Vacume And Algae Bloom

[mitchellb]

We are new to pools and up until this week I thought we were doing great. The cover was left on during the week and the pool hasn't been getting used as it has been raining. We then went away for the weekend.

Come home today and checked the pool......its green with algae growth on the bottom.

The pool is a 15' , 16000 litre Hydro Force pool

I had made up a vacuum that would attach to the inlet side of the pump, well today was its virgin run.........it didn't work. Not enough power in the pump that came with the pool to suck the water through the hose, so all it effectively did was brush off the algae on the bottom of the pool and turn the water a sort of a lime green. You can still see the bottom...just barely but can see where I have brushed and not brushed

I shocked the pool using a liquid chlorine about an hour ago. The pool center told me 6 cups was a proper shock using the liquid for that size pool.

I went to Canadian Tire and bought an algicide and it says to add a liter for every 10000 liters. BUT it says not to add until 24hrs after chlorine shocking. So I guess I will have to wait to do that.

I have a test kit that came with the pool so I will check after I post this and report back.

AND another thing that sucks is we are going on vacation this coming friday so I hope this is cleared up by then

I will read the other thread in the forum here on mastering algae control.

Some questions

How do you folks vacuum your pools?

and I can get a neighbor to come over and add chlorine while we are away but should I leave the cover on or off? It is a deep blue see through solar cover.

oh and I thought we were scott free.....................................

[mitchellb]

free chlorine is 4ish and PH is 7.2

Keep in mind we just shocked the pool a couple hours before so are these readings even usable?

[chem geek]

The shock FC level of chlorine you need to kill the algae depends on your Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level (which you did not report). Read Defeating Algae and please get yourself a good test kit, either the Taylor K-2006 (not the K-2005) or the TF100 from tftestkits.net. You do not need an algaecide and should especially not use it if it contains copper (especially if you have a plaster or fiberglass pool).