Filter not doing the job?

[gogolion]

The pressure gauge does go to zero when I turn off my pump.

I added another jug of bleach late last night without testing (I didn't see responses to this thread until this morning). I tested late this morning and FC=16 and CC=0. I'm going to add another jug soon to make sure it stays well above 15 (my shock level according to the best guess chart). I've just got to go buy some more. I brushed again this morning and the amount of residue seems a little better, but its still there. I consulted my mother-in-law and we decided the color is a brownish green, somewhere in between. Some areas seem more brown, some more green. Maybe that means its dying but not dead?

I'm also going to go by some DE powder and run the suggested test. How do I tell if my filter needs sand? Do I need to take it apart? Or is there some way to tell without that?

One other thing I may not have mentioned is that my pool leaks fairly significantly through some cracks. I normally top it off every couple of days with a couple inches of water. Today the level was close to bottom of my skimmers. I decided it may filter out more easily if there is less water so I turned off my skimmers and I'm not topping it off. Of course, my pressure dropped to 12 or 13. Is an unwise move? That is, am I better off topping off and running my skimmers or letting it be and turning off my skimmers.

I'll report back after my DE powder test. I'll also start testing late at night and in the early morning to see how much chlorine I'm losing overnight.

One more question... so far I've just been brushing, hoping the skimer and drain would pick up the debris and it would get filtered out. Would I be better off vacuuming? The problem there is that it is so time consuming. Brushing is pretty quick and easy.

[PoolDoc]

One more question... so far I've just been brushing, hoping the skimer and drain would pick up the debris and it would get filtered out. Would I be better off vacuuming? The problem there is that it is so time consuming. Brushing is pretty quick and easy.

I wouldn't bother with vacuuming, then, till the algae is ALL dead, AND the filter has been checked. If you vacuum with a filter that's not working well, you can end up just pumping all the algae back into the pool.

[gogolion]

Since I had to go to the pool store to get DE powder anyway, I decided to bring a water sample and have it tested. Now I'm thoroughly confused. Some of their measurements don't match mine at all. They say their test equipment uses lasers so its accurate, which I thought was funny. I'm going to take what is leftover of the sample and retest when I have time later today, but here is what they got that didn't match mine at all.

FC = 5.13 (I tested it at 16 4 or 5 hours ago)
CC = 0.07 (I tested it at zero)
CYA = 10 (I tested it at 40 this past Saturday)

Here are the values that more or less match mine:
Ph=7.8 (I got 7.7 this morning)
TA=168 (I got 160 a week ago)
CH = 163 (I got 140 a week ago)

Their suggestion was that I should add a half gallon of muriatic acid to bring my Ph and TA down. They say high TA could cause the cloudiness in my water. Should I listen to them?

I'll report back after I test the same water sample as the store.

[PoolDoc]

Thanks for that set of comparison numbers! We often here of the discrepancies, but don't often get exact numbers.

The results are actually better than what we often hear about. The prescription isn't nearly as bad as some. And, actually, the CC value should be considered equivalent as well. On the other hand, the CYA and FC errors are pretty serious.

I'll go this far: get a gallon of muriatic acid, read the muriatic acid handling guide linked in my blue signature box, and then go ahead and add it, but only 1/4 gallon at a time -- and test the pH 4 hours or so after the addition. Adjust your pH down to 7.2 - 7.4. With a TA = 160, it's going to tend to drift upward. You don't want it wandering way up there, while you are trying to get rid of algae.

By the way, transporting a sample can cause values to change, especially if it gets hot OR if there's any air space in the bottle.

[gogolion]

You're right, the CC is virtually the same. I initially was listing all the values, but then decided to separate them and forgot to move that one. The sample did not get hot (it is a mild, cloudy day her in the Chicago area), but there was a bit of airspace. I retested the same sample and got 13.5 for my FC level. I did not retest Ph since it has been steady at 7.7 for the past week. I happen to have a 1/2 gallon of Muriatic Acid so I'll add some and retest later. After testing the sample at 13.5 I also added 2 96 oz. bottles of bleach (walmart was out of the big bottles). I'm going to retest my chlorine in a little while and add more if necessary.

[gogolion]

I just tested my water for the night. FC=17, CC=0, PH=7.2. I'm leavng it alone and will test again first thing in the morning.

[gogolion]

This morning FC=14.5, CC=0.5, Ph=7.2. Gotta run and get some more bleach. So I lost 2.5ppm of chlorine. I guess this means the algae is not dead yet, huh?

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I was just doing some more reading and came across the sticky about mustard algae. I'm starting to think that is what I have. It is a thin film of "dust" that reappears every day. You don't even really notice it unless you let it build up over days or if you brush it, then it becomes a cloud of dust. The color? I'm not sure. It's sort of green, sort of brown, maybe yellow? It's definitely not a bright breen. My high chlorine levels don't seem to be killing it. Is this what I could be dealing with here?

[PoolDoc]

came across the sticky about mustard algae. I'm starting to think that is what I have. It is a thin film of "dust" that reappears every day. You don't even really notice it unless you let it build up over days or if you brush it, then it becomes a cloud of dust. The color? I'm not sure. It's sort of green, sort of brown, maybe yellow? It's definitely not a bright breen. My high chlorine levels don't seem to be killing it. Is this what I could be dealing with here?

With a CYA at 10 - 40 ppm, if you chlorinate to FC = 20 ppm daily, and brush after each bleach dump, it should clear up after couple of days. CONTINUE to chlorinate that way, for several days AFTER you no longer see any trace of it.
Sure sounds like it.