I hate mustard algae

[DavidD]

It's now been 2 weeks since I ordered (and paid for) the 234 test kit. I still don't have it so I can't get some of my readings.

Patience my young polywang. Ben's kit is the best, but it may take a month or so to get it. Hang in there. Your water is clearing up so you are doing something right!

Last test I did:
FCL - 4 ppm
TCL - 4 ppm
ph - 7.2

Looks good, if CYA is between 30 and 50 ppm....

When I shut the pump off and switch the valve back to the side jets, it spews out white stuff that ends up as foam on the top of the water. I've back flushed and rinsed several hundred gallons (6"-8" of water level) and it still is foaming. It takes about 24 hours to dissipate. I haven't put anything but water in the pool for 2 weeks and before that only bleach. I can't figure out why it's doing this. It has done this 3-4 times in the last 2 weeks.

Any way to describe the white stuff some more? Is it grainy, flaky or just foam? Maybe a picture? My guess, and it is only that, is that it is leftover by products of all the stuff you previously put in there, foaming as the filter changes modes. I would think about shocking once again.

Dave

[topless]

I just found the Fedex tag on my front door, dated 8-4-06. This is to my shop where we don't ever take any delivery at the front door, in fact it's always locked and Fedex should know that. Just one of many reasons I refuse to use Fedex in my own business.
So, tonite on my way home, I will retrieve the test kit from the idiots at Fedex and post my results.

The foam is just on the surface and is a very fine texture, like beer foam. Yesterday at 6pm, it was still there, but by 10 pm it was completely gone and the water was crystal clear again. It took 2 full days to disipate.

[DavidD]

I know this is going to sound like "The same ole poolforum standard answer" but If I were you, I'd add more bleach. Now that you have Ben's test kit, you will be able to accurately monitor your FC levels. Bring your FC up to shock level and HOLD it there for a couple of days. I would think this should help. Have you ever put anything with copper in your pool? The reason I ask is that staining may occur if you have so shocking may not be the answer in this case.

Dave

P.S.- On another note, I won't use anyone BUT Fed Ex. They are a little more expensive, but when you've got to have it there on time......

[topless]

I know this is going to sound like "The same ole poolforum standard answer" but If I were you, I'd add more bleach. Now that you have Ben's test kit, you will be able to accurately monitor your FC levels. Bring your FC up to shock level and HOLD it there for a couple of days. I would think this should help. Have you ever put anything with copper in your pool? The reason I ask is that staining may occur if you have so shocking may not be the answer in this case.

Dave

P.S.- On another note, I won't use anyone BUT Fed Ex. They are a little more expensive, but when you've got to have it there on time......

I canceled my Fedex account because of over-billing and lousy service. Best example: Overnight a package to a customer in California (I'm in Kansas) after 2 days it had made it to Oklahoma City. I haven't shipped anything by them for over 2 years and I got a bill from them last week, when I called they didn't know why. Then this feeble attempt at a delivery. If my son hadn't noticed the tag, I'd still be looking for the kit.

I used some copper based algae killer just before I found this forum. I do have some discoloration from that, but I expect the bleach to take care of it over time. I kept the FC high for over a week, although without a good test kit, I'm not sure exactly how high. The foam thing is so odd. It only happens the way I describe it: clear, run Polaris, foam. By the time it goes away, I need to run the Polaris again.

[DavidD]

Sounds like MY experiences with DHL and UPS. To each his own I guess.
If you used copper algaecide "pre forum educated", then you still have copper in the water. I saw where you recently did a partial drain so hopefully the level is negligible. You might think about getting your water tested for copper just to be on the safe side.

Here's my theory on the foam, as I previously stated, I think it is leftover by products in the water. When you "shut the pump off and switch the valve back to the side jets" the combination of the pressure and air mixing with the water and "stuff" creates the foam. Do as I suggested in my previous post and let's see what, if anything changes. Try to bring your FC up to shock level before using the Polaris again.

Dave

[chem geek]

topless,

Would you mind letting me know exactly what your chlorine level was (if you know it) when you saw the algae go away? Was your CYA still at 150 or did you drain and refill some of your pool water before the algae went away? I'm trying to determine what level of chlorine is truly needed to get rid of algae and a very high CYA case such as yours is a good one to help make that assessment.

Ben's table says to shock with 25 ppm of chlorine so I'm wondering if that's the level you believe you attained. Even if you didn't measure the result, you probably calculated how much chlorine to add to get to a certain level so was it 25 ppm that you were shooting for?

Thanks,
Richard

[topless]

Well, it turns out that the package wasn't my test kit. It was a package from customer of mine.

chem geek, I have no idea what my free chlorine level was. The local pool stores just told me it was over 10ppm after 2 gallons of bleach and after I added 6 more gallons of bleach over a 4 day period, it was too high for them to test.

[chem geek]

OK thanks. When you get your own test kit, assuming it's a FAS-DPD test like the one Ben provides, then you will be able to test even high chlorine levels. Just so you know, even the pool store would be able to determine your high chlorine levels if you give them diluted samples of your water, say diluted 4:1 using distilled water which means 1 part pool water plus 3 parts distilled water (tap water would probably also be OK since you would be checking only for extraordinarly high chlorine levels, but tap water will likely either have some low levels of chlorine in it or slightly higher levels of monochloramine which reports as Combined Chlorine, but still wouldn't be more than a few ppm). You would then multiply whatever reading they give you by 4. This isn't super accurate, but is still better than nothing.

[topless]

I hadn't thought of that. If the rain stays away, I'll take a sample in this weekend.