Fighting Algae for months

[rkrgk]

What would be an ideal amount of CYA to hold the Cl levels relatively stable considering the fact that we live in Phoenix where its 100+ almost everyday throughout the summer?

[sabres07]

You have to add chlorine as often as it takes throughout the day to hold your pool at shock level. For my algae battle, it was every couple of hours on the first day. The next day it was maybe every 4 hours. The day after that, it was maybe every 7-9 hours. If you are adding chlorine only once a day, you are not getting ahead of your problem. In fact, you are probably just wasting time and money. You have to be very persistent.

[jwhouse]

This is not in any way a recommendation but you could probably get your cya levels to somewhere between 70-90. I wouldn't go any higher than that though. Be sure to read the best guess chart here to find out the recommended CL levels for your CYA.

BUT... Get your algae under control before you do anything else. Any effort and money spent otherwise right now would be a waste. Did you receive your kit today? If you have questions regarding how to use it, look here. These videos are great to help you learn about using your kit. Get those test results and then a plan can be more accurately formulated. Also, be sure not to waste your CYA tests. There are only about 6 testings in the K-2006.

[PoolDoc]

Usually, the dead algae will settle to the bottom and need to be vacuumed by hand.

This isn't necessarily so. It depends on circulation patterns, pump run times, and more. What often happens on AG pools is that the water goes from green cloudy to gray cloudy.

What would be an ideal amount of CYA to hold the Cl levels relatively stable considering the fact that we live in Phoenix where its 100+ almost everyday throughout the summer?

As jwhouse notes below, you need to get the algae resolved first. You may not have a lot of choice about CYA levels, unless you drain and refill. 1. Test the water. 2. Kill the algae. 3. Fix any other URGENT chemistry issues. 4. THEN worry about ideal CYA levels.

You have to add chlorine as often as it takes throughout the day to hold your pool at shock level. For my algae battle, it was every couple of hours on the first day.

This isn't completely necessary. Not everyone is at home during the day. Very large chlorine doses added each evening will do the trick, once you get the doses high enough.

You have to be very persistent.

But this IS completely necessary.

BUT... Get your algae under control before you do anything else. Any effort and money spent otherwise right now would be a waste.

Absolutely correct -- unless you have very low pH that could damage your pool, or very high pH that could interfere with killing algae. Then you need to do both at the same time.

[rkrgk]

As jwhouse notes below, you need to get the algae resolved first. You may not have a lot of choice about CYA levels, unless you drain and refill. 1. Test the water. 2. Kill the algae. 3. Fix any other URGENT chemistry issues. 4. THEN worry about ideal CYA levels.

Definitely, I am talking about the case when my pool is clear off any Algae. And in my case I have very low CYA (<30ppm) and thats the reason I suspected that all the chlorine is gone by evening even though I add about close to 20 ppm (at a minimum) each night. Even though I can not confirm with certainty how much I loose during the night, I think i dont loose more than 1ppm since last few days.

Before a month or so, I had good CYA levels (60-80ppm if I remember correctly). I was using trichlor tabs as well. I would think it added some CYA on top of what I already had. Not sure where all the CYA disappeared suddenly. Even though I backwashed few times during this process hard to believe it disappeared that way.

About the cloudiness in my pool, I have a high CH, which can also cause cloudiness I assume? Due to Calcium Carbonate? Apart from the dead Algae (if thats not already filtered out still)?

BTW, I got the taylor test kit, but didnt test yet. Will give the results once I am home from work.

Thanks again for helping me out. This site is really cool. Lots of useful info.

[aylad]

Before a month or so, I had good CYA levels (60-80ppm if I remember correctly). I was using trichlor tabs as well. I would think it added some CYA on top of what I already had. Not sure where all the CYA disappeared suddenly. Even though I backwashed few times during this process hard to believe it disappeared that way.

It doesn't take very long for an algae outbreak to break down your CYA, and if you've been fighting it for this long, that's probably where your CYA went. If that's the case, one of the frequent byproducts of that process is ammonia, which creates a HUGE chlorine demand in the pool until it's broken down by the chlorine. Measuring your Cl at night and again in the morning will tell you a lot more about what's going on in your pool, because if you're still losing chlorine overnight, it's due to the water, not the sun.

High CH can cause cloudiness in the pool, especially with high pH and high TA, although my money is on dead algae that hasn't been filtered out....

[rkrgk]

Ok, So finally I got to test with the new Taylor kit. Here is the result
FC - 0.8 ppm
CC - 3.4 ppm
pH - 7.3
TA - 80 ppm
CH - 400 ppm
CYA - too low to show in test

I also need to change my signature to show that mine is an in ground pool.