Imagine coming home to find out your glistening clean pool is no more.
Instead, slabs of sludge litter the water. It’s thick, slimy, and coating the walls and floors of the pool. There’s a sickly smell in the air, and you can’t even pinpoint where it’s coming from. This didn’t happen overnight. This took time. What could make your swimming pool turn green? This article will outline why a swimming pool turns green and what you can do about it.
What Causes A Swimming Pool To Turn Green?
There are plenty of reasons why a swimming pool could turn green. The single common denominator of all of them is a badly maintained pool. Your pool is transparent and blue as long as you take care of it.
As you begin to neglect the pool for a few days, the pool water turns a light shade of green. This is the beginning of the bacterial growth and signals that algae is starting to form.
As you neglect your pool even more, it begins to turn a darker shade of green. This is when the sanitizing chemicals in your pool are completely outnumbered and ineffective. Algae and other contaminants have overcome the defenses your chemicals pose.
As you neglect your pool even more, it turns to a green black-ish shade. At this point, you need professional help and will need to shell out a significant amount of money to return things to normal. Come summertime, neglecting your chlorine levels for even a day can spell disaster. Pollen, algae, metal oxidation, and pollution all play a part in turning your pool waters into green muck.
Is It Safe To Swim In Green Pool Water?
Algae are the super-foods of the ocean, feeding all kinds of underwater life forms. Algae can feed parasites, bacteria, and dangerous microbes. These microbes can infiltrate your body through your nose, ears, eyes, and mouth and cause serious infections. An algae-ridden pool is unsafe to enter, period.
There are certain circumstances where pollen can accumulate and cause a green hue in your pool. In these cases, it’s mostly a matter of discoloration and doesn’t imply an infestation of any kind. Pollen-hued pool waters are safe to enter as long as the person entering is free of allergies.
This Is How You Deal With A Green Pool
First, understand the reason why your pool has turned green. Inspect the pool with a pole. Since algae grows on the walls and floors first, using a pole to brush through the floors and walls can give you a good indication of how much algae there is.
The stronger the resistance you encounter, the more algae there is.
If you can’t see more than a few inches into the pool, then the algae has bloomed significantly and will require sufficient shock and algaecide.
If you can wave your hand over the affected area to cause a cloud of dust, that’s likely pollen you’re looking at. If the pool is green, yet you can see all the way to the bottom, it’s unlikely to be an algae issue. Oxidized metals can create a green hue while keeping the water fairly clear. Check the floors for stains as well. Metals are treated in a completely different manner than algae.
Go to your local pool store for a proper pool water test. The results will determine the approach you’ll need to take. Chances are, you’ll need to purchase a special shock cleaner with chlorine levels higher than 70% to do the job thoroughly.
Eliminating Algae
An algaecide combined with a shock treatment is the best way to remove algae growth.
Algae have a protective covering, which protects it from chlorine. You’ll need to break up the protective covering by either physically brushing the pool, or adding algaecide. Then you shock the pool by adding a significant amount of chlorine.
This process needs to be repeated over a series of days. Keep brushing and sanitizing the entire pool while letting the pump run to remove all the dead algae. Check your chlorine levels every single day. You want the chlorine levels to be anywhere from 1-3 parts per million.
Eliminating Pollen
A flocculant will allow the pollen in the water to aggregate, forming a floc.
This makes it possible for your filter to detect the fine grains of pollen and lets you catch them with the help of a skimmer you can use.
You’ll need a sock augmented skimmer to catch all the fine pollen particles in your pool.
Eliminating Metals
You need sequestrants to remove metals from your pool water. Sequestrants bind to metal ions dissolved in the water to prevent them from becoming stains on the surfaces. All sequestrants break down over time.
You’ll need to keep re-applying moreover a regular basis to replace what’s broken down. Once the sequestrant does its work, chemically clean your water or let the backwash take care of all of them.
Understand how the metals entered your pool to begin with. All waters contain metals and once they accumulate a certain amount, they begin to damage your pool. They can also enter via clothing and items your pool guests wear.
Eliminating Debris
You need to devote 15 minutes a day a few times a week to keep your pool clean. Regular maintenance is the simplest way to keep your pool clear blue. Prevention is always cheaper than the cure, after all.
Did you happen to purchase a fiberglass pool? Then you have a pool area that’s more resistant to algae breeds than either concrete or gunite pools. Dedicate your time to a quick vacuum of your entire pool, making sure to set the vacuum filter to “waste”. If you’re still unsure, get in contact with your local Brisbane Fibreglass Pool Installer.
Make sure to get the little crevices and nicks and crannies you’d easily miss, such as the gaps between the stairs. Then a good hard-bristle brush should be applied onto the entire pool surface area, which doubles as an excellent cardio workout. Always brush after vacuuming. A pool skimmer is great for some of the finer cleanings.
Once you’ve followed all the steps, your pool should now return to a shade of healthy blue.