Low ph and algae

[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.

[cdingess]

My oto was bout 9 on your chart. Hopefully the algae spots are gone thank you so much. Do I need to do the shock stuff every week like the package says even if I'm having no problems? Also, should I continue to out in the algaecide 60 in after I get my numbers to normal? It didn't help before just wondering. Since I got the algae this early is this something I will always have to watch out for now or do you think I KILLED it? And I do have a large pond kind of close to pool. Thanks again for all of your great knowledge.

[cdingess]

Please disregard the oto. The next message has the more current numbers.

[cdingess]

Is it safe to swim in with high levels oto orange? I just check levels this morning after 4 gallons total and it's pretty close to 25 and ph 7.8??? I think I over did it????? I didn't want algae. I didn't see any but I want to keep my liner too. Geeze. Please help again. Christina.

[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!

[cdingess]

My cya 55-60 with orange oto and ph 7.8 but algae is gone for now. Is all this safe? Sorry for all the post I'm a nobbie to this site. Christina

[PoolDoc]

Perfectly safe; may be hard on swimsuits and treated (dyed, permed) hair.

It *may* dry your skin or or sting your eyes.

OTO orange actually covers a range from 20 - 40 ppm, so it's hard to tell much more.

But I can tell you that a number of years ago my older son (and about 40 other senior swimmers in Chattanooga) spent a summer practicing in an outdoor pool with CYA => 30 - 50 ppm and FC => 20 - 40 ppm. This was 5 days per week, 2 - 3 hours per day. They lost a lot of swimsuits*; the girls didn't have to shave their legs; the guys who didn't wear caps (including my son) had their hair turn sort of an ash color. It didn't affect their eyes -- but they all wore goggles. My son and another guy had 'goggle stripes' where the hair under the goggle strap retained it's original dark color! But, with over 200 hours of actual water time, nobody experienced any skin problems, etc. (The City of Chattanooga pool operator didn't understand how ORP controllers worked, and wasn't taking advice. I monitored the situation since it affected my son, but didn't raise a fuss.)'

[cdingess]

This my sound silly but my oto is still orange 25 and ph 7.2 should I add chlorine tab to the floater? I have about 50% of one in there now or do I let it dissolved completely while the oto is still high? Christina

[Watermom]

Let the one dissolve that is in there now. How many more do you have left? Are they wrapped or unwrapped?