Use of algaecide

[onemsmom]

I've posted several times before that my husband is frustrated/not completely supportive of the BBB method. Mostly because I keep messing it up because being consistent is really hard for me and he's the one who ends up doing all of the running to Sam's for tons of bleach.

He keeps asking me "Why don't you let me put a bottle of algaecide in it?". He is remembering many years ago when we were using the "pool store" method that, for a brief period of time" (and right after we had gotten a DE filter - which we no longer have) he was putting in a 3 month algaecide - I think it was called Lo-Chlor or Sea-chlor - not sure. The pool was clear for long periods of time, so he believes that it was the algaecide.

We live in Fl, it rains a lot almost every afternoon, it's very hot & I'm truly struggling to keep my CYA at the proper level and the chlorine levels in their proper range consistently over time. Would an algaecide help or hurt? I read about Poly-quat on the Pool Solutions site. I don't think you guys hate the use of that. If it's harmful or just a waste of $$, can you please give me one of your wonderful explanations as to why so he will understand?

Thank you,

Jennifer

[onemsmom]

Forgot to post that I'm a 24' round AG.

[Watermom]

It is certainly fine to use polyquat although if you just maintain proper chemistry, you really don't need it.

What kind of test kit are you using? Can you give us a current set of water testing results for us to look at? Also, tell us exactly what all you have been using in the pool, meaning ingredients and not just 'shock.'

Repost with the requested info and somebody here will try and help you out.

[onemsmom]

Thank you! I have a K-2006. I just finished up dealing with an algae bloom as of yesterday morning and am just getting back on track. Tonight the numbers are:

FC 6
CC - clear
pH - 7.5
TA - 90
CYA - can still see black dot fairly clearly at tippy top. Will add some stabilizer tomorrow a.m.

No other ingredients have been used other than I had had a pool guy completely mess stuff up a few months back. When I took it back over, the CYA was over 100. Who knows what all he had put in it, though I think he just dumped a bunch of stabilizer in it thinking he wouldn't have to come as often & told owner he had been here - that kind of thing.

My biggest challenges are checking FC #'s often enough. I lead an extremely hectic life & sometimes forget. Am working very hard to conquer this problem. DH willing to help now. Our goal is to keep CYA at 30-40 and keep a couple of pucks in the floater to help with CYA loss due to all of the rain we get during the summer. Then, we will keep as a goal to have FC over 5 anyway so we don't get into trouble again and will monitor CYA weekly to make sure it's not creeping up over 60 due to pucks.

Does this sound like a good plan? Any other ideas/advice?

We know to check at night & add chemicals then and to brush pool at least 1X per week. We have the properly sized pump and run for 6 hrs. day. Anything else I'm not thinking of?

We have decided to use pool store chlorine to ease picking it up (it's on DH's way home from work) and I won't have to crush bottles/boxes anymore. Neighbors must think we have weekly murders here with all of the bleach bottles in our recycling bin. LOL! Do you have the amounts I'd need to use to raise my pool one ppm handy? I think you had said somewhere that it's a bit stronger than bleach.

Will take any other advice. Pls. remember that pool is very warm (I'd say 90), in direct sun & we have a deluge almost every afternoon this time of year.

Thanks for all of your help.

Jennifer

[waterbear]

be very wary of '3 month' algaecides...most of them are chelated copper sulfate. Copper is what turns hair green and it stains pool surfaces! As far as the CYA, I would recommend running ti around 60-80 ppm for Florida (I currently live in N. Fl but used to live in the Miami area so I know how the climate here affects pools!) The advantage of running a higher CYA and following the best guess chart is that you will not have to dose every day. You also might want to consider adding 50 ppm borate for it's algaestatic properties. If you want to but it from the pool store and pay a lot of money you can get Proteam Supreme or Bioguard Optimizer (both just very expensive borax or borax/boric acid mix for the pH neutral versions) or you could just get some borax at Walmart and some acid and do it for a lot less money!

[Watermom]

As far as giving you amounts to use, you can use the bleach calculator which is in the Forum Q & A section. You put in your pool's volume, the percentage of sodium hypochlorite that the pool store chlorine has and it will tell you how much you need to add to raise your chlorine by XX ppm.

[onemsmom]

All right, I will aim for 60-80 CYA - thank you, and I will try the borate for sure. I am trying to figure out the math using the bleach calculator, but I do not know how much 10.5 % sodium hypochlorite weighs per pound. It doesn't say on the bottle & I have gotten several very different numbers off of the internet.

Do you have that number so I can figure out how much to raise 1ppm. Thank you!

Jennifer

[Watermom]

In your pool, each quart of 10.5% sodium hypochlorite will add approximately 2ppm of chlorine.

[onemsmom]

Thank you!

[Watermom]

You are welcome.