Okay, Wide wonderful world of Pool owners! I have an above ground 16×32 oval vinyl pool.?
I am having problems with the mustard green algae… To futher complicate matters I have an Sta-Rite paper filter so all the wonderful answers that talk about backwashing I can’t do! I do have a pool rover but it is not helping too much. The pool is a light green cloudy color and my Free Chlorine is 3.0, Total Chlorine is 3.0,Comb Chlorine 0.0, PH 7.4, hardness 255 ppm, Alkalinity 190, Cyanuric Acid 100. We have been shocking, and vacumming and cleaning filter 2 times a day and still we are cloudy green. Any suggestions? Husband (who does’nt swim) said I need to take up gambling so we will lose less money!!!!! Thanks to all
Have you tried an Algicide?
Chl sounds ok, but fairly low for someone who is shocking.
Total alk seems high.
you may have some hidden algae, like in the pipes, or in the rover..
Okay, first off thank you for supplying the readings on the pool. It makes things so much easier!
You need to do a dilution drain on the pool before you continue any further. Drain off 6-8" of water and fill it back up. Do this three or four more times. The reason for this is because your cyanuric acid levels are WAY too high. 60ppm and higher will make most of your free chlorine inactive even though it remains free. This will also lower your hardness level (which you do NOT need to maintain in a vinyl pool no matter how loudly the pool store screams at you about it). It will also lower your alkalinity which is high (150 max for a vinyl pool).
Once you’ve done the dilution draining and got the cyanuric down to less than 60ppm, the hardness down a bit, and the alkalinity down below 150 then you can start fixing the water.
You will want to add in 3/4 of a box of 20 Mule Team Borax to buffer the pH and help with the algae.
Add in a full bottle of HTH Super Algaecide 60 (this is a polyquat agent that works extremely well in helping the chlorine battle algae). You can get this at WalMart for cheap or the pool store for more expensive versions, but as long as you get the 60% concentration the name brand doesn’t matter.
Add in 1/2 again as much of the recommended dosing of PhosFree or any phosphate remover. This will pull the algae food from the water and allow your chlorine to actually kill the algae effectively.
Drop me a line at robandliz1992@yahoo.com for more personalized help. We can get this problem under control without breaking the bank.