First year pool high stabilizer and algae

[ksherman]

Update from Yesterday's posts: Pool is beginning to clear up -- clear in the shallow end & can see the white circle of the bottom drain now in the deep end. Chlorine is up to the medium/dark yellow (3-6) so we will add some more bleach tonight to get up to your recommendation.

[ksherman]

Got my K2006 kit in the mail, here are the results:
FC: 2.8 (I just added 2 more gallons of bleach after testing this)
CC: 0.4
pH: 7.2
TA: 200
Calcium: 450
CYN: 200 (probably a bit more, it was just a little under the 100 mark)

Polyquat should be here tomorrow. Not sure how I decide if I still need it. Water is clear. We haven't backwashed since vacuuming what had settled out yesterday but pressure is fine. We plan to start brushing tomorrow.

[PoolDoc]

You may not need the polyquat; if not, just save it. It will keep indefinitely, if you make sure the bottles are not exposed to sunlight. You can use it when you go on vacation or some other time.

You need to be running chlorine levels near 20 ppm, if your CYA > 100 ppm; otherwise, algae will recur. Read the Best Guess page, linked in my signature block.

With chlorine levels > 10 ppm, you'll tend to use up the chlorine test reagent quickly. Avoid this by purchasing a gallon of distilled water at Walmart, and testing a mix of 1/2 pool water and 1/2 distilled, and multiplying by 2.

Otherwise, sounds like you're on your way!

[ksherman]

Just wanted to let you all know with your recommendations we are doing great! The pool is clear and we are feeling more confident.
Our CYN levels are on their way down, just from splashout or backwashing & refilling. 160 down from 200. So we are still keeping our chlorine higher based on the best guess chart.
We got rid of our algae with polyquat and plan to keep it that way!

Our Ph is starting to creep up to about 7.5 but it looks like that is still in your recommended range.

Is there anything I need to be concerned with on the Ph front with a vinyl liner? I didn't exactly understand your page about running high Ph is ok, sometimes, but not always. I guess I'll just keep us between 7.2-7.6 because of our vinyl liner.
Thanks again! I hope others can learn from this post & gain confidence in trying the BBB method no matter what others are telling them. So glad I found the forum & website!

[Watermom]

As long as your pH is between 7.2 - 7.8, you are good to go! Glad things are going well. Have fun swimming!