that will get your pH below 7.8, before your start dumping all that bleach in.

[rkrgk]

Yeah We are under total Algae attack!
I added about 7.1 Gallons of 6% bleach, just checked my Chlorine level (with dilution method) and its only reached to about 6ppm(measured right after sun is down).
I only have one more jug of bleach, so have to run to Walmart to get more.
And I added 1/2 gallon muriatic acid earlier before noon and measured the pH awhile ago, it is 7.2, though i tested for pH after adding few gallons of bleach.
I can add more bleach right away tonight and add the next batch (like you said) tomorrow evening.
I still have the problem of finding out how I can vacuum the pool, since I dont have a vacuum cleaner and my pop-up cleaning system is all messed up now, does nt seem to pop up and rotate, though I can see water coming out through them especially the ones at the shallow end. May be I should get a manual cleaner to vacuum until I can figure out the pop up issue?
As you just saw in the picture, pool is very cloudy and green!! But I am ready for the fight I will post regular pictures to show you how things go. Thanks!