Best Shock for Algae

[swimdaddy]

Sounds like a beautiful pool! Yes, your numbers look good for now. One question you didn't answer is what do you usually use in your pool?

Don't put anything in your pool right now but chlorine in the form of bleach. If you the label of regular bleach and the Pool Essentials chlorinating liquid in the pool isle at Walmart, they are the exact same substance. Don't get rid mof the tablets, they will be useful, they have chlorine, cya and calcium. You don't need any more cya or calcium.

A good rule is to only put in your pool what it needs. Read up on the BBB method here and at Pool solutions, I can't explain it as well as Ben and the other mods did back when this forum was in its prime.

Then first thing to do is to get your chlorine up to shock level. If your test kit is still yellowish and not orange, we can add some bleach safely. According to the best guess chart, your shock level is 20+ppm. 1 bottle of bleach at 8.25% will add approx. 4 ppm FC to the pool, the Pool Essentials chlorine will add a little over 5 ppm.I feel comfortable adding at least 2 bottles, that should get us close to 20 ppm.

After that, brush your pool every day, vacuum and backwash as needed. Other than that, we'll have to wait for your new test kit and see how it goes. Let Mme know!

[spatt]

I have been using the 3" chlorine tabs from Leslie's.

I am out of town until this evening. I will add the bleach when I get home. Which, after reading this forum is better anyway. Are the metal brushes better? I'm terrified they may be to abrasive?

When should I retest?

[swimdaddy]

Retest every day, though accuracy of chlorine testing will not be good until you get the taylor kit. Many pool problems are the result of not testing everyday, and inaccurate testing using strips or the pool store. I am sorry, I just noticed the size of your pool was 25K (thought I read 20K earlier), so would add 3 bottles of bleach.

I am not familiar with gunite pools, so maybe someone else can chime in with what kind of brush to use.

Just to clarify, you will need to use a chlorine source in the future that has calcium in it, you just don't need the stabilizer in the pucks right now. Again, someone familiar with gunite pools can add to this.

[spatt]

Ok, I just got home and it's raining but I am heading out to pour in the bleach and remove the chlorine tabs. I will keep testing and update you! Also, since it appears its just you and I in this thread, I may post under algae and ask about the brush.

[FormerBromineUser]

Test for black algae in this manner and report back:

Do the fingernail test to verify that you've got black algae. Scarpe some of the algae so that it gets under your fingernail and then smear the collected stuff onto thick white paper. An index card will do. If it's black algae, it will be dark green. If not green, you have something else going on.

[FormerBromineUser]

How is your pool doing?

[spatt]

Well, the spots are still there and I am still debating what the heck it is. I did shock it with 3 gallons of bleach a couple of weeks ago. The spots were and still are unchanged. At least they havent gotten any bigger or multiplied. I was out of town for a few days and was just able to test my water a minute ago. I used the Taylor K-2006 test kit.

FC - 2ppm
CC - 0
PH - 7.8
ALK - 110
CAL - 270
CYA 80

I struggle with the CYA test. Do you drop until the black dot is really completely gone? It seems I can always make it out a little ... This time I just added until my hubs couldn't see it!