help i have a film and bubbles from my algae stuff i put in

Water bugs, swimming insects and sweat bees.
Foaming bubbly water. Frogs in the pool.
Dead animals in the swimming pool.
mlynnjensen
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help i have a film and bubbles from my algae stuff i put in

Postby mlynnjensen » Tue 24 Jul, 2007 07:29

like so many others i went on vacation, have an outdoor salt water pool and we had a lot of debris in the pool when i got home. it was green. i put the algae stuff in and it is super bubbly and feels soapy, gets really bubbly when i turn on the filter to vacumn i have vacumned 3 times. it is cloudy a little less green today, but still a problem. can anyone help me? i have a europack filter system, which i am sure doesn't help.


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Postby Backglass » Tue 24 Jul, 2007 08:55

Algaecide is a preventative and not as effective once algae is present. Also the cheaper ones foam, as you are learning. The bubbles will go down in time. The only algaecides worth using are those that use Polyquat-60. They usually have 60 in the title somewhere. The cheaper ones foam and/or add copper to your pool (green hair!).

If the pool is green, you need to kill off the algae with chlorine by getting your pool up to shock levels and keeping it there for at least 24 hours. Leave the filter on 24/7 during this process until it clears.

Using your test kit, please post a full set of numbers so we can give good advice instead of guessing.
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Postby mr_clean » Thu 16 Aug, 2007 16:16

the post before is correct about algaecide's with copper and foaming.

to get rid of green algae vacuum and scrub the pool,

add 1qt swimmtrine algaecide and 4gal chlorine and run pool 24hrs. The algaecide uses up chlorine to kill algae and does not prevent algae.

Next day you revacuum and scrub pool, check chemical readings add whats needed normally chlorine and clean your filter. I recommend still running filter another 24hrs to get every last spot of algae out of water.

Then go to pool store with water sample in clean bottle and have them test water Chl-PH-conditioner.

depending on size of filter and how bad algae out break was you may need to clean filter more than once.

during the summer run filter 8hrs and there is a algae prevenative on the market which works called "No Mor Problems" this come in a qt bottle and lasts about 2 months adding only 4ounces a week.
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Postby Backglass » Thu 16 Aug, 2007 19:15

mr_clean wrote:add 1qt swimmtrine algaecide and 4gal chlorine and run pool 24hrs. The algaecide uses up chlorine to kill algae and does not prevent algae.


I'm curious.,..how can you advise to add 4 gallons of chlorine when you don't know how big the pool is? Are you psychic? ;)

You better hope it's not a 7500 gallon pop-up.
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mr_clean
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Postby mr_clean » Thu 16 Aug, 2007 22:28

I'm no expert...just a long time pool owner

you would not have to worry as that chlorine would be gone as algaecide uses it up.

remember your words "I'm no expert" but you are everwhere givin your advise, I maybe on your nerves but oh well
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Postby chem geek » Thu 16 Aug, 2007 23:48

Chlorine breaks down PolyQuat though the rate at which it does this is proportional to the product of the concentration of chlorine and PolyQuat. If I ignore the rate, 10 fluid ounces of PolyQuat 60 breaks down 2.2 ppm FC in 10,000 gallons so one quart of PolyQuat 60 would break down about 7.0 ppm FC in 10,000 gallons. 4 gallons of 6% bleach in 10,000 gallons would give 24.7 ppm FC and if using 12.5% chlorinating liquid instead, the FC would be about double.

So the assertion that one quart of PolyQuat will consume 4 gallons of chlorine is incorrect. Some of that chlorine will break down the PolyQuat, but there will be a lot of chlorine leftover. So the point that Backglass is making about pool size is correct and important. The amount of PolyQuat and chlorine needed clearly depends on whether it's a small pop-up pool of 7500 gallons vs. a large inground pool of 35,000 gallons. It is true, of course, that the chlorine will get consumed oxidizing and killing the algae, but how much depends on the size of the algae bloom.

The statement "The algaecide uses up chlorine to kill algae and does not prevent algae." is not correct as the algaecide does not use up the chlorine in order to kill the algae. Instead, the chlorine breaks down the algaecide polymer into smaller pieces. I had an E-mail correspondence with Buckman Labs which makes all the PolyQuat in the U.S. about this issue and they said that though the chlorine breaks down the PolyQuat into smaller sub-units, that they are still effective as an algaecide. Their recommendation (for winter closing, for example) was to first shock with chlorine and then to add the algaecide when the chlorine levels were lower. That would slow down the reactions and breakdown of the PolyQuat. The PolyQuat itself is slow-acting in the way it kills algae which is why it is better at preventing algae growth than killing an existing bloom. The PolyQuat is positively charged and is attracted to the negatively charged surface of algae (and bacteria) cells and block their ion channels, thus starving them of nutrients.

So generally one doesn't use PolyQuat to fight an existing algae bloom -- one just shocks with sufficient chlorine and holds the high FC level. PolyQuat is best used in maintenance doses as an algae preventative, even if the chlorine level drops too low to prevent algae on its own.

Can't we just all help each other out by sharing information without getting snooty about this? mr_clean, I'm sure you have valuable experience and information to share, so can you please just share it without the personal attacks?

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Postby Backglass » Fri 17 Aug, 2007 09:36

mr_clean wrote:I maybe on your nerves but oh well


You are on my nerves not because you are trying to help...but because your advice is "fast & loose". Telling someone to go dump four gallons of bleach into their pool and a bottle of some wonder-product without even knowing there water condition, test results or how large the pool is reckless, plain and simple.

I welcome the help on this forum, we need more advisor's answering posts! But you cant give blanket advise on a disease without knowing the patients background first!
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Postby mr_clean » Fri 17 Aug, 2007 13:40

backglass, I never came on this board to start any kind of trouble.

and maybe I should of asked more info and not assumed someone with a salt pool would have a big pool.

I have nothing against chem-geek but that sometimes to much info is not what the average joe wants to hear or can consume and use. Just my opion wrong or right.

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