Keeping Your Pool Algae Free
It is the time of year when some customers run into algae issues. There are several contributing causes:
1. Low pH water will oxidize chlorine much quicker than pool water properly balanced. The rate can be dramatic—twice as fast, or even more. With low pH, it’s hard to keep any chlorine in the water.
2. Low stabilizer. Hey—it’s hot out there and the sun is bright. Without proper stabilizer levels, you will burn through chlorine. Stabilizer, also know as conditioner, is intrinsic to having clear water as it helps ‘hold’ chlorine in the water. Without proper levels you are destined to have a green pool. Low stabilizer=No chlorine? Algae will bloom.
As the water temperature rises, your chlorine need will grow. For every 10 degrees of water temperature rise, beginning with water temperature of about 70 degrees, you will need about 25% more chlorine in the water. Quite simply, chlorine gasses off at high rates as the water heats up. Right now, most pools have water temperatures in the high 80’s or even into the low 90’s. Pools with a water temperature of 90 degrees will need 50% more chlorine than when the water was just getting comfortable back in late April or early May. Adjust accordingly.
A Scientific Look At Algae And Carbon Dioxide
Most of us look at algae as a horrible, disgusting, pain-in-the-neck that can easily ruin a summer. While this is, at times, true, we also need to remember that it is just a plant. As a science teacher, I love to take moments like this to refresh our brains on some scientific processes. The one I’d like to focus on this time is Photosynthesis.
Water + Carbon Dioxide + Sunlight à Glucose (sugar = plant food) + Oxygen
Swimming pools have all three necessary ingredients readily available for plants to be able to create their own food, and therefore, live. Water? Check (duh). Carbon Dioxide? Check (thank anything that breathes for that). Sunlight? Check (hopefully!). Plants, like all forms of algae, use those things to create glucose, for their food, and produce oxygen as a wonderful and necessary byproduct. Now, if we remove one of the necessary elements needed for Photosynthesis to occur, algae cannot survive. A new product that we have on the scene will do just that. Our new Tri-Tech tabs, and other coordinating chemicals, contain Sodium Tetra-Borates. Basically, as you use these chemicals, the Borates will build up in your water, ridding it of carbon dioxide. Without the carbon dioxide, algae cannot thrive. What’s the best way to quickly build up your Borate level, you ask? Well, the best way to accomplish this is to use the Pro-Team Supreme! While the initial dosage of 2 lbs. per 1,000 gallons is a little overwhelming, once you add it to your pool water, it will only come out through dilution or splash out. Because Pro-Team Supreme is just straight-up Borates with no additional chemicals, it will immediately spike your level, leading to less of a need for chlorine and an algae-free summer! This stuff is so good, even Disney World uses it to keep all of their pools algae free (without having to use as much of that harsh chlorine). Stop into Eastgate Pools today to ask us more about this new product, and remember, science is all around you!
Algae Infested Pools And Chuck Norris
…Continuing my movie and actor related blogs…
It is the time of year where we get some customers that come in to get water tested. (It’s a free service here at Eastgate Pools & Spas!) Unfortunately, some of our customers have pools that have algae in them and want to know how to get rid of it. Well, if the pool was maintained by Chuck Norris, he’d simply walk up to the pool, scare the %#@* out of the algae, and it would go flying off to the neighbor’s pool, thankful to still be alive and free of the “Wrath of Chuck”. But chances are, Chuck Norris isn’t available for an algae exorcism on your pool. So…just bring us a sample of your pool’s water and let us run it through our state-of-the-art testing station. We are happy to get you back on the right path to clean clear, sparkling water. –Max
