The salt system makers have gone to some trouble to confuse people into thinking that a 'salt pool' is different than any other chlorinated pool.
The simple truth is, a SWCG (salt water chlorine generator) is nothing more than a METHOD of adding chlorine to your pool, with end chemistry almost identical to using a pump to meter bleach into a pool. But because SWCG's can be a particularly reliable (sometimes!) way of feeding chlorine into your pool, pool owners get lulled into ignoring their pool chemistry, since "it is a salt pool".
But the simple fact is, you've got algae because your chlorine got too low. Period.
And, to clean it up, you need to raise the chlorine quite high, and keep it there long enough to kill everything.
How high? Your chlorine needs to be 20% of your CYA level . . . or even more, if you have mustard algae.
This immediately brings us to another problem: CYA testing. Most pool owners today use test strips. Test strips are never very accurate, but the CYA reading is HORRENDOUSLY inaccurate, even when read with a dealer computer! That makes it rather hard to find out what the correct chlorine level is.
So, do this:
1. Read our page on the chlorine / CYA relationship: http://pool9.net/cl-cya/
2. Go to Walmart and buy 10 gallons of PLAIN 8% household bleach for every 10,000 gallons in your pool AND get a gallon of DISTILLED water AND a cheapo OTO / phenol red drops test kit.
3. Order a K2006 kit: http://pool9.net/tk/
4. Test your pool with the OTO/phenol red kit. Then this *evening* add 3 gallons of bleach for every 10k gallons of pool water.
5. Test again in the AM, and the late PM. If the PM test is clear or light yellow, add 3 more gallons. Dark yellow? Add 2 gal. Orange? Skip it.
6. Report the results here.
7. Make sure your pump is running 24/7
Good luck!
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