More pool fun - or what's that brown stuff on the steps?

Last week the pool started turning green. Not like a pea soup, but the blue-green color began losing the blue color.

With advice from a local pool store after water analysis was performed we hyper cholorinated the pool.

Several days later we found brown stuff on the pool steps.

Our treatment: brush the steps to put the most likely dead organics back into the solution, then treat the pool with a non-cholorine shock. Keep the polaris unit (think old fashioned roomba for swimming pools) running.

Seems to have done the trick, but boy did that brown stuff disturb my wife!

One thing that is interesting, the hypercholorination lasts quite a while. Chlorine levels are very high for several days. We're told that's a good thing and that it helps eliminate the algea that was forming.

We have a persistent problem managing the rate of chlorine consumption in our pool's chlorinator. Too often the chlorinator will run out of chlorine tablets (think white hockey pucks) before the week is out.

I've finally ratcheted the chlorine dispersion rate down, but am still curious as to what's the right setting. The hyper cholorination obviously confuses things.

Soon we'll try an anti-phosphate treatment. Phosphate is the limiting factor in algea growth. The product claims to dramatically reduce phosphates in your swimming water. We'll see if it works.

Regards, makingourway