Cloudy Pool Water & Algae Problems

Your pool water may be giving you some symptoms that it is not healthy, and requires some attention. The first key to restoring your pool water is to test it. We also recommend using phosphate testing strips if you are finding the pool difficult to treat.

Here are the most common pool water symptoms:

Cloudy Water

If your pool is looking cloudy, and you are having trouble seeing the bottom of the pool, then you may have a pH problem. High pH and high total alkalinity tend to cause cloudy water. If the pH is above 7.6 it should be lowered to 7.2 - 7.6 with dry acid.

Another cause of cloudy pools is inadequate filtration. In this case, the filter may need cleaning or backwashing. This should be part of your regularly pool maintenance schedule - but if it has been a while, then you should test your pool levels and clean your filter.

Green pool or black spots from algae

Algae are widely regarded as a pest organism in swimming pools and enter the pool from rain, wind and dust. Although not directly harmful to people, dead algae cells do provide food that can sustain more harmful organisms. Algal photosynthesis also causes chlorine in your pool to be consumed more rapidly, reducing the chlorine available in your pool to kill other harmful organisms. Long filtration times are required to remove algae from the pool water and the algal cells are often the main component of the rubbish that blocks filters, requiring them to be backwashed more frequently. Even small amounts of algae can make a pool look cloudy and unclean.

Some types of algae exist suspended in your pool water, however, most algae form green-black spots on the walls and floor of the pool. The latter type builds a protective barrier of impervious wax around itself. Chlorine is prevented from entering into the barrier and therefore cannot kill the algal colonies. One of the active ingredients of algaecide will break down this protective coating, allowing chlorine and the other ingredients to kill the algae. Treatment of very bad cases of pool algae involves the owner scrubbing the top layers of dead algae off alga clumps; therefore exposing the algae, which can then be affected by the algaecide and chlorine.

The top two ways to remove pool algae is to use chlorine or algaecide. If your algae is the result of high phosphate levels, then we recommend using a Phosphate remover/starver

Phosphate removers starve the nutrients - pts that feed the algae phosphate. Growing algae feed on the phosphate in pool water and dead algae release phosphate back into the water. By removing the phosphate from your water with a starver, existing algae will be starved of food.

Eye Irritation

Although eye irritation is commonly blamed on an excess of chlorine in the water, it usually results from too little free available chlorine and too much-combined chlorine. Super chlorination will eliminate the combined chlorine and convert all the chlorine present into free available chlorine - in the process nitrogen compounds called chloramines, which are the main cause of eye irritation will be destroyed. Also, low total alkalinity (a common problem) can cause this. Your water can become very corrosive. You can easily fix this issue by adding Buffer to your pool

Strong Odours

Strong odours, usually like chlorine, are closely associated with burning eyes. The cause is likely to be the same, insufficient free available chlorine in the water. These odours are caused by chloramines. The cure is to super chlorinate with Granular Chlorine or Stabilized Chlorine to ensure that all the combined chlorine is present as free available chlorine.

UV (ultra-violet) radiation is a form of energy emitted by the sun. Just as high doses of UV can cause severe burns and skin cancers, UV radiation also has debilitating effects on unstabilised chlorine in pool water. Just as you protect your skin with suntan creams, it is also possible to protect the chlorine in pool water from the effects of the sun's harmful rays. Pool Sunscreen will protect your water from UV radiation, and give your chlorine a longer life.

The active ingredient of a pool stabilizer is cyanuric acid, which attaches itself to a portion of the active chlorine, preventing it from being destroyed by the UV radiation. This greatly reduces chlorine loss and ensures that the outdoor pool owner will save money on sanitiser in the future. In a saltwater pool, the chlorine output on the saltwater chlorinator may be reduced, allowing for a greater cell life! A pool "stabilised" in this way typically requires half the amount of chlorine compared to "unstabilised" pools.