Low ph and algae

[cdingess]

Ok I did what you said and my ph is now 7.5 after 1 box boraxe yay!!!! The oto was >5 so I put 2 gallons of bleach in. I'll check both tomorrow evening. Hopefully it's all gone. Also, I do have a large pond in the property. I haven't had the solar cover on the pool since this all began, would it be safe to put on if I hear it's going to rain? Thanks Christina

[PoolDoc]

Yes, you can cover it. But make sure 10 - 20% of the pool remains uncovered.

When you are removing 'goo', including algae, volatile chlorinated compounds form ('stinky' chlorine). They can't leave a fully covered pool.

And . . . be SURE to keep the chlorine high during the rain; algae often gets ahead of pool owners when it's raining, because the pool gets ignored.

[cdingess]

Should I check my numbers daily even if I don't see algae just for preventive or stick with strips?

[Watermom]

You already know what we are going to say to that question. Yes! Test chlorine and pH daily. If you do so and keep your chlorine levels where they need to be, you won't get algae in the first place! No 'guess-strips.' Get a Taylor K2006 kit or 2006C (better buy). You need it to manage your pool properly. It isn't available locally but you can get it through this link:> http://pool9.net/tk/

[cdingess]

Thank you thank you thank you!!!! Hopefully algae will be gone!

[cdingess]

Man this difficult. Ok my ph is 7.5 my oto is orange with my test kit and I still had 2-3 small spots of algae so I put 2 gallons of bleach in after vacuming the pool. Now how do I treat orange oto or is that ok due the bleach from yesterday?? Christina

[Watermom]

If your OTO test showed orange, then you didn't need to add more bleach. Take a look at this chart:> http://pool9.net/oto-chart/

It will come down in time, but from now on if your OTO is orange, you don't need more chlorine. You don't want to bleach out your liner.

[PoolDoc]

OTO orange is high. If your CYA is low (less than 50), it is definitely high enough to bleach out swimwear. It won't hurt people, but again, if the CYA is low, it will dry skin and make eyes sting. (Also seems to help with acne, if that's an issue for anyone among your swimmers )

It's really hard to be more specific without knowing your CYA level -- that's one reason we push the K2006 so hard.

OTO orange is also high enough to bleach liners -- sometimes. I haven't actually seen Intex pools that have been bleached, so their liner prints may be resistant. In any case, liners themselves aren't damaged by high chlorine; just the printed colors on top of the liner.

But again, we really can't offer better advice till you have better test results.

Good luck!