Hi, we have recently bought a rustic finca in the area. we had water delivered to fill the balsa, after a week or so the water  turned green despite it being covered. tot llatge advised us to use chlorine which they said should clear it up. despite using more than they advised the water is getting worse. we also have very tiny black things moving about in it that you can see in a glass of water. we only use the water for washing up and showering. does anyone have suggestions on what the things can be and what we can do to clear the water? thanks

If the black things wriggle and have a tendancy to float to the top then they are Mosquito larvae. Put some washing up liquid in the water. This will break the miniscus and they'll drown as they use the surface tension to support themselves.

For the green you could put in antialgas - really meant for swimming pools. This is an algicide and should help to kill off and keep the algae at bay.

I assume you have one of the floating dispensers for your chlorine. These do help to keep the water clear but the tablets do dissolve very slowly.

Your best option will be to use up all your water and then get into the balsa and give it a thorough clean out with bleach - if it is fed by rainwater then it'll probably have an accumulation of decaying vegetation in it that will quickly turn the water green.

Nigel

Hi Nigel, Thanks for the quick reply. we did suspect that it could be mosquito larvae but had read that they don't like chlorine. is it ok to use antialgus without having a pump or a filter? we had a look at some in sabeco but it said that it could only be used with a filter.
we will clean out the balsa once all the water is used but its a lot of water to try to use up and quite expensive to replace. unfortunately we are rather skint after buying the finca.
thanks again for the advice you have saved us hours of trying to find a solution on the internet x

You say the balsa is covered, but how well? Algae needs light, as does pondlife. Don't panic too much about the wrigglers, they are as likely to be midges or gnats.

I suspect the requirement of a filter when using algicide is to filter out the algae. It is possible to buy small circulation pumps and filters, but I don't know where.

If there is a lot of muck etc. suspended in the water you might want to try liming it. You can buy a bag of cal from the builders merchants - it is large white crystals - not the stuff that looks like cement.  see: about lime.... But remember to wear eye protection and gloves - this stuff will boil water and a speck of it in your eye will boil your eye.

I agree, though, with Nigel that you should (eventually) drain and thoroughly clean the balsa before refilling it. It is possible, and cheap, to dose with household bleach, but you have to buy the one that says it's suitable for sterilizing water - if it says on the label somewhere "no apta para la desinfección de agua de bebida" then it's the wrong one (translated: not appropriate for disinfection of drinking water). I think it just means it's perfumed, so look for an unperfumed one. As for the dose, if you want to go this route, let me know and I'll dig out the gen. Certainly, you will have much better control of the chlorine content this way. Swimming pool levels are too high, really.

As a footnote, you don't know for sure where your water is coming from or what other source residues there are in the tanker, so it might already be heavily loaded with incipient algae and pondlife. The guys that deliver water mostly deliver to farms where water quality is not an issue.

thanks leo, very good advice, will look into it x

Hope you don't mind us replying but we have the answer to your problem which will purify your balsa water into drinking water, this is not reverse osmosis but a unique structured matrix system for the whole of house which removes the problems you mentioned as well as bacteria, pesticides and chlorine. Please see our web site:  www.purewaterspain.com or call us on 696 550 030. We would be happy to come and see you and demonstrate the system or if you prefer you are welcome to come and see the working system at our house. Nigel knows about the system and will confirm that we are genuine. Hope we can be of assistance. Mathew

Certainly do!  I helped install it - very space age but the result is water you could bottle and sell (didn't Del Boy do that once?).  Fantastic system for anyone who has rainwater, agricultural water or any other type of water.  Best thing is, unlike most other systems,  it doesn't need any power so it can be installed virtually anywhere.

Nigel