How to Address Algae Problems in Your Swimming Pool

Save the green for your grass, your pool should be free of algae - here's how!

Things You'll Need

• Pool Scrub Brush
• Old Pairs of White Socks
• Algaecide

Instructions

1. Algae comes in many colors, but the outcome is always the same, a disaster either in the making or one that has bloomed already!
   To avoid outbreaks of algae in the hot summer you need to be true to your pool maintenance schedule. In fact, if it is really hot, you should probably shorten the time between your regular maintenance efforts.
   The old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure really applies to this subject.
   If you keep your water balanced and sanitized properly, filtered at least 8 hours a day, and perform weekly vacuuming you still have one thing to do and that is to add a preventative dose of algaecide to your water on a weekly basis.
   Get a strong algaecide that is at least a 50% concentrated solution and stick to the weekly manufacturer's recommended dosage. That little bit of potent algaecide will be diluted in all of your pool water and will not harm anyone once it is allowed to be dispersed in the water.

2. If you happen to miss a treatment and algae begins to form on the bottom or the sides of the pool, you've got a problem that must be resolved quickly.
   Do not wait another day, but rather get the kids, the neighbors and anyone else you can muster and have a fast cleaning party. Give everyone clean white socks for their feet and their hands and have them get into the pool.
   Once in, they should begin to run their hands over as much of the sides of the walls as they can get to. They should drag their feet over the floor of the pool, paying special attention to problem areas where algae has either already formed or usually forms first.
   If you let this go until the next day, that algae could bloom and your entire pool could look like pea soup before too long.
   Use a pool scrub brush on extra stubborn spots if you can. The object of the exercise is to get all of the algae off of the walls and floor, sort of free-swimming if you will. Algae forms on top of each other and builds up layer upon layer much like the pages of a book. If you try to treat it with algaecide while it's still firmly in place on your pool walls and floor, then the algaecide is only going to kill the top layers. The algae underneath will still be alive and will be protected by the now dead algae covering it.
   That's why we need to dislodge all of it to have a truly effective kill.

3. Once you've loosened all of the algae, have everyone leave the pool and with the filter system circulating, put several doses of algaecide into the water. Some pool owners put a pair of pantyhose over their skimmer basket at this point to try and trap the dead algae before it reaches their filter media, like their sand for example. they keep cleaning the dead algae from the pantyhose and then re-wrap the skimmer basket and circulate some more.
   As evening approaches, triple shock the pool with a high percentage chlorine shock, not some 2% solution! Check the label on the bag of shock to see how potent it is.
   You waited until the sun was about ready to go down before putting all of that chlorine shock into the water because the sun will just pull that shock out of the pool before it has had a chance to sanitize and help kill the algae.
   This sounds crazy, but it's a war! A war between you and your diligence versus an army of micro-organisms controlled by the environment whose only goal is to thrive and reproduce.

4. The best way to gain control of your pool is to never relinquish it in the first place. Sometimes things happen though that are out of our control. When that happens, we need to act quickly and effectively as I have discussed. Remember, your supposed to be enjoying your pool, not be having a daily wrestling match with it!

Tips & Warnings

• If you use sanitizing systems other than chlorine, then consult that manufacturer or their representative to find their best solution for your algae bloom.

• Never mix products. Chemicals that are designed to work with a chlorine based pool, more than likely, will not work with a biguanide or other sanitizing agents' system. Always check with their experts that you are not creating some type of glop that will render the pool unusable.