- Mustard algae.
Or yellow algae.
It's rare, but it's persistent.
You can scour away this microbial menace
with just a few simple steps.
So, let's dive in.
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Rachel!
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Quick disclaimer.
When it comes to pool care,
everyone has a different way of doing it.
But, we here at Swim University have our way
of doing it based on all of my years
in the pool industry and the research that we've done here
as a team.
The bottom line is that we all just wanna help you
take care of your pool.
And of course if I miss anything in this video
or you think I missed anything,
feel free to leave a comment.
Be happy to address it there.
So let's get into it.
In this video we're gonna be talk about adding chemicals
to your pool to get rid of mustard algae
and so therefore we need to talk about safety
which means chemical resistant gloves,
always wear them.
Chemical resistant goggles, a mask, and an apron.
You need to get it because it's important, safety first.
Mustard algae is rare but it happens.
Generally in the southern climates
and it doesn't really look like algae sometimes.
Sometimes it can look like pollen
or it can look like sand and it likes to stick to things.
It comes from outside of the pool.
It's not something that grows in the pool.
You have to introduce it to the pool
and the real (bleep) is that it is chlorine resistant.
Mustard algae likes to attach itself
to all different kinds of things
and it can live outside of the pool.
So, what can it attach to?
Well your pool floats, your pool equipment,
your bathing suits, yeah.
Sometimes you go in the ocean with the same bathing suit
and then you get into your pool,
you might get yellow algae.
Doesn't happen all the time,
but it's possible.
Okay, so let's talk about the ways
that we can get rid of mustard algae
or yellow algae, you know you got it,
that's why you're watching this video I assume
unless you're some sort of masochist
and just like to listen to a guy talk
about getting rid of mustard algae in a swimming pool.
So getting rid of mustard algae the first thing you wanna do
and the weirdest thing is to wash your bathing suits.
I know, I know.
And you wanna use a color safe bleach.
The bleach just adds that little extra disinfectant
to really kill any yellow algae that is living
in your bathing suits.
Next we are going to clean all of your pool equipment.
We're talking about floats, anything that's gonna
be introduced into the pool.
Beach balls, floats, pool equipment even.
Everything needs to be completely sanitized
and we're going to use bleach
or a bleach-based disinfectant.
So I know Clorox makes a spray that you can use,
like a multipurpose spray that has Clorox bleach in it,
that's really good.
If you don't have that lying around
but you do have some bleach,
you can mix 10 parts of water to one part of bleach
and you can put that in a spray bottle,
spray down your equipment, wipe it down,
spray down your pool, toys, your floats,
that way at least we've protected the pool
from getting mustard algae reintroduced.
Okay now we're gonna try to get as much
of the yellow or mustard algae out
of the pool before we go ahead and throw a bunch
of chemicals at it to kill it.
So what we're gonna do here is you're gonna need a brush.
Now if you have concrete pool,
I recommend getting an algae brush which is a metal brush.
If you have a fiberglass pool or you have a vinyl liner pool
you're gonna wanna get a vinyl pool brush,
something with thick, thick bristles.
Like I said before, yellow algae likes to cling
and stick and dig itself into different parts
of your pool and so you're gonna need
to brush that and get it into suspension
and anything that you can't get with a brush,
you can even try vacuuming.
But if you're gonna vacuum it,
and you should vacuum it manually,
you're not gonna be able to use a robotic cleaner
or any sort of automatic pool cleaner
'cause it's just gonna blow right through,
you're gonna wanna use a manual vacuum and when you do,
you wanna set your filter to waste.
You don't want that coming right back into your pool.
You want it to exit out of your pool.
If you need more information on how to vacuum a pool,
there's a little card and you can watch that video.
We're about to add some chemicals.
So, make sure you get your safety gear on
and before we add any chemicals,
you always wanna test the water.
Make sure at this point that you're pH
and your alkalinity are balanced.
We're gonna be adding a lot of chlorine
through the shocking method and we wanna make sure
that your pH and alkalinity are balanced
so that that shock is crazy effective.
Okay, we've tested the water.
You can test it with test strips,
you can use a liquid test kit,
you could bring it into your local pool store
and have them check it.
No matter which method you use,
just make sure that you get your pH and alkalinity balanced.
You can use pH increaser or decreaser,
you can use alkalinity increaser and you wanna do this
and you wanna at least wait, if you're gonna add,
if you need to add any chemicals
to your pool to balance the water,
wait about an hour, retest it,
make sure you're at the right level
and then we're gonna shock the (bleep) out of it.
This is a method that I've used a bunch of times
to get rid of mustard algae and it's called
the triple shock method.
This is what you're gonna do.
For every 10,000 gallons of water that your pool has,
you're gonna add three pounds of calcium hypochlorite shock.
Now the calcium hypochlorite shock that you use,
the higher the percentage of calcium hypochlorite
as the active ingredient,
the stronger that shock is gonna be.
Now you're wanna wait until it's dark out
before you do any sort of shocking to your pool,
any sort of chlorine addition,
because the sun will burn off one part per million
of chlorine every single hour
and if we add that in the middle of the day
you're not gonna get the highest amount of chlorine
to kill that yellow algae.
And so if we wait till nighttime
and let that pool system,
the pool filter and pump run overnight mixing that shock in,
making sure that you've brushed it really good
so that nothing is clinging to the walls,
it is killing the mustard algae, that is what we want.
If you have any questions about shocking the pool, again,
here's a card to go watch that video.
Okay, at this point, we've triple shocked it,
the next morning hopefully the yellow algae is gone.
Now what you wanna do, you wanna keep your chlorine high,
you wanna make sure that the pool is still balanced.
You added a lot of shock so get it retested.
Make sure your pH and alkalinity are in balance.
Keep the chlorine high.
Keep the chlorine at around five parts per million
if you can and keep brushing where you saw
that mustard algae and at this point,
it's been a couple of days,
you haven't seen the mustard algae come back,
you've killed mustard algae,
you've gotten rid of it, very, very good.
If it comes back, you know what to do now.
Now a quick plug.
If you have anymore questions about taking care
of your swimming pool,
you can go to swimuniversity.com/pool-care-handbook,
that is our product.
It's our fully illustrated handbook,
fully illustrated ebook and video course
that teaches you everything you need to know
about taking care of your swimming pool
whether you're a newbie or you've been doing this awhile,
you've had your pool for awhile.
It's helpful.
It's a good resource.
You can just jump to it right away
or you can learn a bunch of stuff
about taking care of a pool.
And if you're watching this video
and thank you very much for watching this video,
you get a discount code.
If you use a discount code VIDEO,
you will get 10% off at checkout.
Just go to swimuniversity.com/pool-care-handbook.
All right, that's it.
If you have any questions or you think I missed anything
in this episode or this video,
please leave a comment below,
I'd be happy to address it and also
if you want more information on taking care
of your swimming pool or hot tub
you can go to swimuniversity.com.
Thank you so much for watching.
That's it.
Happy swimming.
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