We all love to see spring and summer arriving. Temperatures rising and now we get to swim, or do we? What happened? The pool is green, slimy and completely disgusting. What is that smell? Pool algae!
What is Algae?
Algae is a unicellular or multicellular organism formerly classified as plants, occurring in fresh or saltwater or moist ground, that have chlorophyll and other pigments but lack true stems, roots, and leaves. Algae, which are now regarded as protoctists, include the seaweeds, diatoms, and spirogyra.
Why do I get algae?
Algae is a living organism. Like most plants, it needs sunlight, water, carbon dioxide and food. Your pool and spa are perfect places to grow. I will get into the food a little later. You open your pool and its Green, what next. In some cases, you try what you feel is the right way to kill algae, call a pool professional. They will say shock and put an algaecide into your pool. That should work. I have heard different theories, from pool owners and pool professionals. In both cases, fortunately and/or unfortunately I’ve heard good and bad advice. When your pool and/or hot tub is balanced, in most cases there is no algae. When it rains, if you have a lot of bathers or any other outside factor that could change that perfect balance & algae could take hold and grow.
You cleaned up your pool and it seems like a constant battle to keep the algae from blooming. Sunlight and warmer temperatures we love, water is refreshing, trees release carbon dioxide due to the respiration of the living cells, the only thing we have left is algae’s food, which is phosphates. Let’s starve it. Algae loves phosphates. Its like adding miracle grow to your flowers. We need to remove the phosphates. Once we remove the phosphates, the food algae has a real hard time growing.
Phosphates get into your pool different ways and you won’t be able to stop them. They come from rain, air, landscapers spraying yards, farmers spraying fields and some pool and spa chemicals. When you buy inferior chemicals, this can add to your problems. I will cover inferior chemicals in another blog but we don’t recommend buying inferior chemicals online, at Lowe’s, Home Depot, Wal-mart, Redners etc. You are only asking for additional issues!
If you need help with an algae bloom or pool chemistry please contact us.