Help, algae in pool

[Steve]

Hi,
I'm quite new to this pool thing and have discovered that you can't seem to turn your back on a pool for 5 minutes as when you return, in place of sparkly water you have pea soup. I have a 15' dia pool by 3 ' deep (about 9000 litres and it also has a filter. We had a SPa guard product that was used for this but we missed it for about a week and all of a sudden this happened.

Firstly, can I shock the pool back to how it was. if so, what should I use.
Secondly, what measures should I take to keep the pool in this good condition. How often should it be treated and what is the simplest way of doing this. Are there any info sheets on how and when I should treat the pool. There are so many products that I just don't know what to buy.

We had just bought a chemical kit, but this simply states, "keeps pool clean throughout the summer"...... Help, what do I need ?
Many thanks for any help
Steve

[bshiel]

Hi Steve,
I have a 12ft x 3ft pool.
I just use the Algae Inhibitor that came with Chemical Starter pack.
I use it once a week,approx 20ml and all is okay.
Last week I had left it for 11 days .
I have just followed instructions on side of inhibitor bottle.
Hope you manage to sort yours out.

PS I do tend to turn the pump on for an hr or so each day,don't know if this actually helps or not.

[Glan]

Hi Steve,
Green Pool eh?.
I must get this question a hundred times a year in my shop, the truth is, with a splasher type pool it’s more difficult to maintain crystal clear water.

My clients have been informing me this year, that even some of the splasher/Intex instructions state that you should not run your pump for more than 48 hours at any one time?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God knows what they are making these things out of?.
Ok first and foremost, the correct things to do after initially filling your pool are:
Run your filter pump as much as possible, but as per most of the instructions out there, turn the pump off when you’re using the pool due to electrical safety.

Adjust the ph to between 7.2 – 7.6 ph – as I have previously covered in other responses, this allows the chlorine that you will dose into the water to work at its optimum.

Dose your stabilised chlorine granules as per manufacturer’s instructions; this will usually involve pre-dissolving the granules in a clean bucket of pool water first, and then walking around the perimeter of the pool emptying the chlorinated water into the pool. Obviously you need to know your pool volume first! – In your case I would work on a volume of 2000 gallons. It will depend on the water level in your pool, but at least it will make it easier when you are following the dosage instructions, they usually give you the dose per 10,000 gallons. So a fifth will do. A good safe level of free chlorine for your pool is 2 – 5ppm (parts per million). You may need to add chlorine daily if your pool tester indicates that chlorine is low. Everyone always asks “how much chlorine should I use?”……….it will always depend on how much you use the pool. In my experience a 12’ splasher should use a table spoon of chlorine granules a day ish!! Stabilised chlorine, tablets normally 20grams or 200 grams, traditionally the 20g have been used in floating chlorine dispensers, and these can reduce the amount of time you spend sorting out the chlorine, but you need to be careful not to overdose the pool.

Also you will note that you get a liquid algaecide. This is usually a copper based product that will make the water a difficult place for algae to gain a foothold, difficult, but not impossible. An initial dose is then usually followed by a weekly maintenance dose

And most importantly at least once a fortnight, but certainly after a heavy bathing session, or pre a thunder storm, shock dose your pool with shock chlorine granules. This form of chlorine does not have the ultraviolet sun block of stabilised chlorine, so its life expectancy is greatly reduced in sunlight. This will have the effect of increasing the chlorine levels to a point where it will kill off any bacteria or algae that are becoming acclimatised to your normal chlorine levels. The chlorine will naturally dissipate over the course of a day or so. This could normally be done on a Sunday night after the children have finished using the pool.

Other than that, keep removing all debris that falls into the water, as this is the food for nasties to grow, or where your chlorine will be wasted tackling the pollution. Clean/change your filter cartridges as often as you can, as these are the first line of defence in the pollution stakes.

Make sure that everyone who uses the pool showers first. Pre-cleansing is very important to keeping your pool clean & safe.

GREEN POOL
Ensure your ph is correct.
Shock dose the pool, and ensure you brush the pool to loosen any algae. Dead algae usually turn from a bright green to a dull brown, but some algae(mustard algae, very nasty!) can naturally be brown.
Dose an algae killer like Algae Erase.
Clean your cartridge & run the pump as much as you can to circulate the water overnight.
You should hopefully then have at least killed all the algae. Then it’s a case of either a load of cartridge changes to filter out the dead algae, or try and let the water settle over the course of a day, and then try and siphon the algae off the floor out of the pool.
A liquid clarifier may then be needed to try and bind the small particles together to bring your pool back to a sparkling oasis…………

Well that’s my basic “how to look after your splasher”

Hope it’s what you need.

All the best

Glan
:D

[jasona]

Isn't Glan great? The patience, the customer service...