Small Insects In My Pool

[WormFarmer]

I have these little insects in my pool, they tend to group together somewhere in the shade of the wall, so their location varies during the day. The chlorine content of the pool is OK, but they seem to be thriving, they swim about quite well. I netted some and put them into a bucket to get a better photo, see below. They are about 5mm long. Has anyone else come across these and does anyone have a suggestion as to how I might get rid of them.

[WarpSpeed]

They're water bugs, so your Cl2 is not as ok as you might think, if it were they wouldn't survive. You need to shock the pool with a high dose of Cl2 and it will kill them off for the immediate future. Add about 6 to 8 liters of Cl2 in their location, job done..

Edited October 4, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[WormFarmer]

Thanks WS, Yes, I did that, 2 kg TCCA, it got rid of them all. Now waiting for ph to recover and some Cl to burn off or get diluted if it rains some more. Cheers WF

[WarpSpeed]

Thanks WS, Yes, I did that, 2 kg TCCA, it got rid of them all. Now waiting for ph to recover and some Cl to burn off or get diluted if it rains some more. Cheers WF

Glad it worked out for ya, what's wrong with the PH? You should always put in an amount of muratic acid to counter the Ph effect of the Cl2.

Oh, just read again you used powdered Cl2 so it lowered your Ph then? Add a bit of baking powder ( not soda they are different) without knowing the actual reading I'm guessing about 2kilos and unless your pool has stabilizer in it (cyanuric acid) it isn't going to take but a day or so at the most for the Cl2 to dissipate..

Edited October 8, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[WormFarmer]

Glad it worked out for ya, what's wrong with the PH? You should always put in an amount of muratic acid to counter the Ph effect of the Cl2.

Oh, just read again you used powdered Cl2 so it lowered your Ph then? Add a bit of baking powder ( not soda they are different) without knowing the actual reading I'm guessing about 2kilos and unless your pool has stabilizer in it (cyanuric acid) it isn't going to take but a day or so at the most for the Cl2 to dissipate..

Hi WS, yes you guessed right, the TCCA has a ph of about 2.8 so it lowered the pool ph somewhat, down to around 6.7. I considered adding HCl but decided to leave it to recover itself as usually I have problem the other way - too high ph and have to add HCl every week. It is now back up to 7.1 so another day it will be fine. Last year I tried using cyanuric acid as a stabiliser but subsequently decided, on reading a lot more about it, that this is not so good as the free chlorine count decreases markedly. My pool is a salt water pool (chlorinator) so I keep the pumps running longer in hot weather to produce enough chlorine and use sodium bi-carb to stabilise the ph.

Cheers WF

[WarpSpeed]

Glad it worked out for ya, what's wrong with the PH? You should always put in an amount of muratic acid to counter the Ph effect of the Cl2.

Oh, just read again you used powdered Cl2 so it lowered your Ph then? Add a bit of baking powder ( not soda they are different) without knowing the actual reading I'm guessing about 2kilos and unless your pool has stabilizer in it (cyanuric acid) it isn't going to take but a day or so at the most for the Cl2 to dissipate..

Hi WS, yes you guessed right, the TCCA has a ph of about 2.8 so it lowered the pool ph somewhat, down to around 6.7. I considered adding HCl but decided to leave it to recover itself as usually I have problem the other way - too high ph and have to add HCl every week. It is now back up to 7.1 so another day it will be fine. Last year I tried using cyanuric acid as a stabiliser but subsequently decided, on reading a lot more about it, that this is not so good as the free chlorine count decreases markedly. My pool is a salt water pool (chlorinator) so I keep the pumps running longer in hot weather to produce enough chlorine and use sodium bi-carb to stabilise the ph.

Cheers WF

Free Cl2 does decrease but the stabilizer aids in maintaining higher more effective levels so it's a wash except that you have a better sanitizing condition and can save energy not having to run the system so long to produce enough Cl2 so in the end it saves you a lot more money on both counts while maintaining your pool better.. For example you'd never have gotten water bugs if it was doing the job as it is now, eventually you'd get some algae in which case a shock would be necessary but never water bugs...

If your Ph fluctuates that easily then your T/A likely needs adjusting it shouldn't fluctuate so quickly but any rate you should check it and if it needs adjusting do it with Sodium bicarbonate or acid as needed but as per my post in the below thread..

Adjusting T/A

[WormFarmer]

Free Cl2 does decrease but the stabilizer aids in maintaining higher more effective levels so it's a wash except that you have a better sanitizing condition and can save energy not having to run the system so long to produce enough Cl2 so in the end it saves you a lot more money on both counts while maintaining your pool better.. For example you'd never have gotten water bugs if it was doing the job as it is now, eventually you'd get some algae in which case a shock would be necessary but never water bugs...

If your Ph fluctuates that easily then your T/A likely needs adjusting it shouldn't fluctuate so quickly but any rate you should check it and if it needs adjusting do it with Sodium bicarbonate or acid as needed but as per my post in the below thread..

Adjusting T/A

Hi WS, I had a look at that thread which is very informative, I'll follow the sequence given there, thanks for your advice.

Cheers WF

[WarpSpeed]

Good luck..