Water striders?

InvaderZim · Apr 30, 2024

I seem to have an infestation of water striders -- in the past there were always a couple but now there are a bunch. Water temp is still about 75 degrees, chlorine level is 3-5, water is crystal clear. pH is 7.6. A small amount of algae forms under the skimmer after a couple of days, easily brushed away.

Dr. Google says they are harmless to us and eat insects that are unfortunate enough to fall into the pool and it's been windy, so there are plenty of those (eventually removed by the skimmers). The advice is to spray them with diluted hand dishwashing soap as that removes their ability to walk on the surface and makes them sink and drown , but I'm not sure if this is a good idea for a pool, or if it would affect my sand filter. So I'm not doing that unless you all think this is safe.

I just shocked the pool to see if that would help move them out, so we'll see. In the meantime, does someone have a solution?

Donldson · Apr 30, 2024

If you have visible algae growing then there's plenty of invisible algae floating around in the water which is likely attracting the bugs.

You said a couple weeks ago that you were ordering a proper test kit, it must have arrived by now. Would you mind posting up a full set of results from it?

1poolman1 · Apr 30, 2024

InvaderZim said:
I seem to have an infestation of water striders -- in the past there were always a couple but now there are a bunch. Water temp is still about 75 degrees, chlorine level is 3-5, water is crystal clear. pH is 7.6. A small amount of algae forms under the skimmer after a couple of days, easily brushed away.

Dr. Google says they are harmless to us and eat insects that are unfortunate enough to fall into the pool and it's been windy, so there are plenty of those (eventually removed by the skimmers). The advice is to spray them with diluted hand dishwashing soap as that removes their ability to walk on the surface and makes them sink and drown , but I'm not sure if this is a good idea for a pool, or if it would affect my sand filter. So I'm not doing that unless you all think this is safe.

I just shocked the pool to see if that would help move them out, so we'll see. In the meantime, does someone have a solution?

Won't hurt anything to let them sink to the bottom, your cleaner will just pick them up. There is a product called BugOut that is designed for that purpose, its a common problem. Chlorine does nothing to deter them.

InvaderZim · Apr 30, 2024

Donldson said:
If you have visible algae growing then there's plenty of invisible algae floating around in the water which is likely attracting the bugs.

You said a couple weeks ago that you were ordering a proper test kit, it must have arrived by now. Would you mind posting up a full set of results from it?

I got the TF-100 a few days ago. I ran the TA test then and it was 70 after the baking soda I added a few weeks ago, and CYA was 30 so added the rest of the bag I had but haven’t retested yet. Chlorine was 3-5 and I didn’t do the FC test. I was disappointed there was no phosphate test but the pool store told me it was high last fall (1200 comes to mind) so I treated it with phos-free (from Amazon, much cheaper) back then and didn’t re-test. I still have plenty left

I only get visible algae after a windy, rainy day like we just had. No point in testing now because I shocked the pool and chlorine is sky high, according to the TC test. As 1poolman1 said, the waterstriders don’t much care but algae does.

I’ll do the rest of the worthwhile tests this weekend but tests like hardness aren’t helpful because draining/refilling isn’t an option in drought.

InvaderZim · Apr 30, 2024

1poolman1 said:
Won't hurt anything to let them sink to the bottom, your cleaner will just pick them up. There is a product called BugOut that is designed for that purpose, its a common problem. Chlorine does nothing to deter them.

Thanks. I found I was actually able to scoop most of them out with my 24” deep net, which was a surprise. I didn’t try that before because they’re fast but they run into the net. I squirted them with diluted Dawn in the net and they didn’t much like that at all. Seemed to terminate them.

I also squired a few in the pool directly as a test and they sank pretty quickly, so that works. The ones that ran through the soap also sank and it didn’t take much. The small amount of Dawn dissipated quickly. The Dolphin robot will get the corpses.

Will the Dawn hurt anything? It’s phosphate-free.

duraleigh · Apr 30, 2024

There is no phosphate test because TFP firmly believes phosphates are irrelevant in pool water management. The single most important test in that kit is for FC but it looks like you didn't use that one which would be of far more benefit

I suggest you read Pool Care Basics Archives
That may help you get some value from your kit.

mgtfp · Apr 30, 2024

InvaderZim said:
I’ll do the rest of the worthwhile tests this weekend but tests like hardness aren’t helpful because draining/refilling isn’t an option in drought.

All tests are "worthwhile".

Even if you can't drain/refill, you want to know what CH is so you know how critical proper pH/TA management is in your situation.

If you have algae growing then you need to follow the SLAM Process, a one-off "shock" is just a drop in the ocean.

You should never have algae growing, windy or not.

InvaderZim · May 2, 2024

duraleigh said:
There is no phosphate test because TFP firmly believes phosphates are irrelevant in pool water management. The single most important test in that kit is for FC but it looks like you didn't use that one which would be of far more benefit

I suggest you read Pool Care Basics Archives
That may help you get some value from your kit.

mgtfp said:
All tests are "worthwhile".

Even if you can't drain/refill, you want to know what CH is so you know how critical proper pH/TA management is in your situation.

If you have algae growing then you need to follow the SLAM Process, a one-off "shock" is just a drop in the ocean.

You should never have algae growing, windy or not.

Ok... I ran all the tests yesterday and put them into PoolMath.

FC 17 -- because I shocked the pool (one reason I was postponing this test).
CC 0.5
pH 8.2 -- I thought a high chlorine level would make this less accurate so I was deferring. We had an inch of rain overnight and now it's 7.8.
TA 80
CH 650
CYA 50
SALT 3600 - this matches my meter and how I recalibrated the SWG flow sensor, so this is good to know.

Water is crystal-clear this morning and the water skimmers are gone -- I was zapping them with diluted Dawn dish soap, which works well and makes them sink. No visible algae in the pool. Yay!

There is always some visible green algae on the bottom rocks of our waterfall just above the waterline, which are limestone (big mistake by the builder, I believe). I spray them with bleach, scrub them to no avail, and wonder if this is a reservoir for algae. Again, I don't normally have visible algae in the pool. Any tips for dealing with the waterfall though? I don't normally turn on the waterfall unless we're using the pool but it does run once a day to flush the pipes.