hello0o everyone.. so in our yard we have a fairly large inground pool (16 x 32 - small end is 3ft deep goes to 8ft - vinyl pool liner) anyway we have been having a ton of green algae growth in it and my dad has become obsessed with it .. wev had algae here n there but never like this.. we get rid of it and a few days later its back and we have to vaccuum again.. which is not an easy task as its a pretty large pool and we dont have an automatic vaccuumer. my dad shocks it, always keeps up with the chlorine/ ph testing.. he uses algaecide (killler and preventer.. which works but the algae always seems to come back. one of the people at the pool company we go to said its probably phosphates from fertilizer from the lawn.. well my dad stopped fertilizing the small lawn we have in the back yard 3 years ago, he only does the front lawn, and we all make sure we dont walk across that lawn barefoot before going in the pool, and if by chance we do we always hose off first. so im almost positive its not because of that. we are running out of idea here.. is the algae growing so fast because of the rediculous heat we've been having? could it be from leaves falling off the trees? .. my first guess was mayb we arent running the filter long enough.. now we are running it from like 10am until like 8pm (or later if we're using it) to see if that helps.. my cousins wifes father owns a pool store and she said once we get rid of the algae in the pool we need to thoroughly clean everything that ends up back in it - tubes/bathing suits, my dad even took out the ladder and washed it with bleach thinking mayb it was growing on the ladder and spreading to the pool... does anyone have any other suggestions before my dad/my fiance loses their mind having to vaccuum 2 or 3 tiems a week??
Our pool sounds like yours...its 20,000 gallons.
We vacuum our pool every day.
I assume you have taken in a water sample and added exactly what the pool people said it needed?
And are doing you backwashing? Have you changed your sand in your filter lately?
Other than that, I got nothing? Sorry.
this looked interesting:
http://www.bioguard.com/mp/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2ab82df3...
We vacuum at least 4-5 times a week when we are using the pool. And still use algicide. We got one of those things that floats in the pool and continually releases chlorine and we seem to have to shock it less frequently this year. It's just a lot of maintenance.
Have you cleaned your filter or changed it? I have a smaller above ground pool and was having an algae problem and the guy at the pool store said to use black algae killer and to make sure that I cleaned the filter before adding it to the pool and also after I get rid of the algae. He said it can grow in the filter especially if I don't keep the filter on 24/7. Hope this helps and good luck to you.
I have a pool the same size as yours and vacuuming 3-4 times a week is normal maintenance. I grew up with a 20 x 40 pool and we vacuumed every day. It's nice that you haven't needed to do that until now, but 2-3 times a week is pretty good IMO and anything less than that is unrealistic.
I'm assuming that you already brought a sample to the pool store and that your chlorine, stabilizer, Ph and alkalinity are fine. If the chlorine level is running low every couple of days and the chlorinator is working fine, then you have a vicious circle going where the algae are using up all of your chlorine and then there's no more chlorine so they grow. There is an algae called mustard algae that needs a different kind of algaecide to treat. I find that if the algae gets out of control, doing a yellow treat for mustard algae generally knocks things back a bit. And yes, the excessive heat and lack of rain can definitely be contributing factors.
If the algae is kid of dusty looking at the bottom of the pool and scatters when you put the vacuum near it, it may be the mustard algae. It's allegedly rare but we treat for it anyway and the treatment works.
Stabilizer?
Algae has to have food to grow and it is definitely getting food somewhere. Sunlight will make it grow quicker and also without stabilizer the sunlight will remove the chlorine quickly. An example would be I can have a perfect chlorine level in the evening and by noon the next day no chlorine if I don't use stabilizer.
You have to keep leaves, grass clippings all that organic stuff out of the pool, that is algae food.
If you have family that owns a pool store take a water sample in there and ask what is going on. I highly doubt your chemicals are balanced.
