Best swimming pool algaecides according to redditors

Amazon Pool Rx

OP you need this product. Stick in your pump basket, but, skip the recharge kit and buy another one in 6 months. If you shock the pool with powdered chlorine, predissolve it thoroughly. Can cause a stain/shadow for a few days but fades eventually. This has cut chlorine consumption drastically. We were skeptical about carrying this product. But damn it works.

I don't recommend organic hydro. I've tried it to solve exactly the problem you are dealing with and it just creates other problems. For organic hydro to work conditions must be perfect all of the time or else it goes south incredibly fast, since the conditions are also perfect for pathogens to thrive in. If you want to go organic hydro, you need to do a lot of reading up on biofilters and aquaponics. It can be done but it is not easy and requires a lot of attention to detail. For ease of use and results, sterile hydro is best, but there are a few tricks:

1. You need to get an ORP tester. ORP stands for "Oxidation reduction potential" and is a way to measure the effectiveness of the sterilizer in your system. Without this tool you will always be guessing about how much to add. This tool has totally changed the game for me in hydro. You want to keep an ORP between 400-550 to keep bad things at bay.
   
   
2. You need to get some polyquat to kill the rusty looking stuff since once it's established it becomes quite resistant to chlorine. Polyquat 60 is very concentrated - I use 5 DROPS per 50 gallons and only use it when I have scum to get rid of. I had a 50gal res totally covered in red slime algae and after a simple sponge scrub and some polyquat plus 1mL per 5gallons chlorine bleach, res is bright white and water is crystal clear for over 45 days now. Run a higher concentration of both polyquat and chlorine in between cycles to clean your system.
   
   
3. Zone doesn't work. Stick with the bleach, get the ORP pen, and add a few mL of bleach every 2 days to maintain your ORP between 400-550
   

I have struggled keeping my pool algae free for five years. I have poured enormous amounts of chemicals and shocked it so many times and nothing had worked. But this year I tried this product and boom it's crystal clean blue water. I have not seen a single patch of algae anywhere after 2 day of it being in the pool. Here is the link of the stuff on Amazon

IIRC, it's frowned in most subs upon unless a disclaimer was made. Otherwise, there'd be a flood of spammy affiliate links.

I just looked at the link. The ref code might just be an auto generated one rather than affiliate.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TXBE4Q/ ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_H0BVDbFKSW7HT

She added 2 bags of this to our 48 by 15 foot Intex. The chlorine is through the roof and it does indicate that the the ph is high. It was a bit low so I'm adding some water and going to let that settle till I get home from work. Thanks! The wife just called me and said it looks murky, but I suspect thats the high Chlorine levels?

Try this one thing before anything else, get yourself one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/PoolRx-Algaecide-Unit-20000-gallons/dp/B003TXBE4Q


I have a really clean pool but at the peak of summer I started getting the same algae and fought it for a while before I found that Pool RX product.

It instantly killed that algae and it stayed gone for the whole season. I reduced my chlorine by about half and still ZERO algae.

Another major bonus is it makes the water sparkle this certain way, I can't explain it. Like, you think you had a clean pool but this product just makes the water sooo clear it's really nice.

Pretty much overnight I was blown away by the difference.

Its like $60 and now this season I bought a new one and just holding it until either I see that same algae again, or once it starts hitting like 90's and 100's.

What do you know about this? Would this help?

Black Unit 20,000 - 30,000 Gallons https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UMOWWW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wf6cAb1KF7JTF

Green and Mustard algaecide Swimtrine plus

This works really well. Make sure you shock, use your algaecide and proper filtration. I recommend a 36 hour treatment. Shock, use algaecide and use a wire brush on the mustard algae. After the first 12 hours of running your filter, shock it again. Shock a 3rd time at 24 hours, 4th at 36. After 36 hours, clean your filter out as best as you can.. another thing I’ll include is controlling your phosphates. Not a lot of people mention about phosphates but if you have surrounding trees/bushes that are getting into your pool, it’ll increase your phosphates, which is food for algae. Let me know if you need anymore help !

Edit: forgot to mention; Hasa Phos out works really well at reducing your phosphates. You should add this once the algae is gone.

Having worked in an area where these kinds of pools are really popular, here's what I'd recommend:

Use a basic algaecide like this (or whatever you can find in store that's similarly ammonium chloride based). The benefit of an algaecide is that it'll last longer than chlorine and that kind I linked doesn't require a ton of circulation. And it's cheap.

For your size pool you shouldn't have to put in more than a few cups once a week. You can see from the reviews that people just assume more = better and they end up with a bubble bath. Always read the directions! On that note, wait a day between adding it and any liquid chlorine. Chlorine doesn't distinguish between, well, anything. It'll just eat up your other chemicals if you dump them together (not to mention ammonium bases products or acids + concentrated chlorine = homemade chemical-weapon night night time).

Besides that, a floater with one or two chlorine tablets in it can't hurt during the summer at least. Tablets release chlorine slowly over time whereas the shock just nukes things for a short period. Together they balance each other. Just keep an eye on your PH with that test kit, and you should be golden.