On 2/9/2012 9:12 AM, dgk wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:19:42 -0500, Dan
wrote:

gonjahgonjah.net writes:
...
Salt water tanks, way too much work.

I had freshwater for 25 years before I got it out of my system.
Algae was a constant issue but I grew plants in the tank so the
best control I found was snails.

Algae battles in the pool are something else I'm familiar with.
But I didn't know you could control phosphates, my kit doesn't
measure for that. I nuke the pool with chlorine if algae gets
out of hand otherwise the various algae control products seem
to work. The blue stuff appears to be copper, not sure what the
stuff that looks like oil is.
When I was 16 (was I ever 16?) I was hired to work as a lifeguard at
the Goldman Hotel in West Orange NJ - left behind when all the other
resorts moved to the Catskills. Huge pool, twice Olympic size. So it's
Fourth of July weekend. The head lifeguard tells me to put in some
soda ash and algicide.

Algaecide is a backwards way to deal with the problem. It assumes there
is algae to kill. Remove the phosphates and you never have the algae to
kill. :-)


I don't know anything so I haul a big bag (I recall it being 100 lbs)
of soda ash to the deep end and dump it in. Then I pour in a big jug
of algicide. A little while later the water jetting in from the sides
is turning orange. Shortly thereafter it starts bubbling. We're
looking at the pool turning orange and bubbling. The head lifeguard
asks what I did, laughs, and turns up the chlorine to counteract the
soda ash.

We told everyone that we wanted the pool red white and blue for the
holiday weekend. But I learned my lesson about how to balance the pH
in a swimming pool.

Weird....