Algae Blooms Even Happen to Mods!

[CarlD]

We came home late last night after a month in .... well, I won't torture you with where we were, but it was private, it was on a beach, and the water was clean and warm--and the "pool" didn't have a brand-name filter!

2 1/2 weeks ago my son, holding down the fort, tested the water and it was fine, and he then joined us. The person left in charge told me she saw a little yellow over a week ago and I had her add half a gallon of 14% LC. But she never checked it again.

This morning I rolled back the cover and I had a full-scale algae bloom. No FC, and CYA at 40, so I dumped in 5 gallons of 14% LC, get it started. This afternoon, FC was down to 16.5 (yes, I know, at CYA=40, FC for shocking should be 15--but that's the MINIMUM!) Pool was cloudy despite vacuuming twice. Added 3 containers of 8.25% bleach. With the filter on full, and the robot vacuuming, it's stirred up and cloudy...but it doesn't look as green, getting more blue.

Currently, the FC is 31.5 and I'm leaving the pump on HIGH all night, continuously. I'm hoping tomorrow morning to see significant improvement.

So...WHY am I pushing the FC so high with a vinyl liner? It's an old liner, in it's last season and I don't give a d*** if I bleach/fade it as the new one is already here.

I'm not asking for advice--I do know what to do. I'm just a little disappointed that my SWCG (which is running OK otherwise) couldn't control this. l'll keep you posted.....

[Watermom]

Bummer.

[CarlD]

Just one of several broken things we came home to. Hard to decide which was the worst: No A/C in our bedroom, or the coffee pot with the auto-on timer died! Gotta have the morning java!

OTOH, it was a lot cooler here and not a cloud in the sky!

[CarlD]

Making significant progress.
I pushed up the SWCG yesterday and ran the filter all night on high. This morning the FC is 34 and the CC is 0, the water is totally blue, no green, but still very murky. I turned down the SWCG again and the robotic cleaner is vacuuming. I put some DE into the filter, and I'll be watching all day, and testing two more times. But I believe the algae is dead, murdered by being hammered with chlorine, and now just needs to be filtered out.

Again, since I'm not concerned with bleaching this old liner, I don't mind pushing the shock level to double the 15ppm recommended for a CYA level of 40. Obviously, I want the algae gone and my pool crystal clear again! However, I am totally confident I will get there today or tomorrow. Our BBB methods work. No magic involved. Kill the algae with lots of chlorine. Filter it out. That's it in a nutshell.

[BigDave]

Sorry for all the hard luck you've had this year with the pool - I hope the trip was worth it. Maybe it's time to make that natural pool your permanent pool.

Welcome back.

[CarlD]

Sorry for all the hard luck you've had this year with the pool - I hope the trip was worth it. Maybe it's time to make that natural pool your permanent pool.

Welcome back.

Yeah, we consider that! It's just a confluence of events: A 12 year old pool with a liner at the end of its (patched) life and walls that are in need of replacement, a horrible winter that did damage, and setting my SWCG too low for a month's absence. But I also came back to a dead coffee maker, when there was no coffee yesterday morning! Now THAT was a catastrophe!!!!

[swimdaddy]

Thanks, I apreciate your candor and your willingness to show your issue as well as your confidence that you can fix it using the methods promoted here. This is my first year with our pool and I haven't had any problems yet, thanks to this forum, the Pool solutions site and all you moderators, but when I do, this post will help me to relax and deal with it. It seems like most posts are mostly panic, because we don't know what to do, so it's nice to read this.

[CarlD]

That's good to hear! Sure, I have a few choice curse words pop out of my mouth because I had come home to yet another problem I have to take care of...but that was tempered by the confidence that I know EXACTLY what to do and how to do it. The algae is dead and the water is blue again, not green. Now I just have to wait for the filter and vacuuming to clarify the water again, and I only found the algae yesterday morning.

Like every other pool owner with an algae bloom, in addition to the BBB method, I must add P.O.P.P.--Pool Owner Patience and Persistence!

[swimdaddy]

Or K.I.S.S.-- Keep it simple stupid, not referring to anyone in this forum, of course. Or maybe it's "keep it super simple"!

[CarlD]

No, we're all good with "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"

It's slowly clearing but through the murk I can see it's all completely blue and nothing's on the bottom. Other biologic detritus makes it tougher to kill the algae as the chlorine attacks them as well, so get those leaves, seeds, pine combs, branches and dead bugs outta there!