14 May Why Does My Pool Keep Turning Green?–Causes and Remedies
Reasons Your Pool Keeps Turning Green
There’s nothing better than dipping your toes in a pool on a hot Summer’s day. The bright blue water is inviting you to take a dip and enjoy the fresh clean waters to escape the heat. While your swimming pool should be a place of entertainment and enjoyment, sadly many people think otherwise. Their pool keeps turning green and they don’t know why! Before they know it, Summer is over and they haven’t been able to dip in their pool at all.
Why does your pool keep turning green? There are several possible reasons but it usually boils down to two. In order:
- There is not enough chlorine in your pool
- The pool is not circulating well
Believe it or not, that’s generally it. Chemicals must be balanced properly to support sanitization of the pool, and pool equipment must function properly.
Pool maintenance is required throughout the year and especially while water temperatures are above 65F. Keep reading for more details on each problem.
#1: Improper Chemistry
I’ve heard the story over and over again: “I cannot kick this algae out of my pool! I’ve brought my water in to get tested, I’ve bought all the chemicals, and I’ve used them just as the store told me to!”
The goal of algae treatment is to kill the algae faster than it can reproduce. You can add hundreds of dollars worth of chlorine to a pool over time, but if it isn’t in high enough doses any algae you kill will simply be replaced with new algae, often before the sun goes down.
Algae reproduce quickly, and it takes a lot more chlorine than you would think to kill it fast enough to overcome this. 9 times out of 10, the store simply isn’t recommending enough chlorine to do the job. They don’t really have the data to be able to–accurate pool volume figures, severity and type of algae, condition and setup of the pool equipment all play a factor in determining how to treat the algae in your pool.
Furthermore, several of the other chemical parameters that professionals test for are vital in supporting Chlorine’s role as a sanitizer, chief among them being Cyanuric Acid, or “stabilizer”. This binds with chlorine to protect it from being destroyed by the UV rays in sunlight and without it, a pool would lose almost all of its chlorine in less than 5 hours. If this is too low, much of the chlorine you do add will simply be destroyed before it ever has a chance to kill algae.
Proper knowledge of these things, and on site application and treatment by experienced pool techs can actually save quite a bit of money on an algae treatment despite the labor costs involved, and we hear almost every time from new clients that they wish they would have called us in the beginning instead of wasting time and money on remote store recommendations.
If you’d like to avoid the hassle of learning the science behind it all or would just rather get back into your pool sooner rather than later, Contact us today!
#2: Poor circulation/equipment failure
The second reason we often see trouble getting rid of algae or keeping it from coming back has to do with the pools ability to get the chemistry we talked about above where it needs to go. Anything that impedes a pools circulation system from doing its job can make algae more likely and most often this is a dirty filter.
Sand and DE filters need to be backwashed frequently: for some pools with sand filters this can be as often as once a week but both types of filters need to be backwashed at least once a month. This cleans the sand bed or DE grids and makes room for more debris. If not done, the filter will become overloaded, impeding flow.
During algae treatment, backwashing must be done even more frequently–sometimes as much as daily depending on how much debris it is catching–until the algae is completely gone.
Cartridge filters different in that they cannot be backwashed and must be manually cleaned. However, they tend to hold much more debris than the other two types of filter and if sized correctly they can be cleaned as infrequently as every six months–though it is important to clean them when they get full whether its been six months since the last clean or not–go by pressures, not by time.
Other causes of poor circulation are clogged pumps or plumbing, full skimmer baskets, or improper or failed valves at the equipment pad and more. Experienced techs should be able to identify and correct the issue rather quickly.
If you think your chemicals are ok, or suspect something is up with your equipment there is a high chance that one of these issues is the reason algae has been difficult to treat. Integrity Pools Tulsa can diagnose and correct all the above issues, and we will make sure that the chemicals in your pool are balanced correctly and equipment working as it should!
Frequently Asked Questions
How Often Should I Clean My Pool?
Clean Out Skimmer Filters At Least Once a Week
One part of your pool’s filter system to be aware of is the skimmer filters. You may come across these while you’re swimming; they are filters set at the water’s surface level to catch and capture debris that floats on the surface of the water. These skimmer filters usually catch ants, bugs, leaves, and other things that may float in your pool.
If you have a pool, check your skimmer filters weekly to ensure they are working properly. You’ll also want to clean out any debris that the filter may have captured to keep water circulating properly.
Check Pool Chemistry Once a Week
At the peak of the swimming season, you should be checking the chemistry of your pool at least once a week but twice a week is more ideal. To maintain safe and balanced chemistry in your pool, testing and adjustments should be made as often as possible.
In the colder months when your pool isn’t being used, you can limit your pool chemistry testing to once or twice a month. However, it’s important to maintain testing even in the months you don’t use the pool–Chemical imbalance can and will damage your pool surface and equipment over time, sometimes shortening their lifespans by decades.
Integrity Pool Service provides year-round weekly pool maintenance in Tulsa as well as repair and Chemistry only visits to keep your pool healthy and safe. With years of experience, we provide a premier service and treat your pool as if it were our own. Contact us here if you need your pool serviced today!