Algae/shock question....

[court475]

We've had some brown stuff at the bottom of the pool that would come right back after vacuuming. I figure it's some kind of algae. I shocked the pool yesterday, had to add 7 of the 3 qt bottles of bleach to keep it at 15 FC. There's no CC. This morning I only had to add one. Should I continue to keep it at 15 today? This was an expensive shock! Also, I kept the vacuum running all night. Should I have done this? Thanks!

[CarlD]

Without a full set of test numbers, it's hard to tell.

Whether it's now dead algae, or still alive, you ought to vacuum to waste instead of trying to filter it out.

Check our stickied threads on cleaning your pool up.

[Watermom]

It also might just be dirt/dust that gets stirred up when you vacuum and then settles back down to the floor. That often is the case in my pool. The installer used tape to tape together the pieces of foam under my liner. When you are looking at the pool liner, you can't really see it but it caused slight "ruts" and the dirt likes to settle into those ruts along the liner floor of my pool. I can vacuum one day and then the next day, the brown "lines" are back.

[court475]

Sorry - here are my numbers right now:

FC - 7.5
CC - 0
CYA - 30
Ph - 8.0
Alk - 210

Added enough bleave a few hours ago to bring it 15, got home from church and it's down to 7.5.

[CarlD]

Your pH is your problem--at 8 it's hindering your chlorine's effectiveness. You need to lower it to 7.2-7.3--which is swimmable.

[court475]

I've always had alk/Ph issues. I got the alk down a bunch earlier this summer by using acid and aerating, and it crept right back up pretty quickly.