Overall I think we do a pretty good job of self maintaining our pool. It's 22k gallon inground vinyl wall pool. It's filled with softened well-water.
Has anyone had to defeat mustard colored (also called yellow) algae?
What about black algae?
It's the latest challenge in 5 years of ownership, and we haven't been able to defeat patches of what we think is mustard algae since late last summer. We're not sure where we got it from. After opening the pool and getting it in balanced and sucking all the worms and other junk out, it was still there waiting for us.
Also what are your thoughts on the value of eliminating phosphates?
And do you think eliminating them would be helpful as part of algae eradication?
I've found opposing, well-written out sources that say it's extremely important to eliminate (given that it's food for algae) https://tmiaquatics.com/phosphates-what-are-they-and-why-should-you-care/
and in opposition that it's not at all important since there are tons of phosphates in some water supplies anyway (though I think that's a city water issue, which isn't me). The following link is avery long winded opinion stating removal of phosphates is irrelevant https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-phosphates/
Given that pool stores and InTheSwim are in the biz of selling chemicals, it's hard to know what's to be believed.
EDIT: I have more info on our phosphate situation in my subsequent 3:44 pm post.
We opened the pool a month earlier than usual at the beginning of April because of the stay at home order. It's fully balanced but the one thing we can't kick is this algae which settles at the bottom in a few areas that looks like sand. When I try to vacuum it up or our automatic pool cleaner robot rolls over that area, the implements are unable to suck it up, as the material just gets kicked up into the water.
What's weird is many pictures or youtube videos I've looked up on yellow/mustard algae (which is what I think it is, based on the description of looking like sand when it's settled), is it does not look exactly like what we have but per descriptions I've read sounds the most like it.
I tried a cadre of algecides with no success since April 5th, so gave up on that at the end of last week Latest thing I've tried is Yellow Out, recommended by a store in Avon. One round of this last weekend appears to have eliminated some, but not all of the algae. It also kills the chlorine, so I am concurrently shocking the hell out of it.
This seemed like decent advice, https://www.swimuniversity.com/mustard-algae/
and I am currently 16 hrs into the process on what is now round 2 of this method.
The chlorine level was already high last night, so I added 2 lbs of yellow out and double shocked it. This morning the chlorine was almost all gone so I triple shocked it (added 96 measured ounces of Burnout73, aka Calcium Hypochlorite.)
TroubleFreePool.com seems like a hell of a resource, but I am intimidated by a couple things. Firstly there almost seems to be too much information. With what I did scan through via the site's overall pool chemistry recommendations and forum topics I searched for on Mustard/Yellow algae is it seemed like shocking the hell out of it was their main recommendation. The moderators there also do not think removing phosphates does much, and they think it's just a way to spend a bunch of money.
I'll post this on the freeboard too to increase eyeballs.
Gracias.
Has anyone had to defeat mustard colored (also called yellow) algae?
What about black algae?
It's the latest challenge in 5 years of ownership, and we haven't been able to defeat patches of what we think is mustard algae since late last summer. We're not sure where we got it from. After opening the pool and getting it in balanced and sucking all the worms and other junk out, it was still there waiting for us.
Also what are your thoughts on the value of eliminating phosphates?
And do you think eliminating them would be helpful as part of algae eradication?
I've found opposing, well-written out sources that say it's extremely important to eliminate (given that it's food for algae) https://tmiaquatics.com/phosphates-what-are-they-and-why-should-you-care/
and in opposition that it's not at all important since there are tons of phosphates in some water supplies anyway (though I think that's a city water issue, which isn't me). The following link is avery long winded opinion stating removal of phosphates is irrelevant https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-phosphates/
Given that pool stores and InTheSwim are in the biz of selling chemicals, it's hard to know what's to be believed.
EDIT: I have more info on our phosphate situation in my subsequent 3:44 pm post.
We opened the pool a month earlier than usual at the beginning of April because of the stay at home order. It's fully balanced but the one thing we can't kick is this algae which settles at the bottom in a few areas that looks like sand. When I try to vacuum it up or our automatic pool cleaner robot rolls over that area, the implements are unable to suck it up, as the material just gets kicked up into the water.
What's weird is many pictures or youtube videos I've looked up on yellow/mustard algae (which is what I think it is, based on the description of looking like sand when it's settled), is it does not look exactly like what we have but per descriptions I've read sounds the most like it.
I tried a cadre of algecides with no success since April 5th, so gave up on that at the end of last week Latest thing I've tried is Yellow Out, recommended by a store in Avon. One round of this last weekend appears to have eliminated some, but not all of the algae. It also kills the chlorine, so I am concurrently shocking the hell out of it.
This seemed like decent advice, https://www.swimuniversity.com/mustard-algae/
and I am currently 16 hrs into the process on what is now round 2 of this method.
The chlorine level was already high last night, so I added 2 lbs of yellow out and double shocked it. This morning the chlorine was almost all gone so I triple shocked it (added 96 measured ounces of Burnout73, aka Calcium Hypochlorite.)
TroubleFreePool.com seems like a hell of a resource, but I am intimidated by a couple things. Firstly there almost seems to be too much information. With what I did scan through via the site's overall pool chemistry recommendations and forum topics I searched for on Mustard/Yellow algae is it seemed like shocking the hell out of it was their main recommendation. The moderators there also do not think removing phosphates does much, and they think it's just a way to spend a bunch of money.
I'll post this on the freeboard too to increase eyeballs.
Gracias.
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