Cleaning a Very Dirty Pool

Vacuum

Since leaves have a tendency to accumulate in the center of the pool floor, start the cleaning exercise by attacking that area first. Place your pole and vacuum-head in that area with the filter system on waste and slowly begin to vacuum. Observe the waste product to see if you are in fact getting major amounts of debris out of the pool. Continue the process until either you run out of leaves or water. Refill the pool with fresh water and continue if necessary until you remove all of the material.

Test

It is time to find out what the water chemistry is like. Take a sample of water and test the alkalinity and pH. Over the course of the next few days, you will be doing more testing, but these tests are good enough for now. Your alkalinity needs to be between 80-120 ppm, which stands for parts per million. Continue adding alkalinity increaser in increments and retest until you achieve the proper level. Now, using the latest pH reading, make adjustments as necessary to have your pH within the 7.2-7.6 range on the pH scale.

Treat

The first step in treatment should be brushing the pool walls to rid them of any algae growing on them. Algae grows in layers, so by brushing, you are removing all of the layers. Adding chlorine without brushing will kill the top layers, but not the algae underneath, so brushing is an important step toward success. Next, with the pump and filter running, triple shock the pool with a high percentage chlorine shock. Add the initial dose of a concentrated algaecide. Keep watching your pressure gauge because dead algae appearing as white material should start appearing on the surface of the pool. If pressure raises higher than when you began by 8-10 ppi, which is pounds per square inch, backwash the filter and continue.

Other Things To Do

Continue to shock, filter, backwash, refill, retest and retreat chemical balance adding a calcium hardness test toward the end and then adding hardness as called for. When the pool clears vacuum any remaining debris, brush any missed spots on the walls and possibly change the sand in your filter. The sand is good for three to five years, but may have a layer of algae built up in it that will keep your water cloudy or bloom and turn it green.

Special Problems

Water from wells or springs can sometimes have large amounts of calcium in it, and since there is no calcium hardness decreaser, the only alternative is to drain about 40 percent of the pool water and refill it from another source with lower calcium. Another problem occurs if pool water has been in the pool for years, an increased number of particles become suspended in the water. When the maximum boundary of particle suspension happens, new particles begin to cloud the water. Total dissolved solids is its name and your local pool dealer can check for it, or you can test for it yourself with the proper test kit. Phosphates are a problem also and there are products available to neutralize them. Again, you can test for phosphate levels with the proper test kit.