Battling algae… and losing :(

[beninho]

Hi guys! I’ve had algae growth in my pool for several months and no amount of scrubbing, backwashing, algicide, chlorine, etc seems to help. Really breaking my head over this and would love some fresh ideas or input.

I live in a tropical climate (around 30C/85F most days, water same temperature), and my pool is about 100 m3 in total, including the tank below our house. I’ve been carefully balancing PH and chlorine levels for a long time now, to no avail. I’ve also added 1L of algicide a few weeks ago and then have been adding 250-300ml each week for maintenance… but the green growth still happens!

Have attached some photos to illustrate what is happening. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[kimkats]

Hi and welcome to TFP! What a pretty pool you have!

I am going to point out to every one you are in Thailand. We will have to find a way for you to get a good test kit. That will be a work in progress. We will talk about that at the end of this post.

Okay so lets see what we can do to get that green gone!!! Here at TFP we have a PROCESS called SLAM. Here is the link to it:SLAM Process The basis of this is a good test kit and chlorine. Until you can get a good test kit it is going to be shooting in the dark kind of process. Don't even bother with the "guess" strips.

The active algae shows you have not been adding enough chlorine to kill algae. As seen in the SLAM link the key is to get the FC (Free Chlorine) up to SLAM level for your CYA (cyanuric acid) as seen in this chart:


Here is a link to teach you about the relationship between the CYA and FC. They go hand in hand as you will see as you read the link:
FC/CYA Levels

For now we need to know how many gallons that pretty pool is and what kind of equipment you have on it. Look in my signature below for the kind of info we are looking for.

Now on to test kits-you REALLY need one. As you can see without it you are shooting in the dark. You best option is the Taylor 2006C. Note the number 6 and the letter C. This kit has everything you need to test for all the levels in the pool. Can you order from Amazon?

"Guess" strips are not worth your time or money as they are so off and do not give a true measure of the different levels. That drop test kit only goes up to 3 and as you can see from the chart that is not high enough to do you any good.

Let us know how many gallons your pool is and we can give some guidance on how much liquid chlorine to add each day to keep the algae from getting worst until you can get your test kit.

Kim

 

[Mdragger88]

Also let us know what kind of chlorine you’re able to obtain & what kind you have been using as different ones add different things to the water with the chlorine.
Sodium hypochlorite, cal hypo, trichlor, dichlor etc.

this looks like kind of a small pool are you able to drain, scrub refill & start over?

 

[Brian PacNW]

100 cubic meters is 26.4k gallons

 

[drsipe]

Kimkats has given you some great information.

One additional piece of information. You stated you add algicide, to help kill the Algae, but chlorine must oxidize the algicide, which reduces the amount of chlorine available to fight the Algae.

Chlorine levels at the proper level in relation to your CYA level is enough to kill & control the Algae, and algicide are not needed.