Bioslime I: Treatment for Chlorine or Bromine ONLY
Pink Slime, Clear Slime, White Water Mold, Gray Water Mold
Treatment for Chlorine or Bromine
For chlorine or bromine only. See our Bioslime II for treatments for Baquacil or Ultra. See the label instructions of Bioguard Assist for treatment for Softswim.
Sanitizer System:
_ Chlorine _ Bromine _Visions _ Nature 2 _Ecospring _Other ____________________
The Cheap, Easy Treatment that might not work or might not work for long:
Double-shock the pool with Target Super Shock at 2 gallons per 15,000 gallons of water: ___________________________________________If that does not work, or if it does work, but the problem comes back, give up and follow the rest of this treatment.
1. Vacuum or scoop all debris from the pool bottom. Clean skimmer and filter baskets. If the pool is a little cloudy, add a clarifier or filter aid. If water is very cloudy (so that you can’t see the bottom of the shallow end) floc the pool. Ask us for directions, and see our Pool Tips for Cloudy Water. If you have a solar heater, make sure it’s operating so that the chemicals treat the water inside the heater.
2. Check the Langlier Saturation Index of the water, but do not necessarily balance it yet. The Bioguard Optimizer in the next step may raise the pH. If the calcium level is very high, lower the pH before adding the Optimizer. Even if no metals show in our test, add an additional dose of mineral control product: _______________quarts Target Super Mineral Control or Bioguard Pool Magnet Plus (at one quart/10,000 gallons). This is to protect the pool from unusual staining caused by minerals reacting with possible high shock levels. It is very important to do so if you have a white liner or white plaster. It is recommended to do this with any pool, because even low assorted metal counts can feed bioslimes and eat up shock levels.
3. Add enough Bioguard Optimizer (perborate) to bring levels to 40-50 ppm. If current levels are 0, that would take 45 pounds per 10, 000 gallons. If you currently use a perborate, we can test your level to see where you are now. Add directly to the pool, in 4 batches of ________________pounds at least 4 hours apart. Add a total of : ___________________ pounds. It will probably take the same amount of pH reducer to bring the pH back up after the perborate. Add directly to the pool, in 4 batches of ________________ at least 4 hours apart. Add a total of : ___________________ pounds.
4. Test sanitizer and pH levels. Now rebalance to a Langlier index of –0.3 to +0.3. Bring pH to 7.2-7.4 and top up sanitizer if needed. If your pH is above 7.6, the shock will not work. Vacuum or scoop all debris from pool bottom.
5. Chemically clean the filter with Target Filter Cleaner and Degreaser, Bioguard Strip Kwik™ and/or Bioguard Kleen-It™ ; if it has not been done in the past month.
6. Place all pool toys and equipment that came into contact with the pool water while it was infected, into the pool. Wash bathing suits in a washing machine—as normal, with the rest of the laundry.
7. With the filter running, add a DOUBLE dose of ____________ gallons Target Super Shock (at 2 gallons per 15,000 gallons). NOTE: You can pour this right into the water, as you usually do. However, if you have a really bad case, and if you want to do a really good job, you can hire a professional to shock through the system. They will pour the shock directly into the through-wall skimmer and any other suction outlets. They will watch the hair and lint pot (directly in front of the motor). If the pot fills with air (it will be because the shock is oxidizing slime in the hoses, creating oxygen), they must stop shocking until the pot refills with water. If the pump loses its prime, don’t open the pot cover. They could burn their hands with the shock still in the lines. DANGER! If you use any form of powdered shock, or if you have any form of chlorine tablets in your system at the time, (skimmer, automatic chlorinator, etc.) you could cause an explosion or create chlorine gas that could kill or injure someone. SO DO NOT DO IT! Continue running the filter.
8. Ten minutes later, with the filter still running, add an initial dosage of polyquat algaecide: ____________________________. Target Non-Metallic Algaecide 60 or Bioguard Algae All 60™ (at 17 ounces per 10,000 gallons) directly into the pool. Important, do not use a quaternary algaecide for this step if you have any cloudiness that may incline you to try floccing the pool in the near future. Quaternary algaecides prevent flocs from working.
9. Run filter 24 hours a day until the pool clears up.
10. Immediately brush all surfaces of the pool, in order to break up any slime coating, and put the organisms into contact with the poison (the shock and algaecide) that you just put into the pool. If yours was a major problem, or if your shock level is low, add another double dose of shock, directly to the pool (the same dose as in step six above).
11. Put 4 ounces of Target Super Shock into a 5-gallon bucket of pool water, put on rubber gloves and safety glasses, and use this mixture to wash the waterline of the pool and pool accessories or covers that are not in the pool. Brush and wash carefully, dark recessed areas in your pool where water does not normally circulate well enough to kill things: under ladder steps, behind the light, under flaps and folds in liner, inside the throat of skimmer, under the skimmer weir (the flapping door), behind the screw that holds in the return eyeballs, etc. Clean out the well of the pool light. Soak the foam from the weir for two hours in your shock water mixture. Throw the rest of the mixture back in the pool—do not discard into the environment.
Return to your normal 3-step chemical usage (shock-sanitizer-algaecide) in whatever method you normally use. Brush and vacuum regularly to remove dead bacteria, slime or mold. If water does not substantially clear in 4-6 days, ask us for a water clarity treatment, or look for a solution in the Pool Tips for Cloudy Water.
12. When the shock level returns to normal, bring a pint water sample into the store for balancing. Bioslime outbreaks are often associated with unbalanced water, particularly water that is low in calcium. The preceding process, particularly the Bioguard Optimizer addition at the beginning, could have affected the balance. Maintaining a perborate level of 30-50 ppm and shocking regularly should help.
13. In about two weeks, inspect the inside of your filter and the dark recess areas described in step eleven above. If the bioslime is returning, have our lab test the perborate (Optimizer) level and restart treatment from step one. This time, do not skip any steps that you may have missed the first time through.
Please let us help you, anytime. Revised: 6/4/08
IMPORTANT
Pool Size: ___________ Gallons Technician: ___________
Date: ________________
We write Pool Tips™ for the exclusive use of our own local customers. They are meant as a summary of general information, to be discussed in our store, with our staff, to determine which items are best for specific pools. Pool Tips™ are a trademark of Gull Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Our suggestions assume that you have given us a proper description of your pool’s size, history and symptoms. Sometimes we can figure it out, sometimes we can’t. Your doctor has years more training, far better diagnostic tools, and makes way more money—and sometimes he or she gets it wrong, too.
- Read all labels carefully, and only use chemicals exactly as described on the label. Never mix chemicals together outside of the pool. Some of them can cause a fire or explosion.
- Do Not follow any advice or suggestions here without coming into the store, customizing them to your specifics, and receiving them in writing.
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- Don’t Blame Us for anything. It’s free advice, and worth the price paid. We’re trying to help, but pools are complex, and chemicals and electricity are dangerous.
- Our Best Advice: Go find a local pool dealer who knows what they are doing, become a steady customer, and give them a chance to learn about you and your pool. Pick a brand, pick a store, and stay with them.