Can You Swim In A Pool With Cloudy Water
If you suspect that the cloudiness is caused by a lack of chlorine, avoid using the pool until the water has cleared. The bacteria and algae causing the cloudiness in the water can be harmful if ingested and can make you sick.
If your water does have a good chlorine level however you can most likely swim in a cloudy pool. If the pool has a chlorine level above 1ppm the cloudiness is almost always related to filtration or poor water balance. In this case the cloudiness is caused by harmless minerals and other fine particulate.
How To Clear Up A Cloudy Pool Water Using Clarifier Summary
For those wanting a quick fix, heres a summary of how to clear a cloudy pool using liquid clarifier or clarifier tablets.And detailed instructions can be found further in this article.
You can pick up pool clarify here.
How Long Should It Take To Clear A Cloudy Pool
Without knowing the cause of the cloudiness, it isnt easy to give a specific answer on how fast it will clear up. For most of the issues we have mentioned, it shouldnt take more than 2-3 days before water appears back to normal.
Flocculant will only need about 8-16 hours to work its way through the water, gathering large clumps of debris. On the other hand, clarifier takes 2-3 days to run its cycle. Shocking is a 24-hour process, and if poor filtration is the culprit, you will still need to allow the filter to run for 12 hours after cleaning it up.
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Why Cant I Get My Pool Water Clear
by swatms | Jun 6, 2019 | Pool Maintenance
One of the most common questions we get during this time of year is: Why is my pool still cloudy? Why cant I get my pool water clear? When you are a pool owner, you want your pool to be ready at any time for swimmers. You want your water to be clean and clear and problem-free. Sadly, there is no magical pool fairy that will come and clear your water. However, here are some suggestions if you have a cloudy pool.
Run The Filter For 24 Hours A Day
Once the pool is disinfected and cleared of bacteria, you can start filtering the water. After all, its filled with chlorine and small debris leftover. Turn on your filter 24 hours a day, and backwash a couple of times throughout the day. Remember, you cannot overclean your pool backwash and clear your filter as many times as possible for an effective cleaning process.
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How To Quickly Fix Your Cloudy Swimming Pool Water
No sane person will want to jump into a pool filled with cloudy pool water, more so when the water resembles a big bowl of milk! This type of water is not only scary, but theres a possibility that it might be damaging the pool as well as its circulation system. If left untreated for long, it may also start breeding dangerous bacteria.
Before you can start implementing solutions aimed at clearing the swimming pool water, you will want to know what caused it to turn cloudy. Its the most efficient way to prevent the outbreak and spread of potentially serious illnesses. Additionally, it also ensures your pool wont sustain too much damage. Solutions recommended for use are dependent on the underlying cause.
Can I Make A Homemade Pool Clarifier
Luckily, you can make a natural homemade pool clarifier to clear your cloudy pool water. Unlike commercial chemical clarifiers, homemade clarifiers are cheaper and have enzymes that break down dirt and debris, making it easy to filter them out. Homemade pool clarifiers include bleach, lemon juice, baking soda solution, borax, and rubbing alcohol.
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What’s The Difference Between Free Chlorine Combined Chlorine And Total Chlorine
Free chlorine refers to the available chlorine that can sanitize your water. It differs from “combined chlorine,” which is chlorine that has already been used up, oxidized, or diluted with the ammonia and nitrogen compounds in the water. Unlike free chlorine, combined chlorine is ineffective after disinfecting and killing microorganisms. Total chlorine is the sum of free chlorine and combined chlorine.
Will Baking Soda Clear Up A Cloudy Pool
The answer to this question is absolutely, yes! If the cloudy pool water problem is being caused by the water in your swimming pool having a lower than recommended pH and Alkalinity.
Baking soda when added to a swimming pool always adds to the pH and Alkalinity of any swimming pool in incremental amounts. How much baking soda you need to add to a swimming pool to balance its pH and Alkalinity will be discussed next.
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Tips For Preventing A Green Swimming Pool
Once you get rid of the green pool water, take the steps necessary to prevent a green swimming pool from happening again. Chances are you dont want to go through these steps again, they arent for the faint of heart!
Use these tips to prevent algae from building up in your pool again:
- Keep up With Pool Maintenance A clean pool means a lower risk of algae growth. Dont just skim your pool, scrub your pool walls and vacuum the floor at least weekly, especially if you notice light green pool water. This prevents the buildup of debris and algae and ensures you dont end up with green pool water.
- Stay on Top of the Filters Check your filter cartridge often. Is it clean residual residue and pool algae? Is it running properly? Water left to sit without filtering will easily build up algae. Check the filter for debris and clean it as often as necessary to ensure its running smoothly.
- Keep the pH Levels Stable Stay on top of your pools pH levels. Check them three times a week. Adjust the pH levels as necessary, keeping them within optimal range of 7.4 to 7.6.
- Check Chlorine Levels Always make sure your pool has the right amount of chlorine . Adjust accordingly to ensure your pool remains algae free.
- Cover Your Pool Its a pain, but always covering your pool limits algae growth. It keeps debris out of the pool when no one is using it. Plus, it keeps the hot sun out of the pool, which can encourage algae growth if the pool water temperature changes quickly.
What Filter Systems Can I Use With Pool Clarifiers
You can use pool clarifiers with sand and cartridge filters as they can pass particles that make your pool water cloudy. There is no need to use a clarifier if you have a DE filter since polymer clarifiers can clog the filter grids. However, you can use a chitin-based clarifier like Ultra-Clear with your DE filter.
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Shock The Pool Regularly
As a pool owner, youve likely shocked your pool a number of times in the past.
But exactly how often you shock your pool is important:
- Do it too much and you might get chlorine lock
- Dont do it enough and the effectiveness of your other pool chemicals will suffer
So whats the magic number then?
How often should you shock your pool?
Shock your pool once per week. This keeps your sanitizer levels stable, which keeps your pool cleaner.
Its also wise to shock the water after heavy use, pool parties, or storms to prevent surprise algae takeovers.
Brown Pool Water After Shocking
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means that at no cost to you, we may earn a small commission for qualifying purchases.
A lot of things can be frustrating when your pool is not well-taken care of, from pool stains to having colorful water. Unfortunately, these things only occur when you ignore your pools minor regular maintenance, which becomes significantly evident over time.
Brown pool water is something most owners must have experienced, especially after shocking your pool. How does this come about, and does it render your pool useless? Of course not! But something was done wrong that led to it, and knowing the exact thing you did prior to the colour change will help ascertain the root cause of the problem.
Lets go back to when you decided to shock your pool. Do you think you must have used the wrong chemical or used your shocking product contrary to the manufacturers instructions?
Well, lets skip all these and move down to why your pool water turned brown after shocking and also get you acquainted with how to remove brown water from your pool.
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What About Saltwater Pools
Many people think that saltwater pools are cloudier than chlorine pools. However, that is not the case. Your saltwater pool should be just a clear as a chlorinated pool. The water is usually a different color than a chlorine pool, however. If your saltwater pool is cloudy, your first job is to check the chemicals. Often with a saltwater pool, there is too much calcium, which causes the pool to cloud up.
How Do I Make My Pool Water Crystal Clear
How do I get clear swimming pool water? The question has been around for decades. Answers vary from adding more chemicalseither to shock, floc or clarify the waterto swapping out filters. Does adding all that stuff really work? Keep reading for the answers!
Chlorine, flocculent, and clarifier help correct one issue, but their effectiveness can vary depending on pH, chloramines, temperature, phosphates, CYA and . . . well you get the idea. Maybe you can just keep dumping more chlorine! But that can lead to an endless loop of additives. So you are left wondering: what really works to get the pool water clear?
Does Chlorine Keep Pool Water Clear?
Chlorine serves a vital purpose in keeping swimming pool water clean and healthy. In theory, if you have a cloudy swimming pool, you can add chlorine to shock it and clear things up. Chlorine will get the job done. But, the amounts may vary and you may have to really pound the pool with chlorine to get the water totally clear.
The environment and weather can also play a factor in how chlorine affects water clarity. If youve got a lot of contaminants in the pooldebris, leaves, and buildup of hair, suntan lotions, etc.the chlorine gets kept busy with all that junk instead of sanitizing.
And then it can get tied up by binding with other compounds in the water, creating chloramines and reducing free available chlorine. Essentially this means you now have less chlorine to keep the water clear and safe.
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I Have Cloudy Pool Water: What Is Going On
It can be quite alarming when you head outside, ready to take a dip in your pool, only to notice that your pool water is cloudy. What went wrong, and what can you do to fix it? Can you still swim in cloudy pool water? And, perhaps most importantly, how can you keep your water crystal clear going forward?
Quite simply, cloudiness means that your pool is dirty. Whether its because of organic matter or bacteria, youll want to resolve the problem before getting in, as its generally not hygienic nor safe to swim in a pool that is murky. The first step to clearing up your cloudy pool is figuring out the cause of the problem. A pool professional will likely tell you that there are a few reasons that this would be happening.
Proactive Final Step: Kill And Flocc
You may also want to consider adding a few things here to help the process. An algaecide, which also kills algae, and a flocculant added after a couple of hours of the chlorine circulating. You can also wait until you are pretty sure you got all of them, to be sure.
At this point, the extra steps may not seem worth it. However, if you still have any algae that you missed, it could bloom again fairly quickly. You dont want that.
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Cause #: Circulation & Filtration Issues
Pool water that isnt being properly circulated is always at risk of becoming cloudy water.
Thats because circulation pushes your pool water through your filter system, so without it, the filter cant work its magic and keep your water squeaky clean.
There are a few moving parts to this, so lets go through them.
Is Your Pump Powerful Enough?
A pool pump is a core part of your filtration system as it cycles your water through the filter in order to remove debris and maintain circulation, this prevents the water from stagnating which eventually breeds other problems.
With that in mind, you need to make sure your pump has the ability to cycle the entire contents of your pool at least once per day. Whats more, youll need a pump that can complete a turnover in an 8 hour period.
The speed at which a pump completes a turnover is based on two factors:
Note: Flow-rate tells you how many gallons of water pass through the pump each minute, and its appropriately measured in gallons per minute .
To properly size your pump, divide your water volume by 8, then divide again by 60. What youre left with is your pools required turnover rate in GPM. The flow-rate of your pool pump should be at least the same.
Is Your Pump Suited To Your Filter?
You wouldnt put all that effort into correctly sizing your pool pump only to neglect your pool filter, would you?
Are You Maintaining Your Equipment?
Get Your Water Tested
That’s where a pool water testing kit can come in handy.
A testing kit lets you measure a variety of factors that affect the quality of your water so that you can balance your water.
Usually, you have two options when it comes to testing your pool’s water.
You can purchase test strips, which you dip into a water sample to measure pH, chlorine, total alkalinity and calcium hardness.
Remember that high alkalinity, high pH, and high calcium hardness can cause cloudy water.
Another option is to purchase a kit that includes reagents, which you add to the water. The reagents cause the water to turn colors based on the chlorine present or the pH level.
Whatever type of test method you use, it’s important to source the water from your pool correctly.
A good idea is to pull a sample of water from 18 inches below the surface. It’s also ideal to catch your water in the morning before the sun has had a chance to burn off any chlorine.
If there is a problem with the chlorine, pH or other chemical levels in your pool, adjusting those levels can be enough to correct the cloudiness.
For example, if your pool water is too basic, you can add hydrochloric acid or sodium hydrogen sulfate to lower the pH.
If the water is too acidic, you can use sodium carbonate to raise the pH.
Be sure to also use chlorine stabilizer to protect your chlorine levels.
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Start By Taking A Free Chlorine Reading And Balancing It
The first and most common cause of cloudy water is low free chlorine levels. Low free chlorine indicates you have chloramine that turns water cloudy, smells more of chlorine, and cannot sanitize your pool water by killing harmful germs and bacteria causing algae and ammonia.
As such, if your pool water is cloudy, the first thing you should do is to measure your free or combined chlorine you can get the value of combined chlorine by deducting the value of FC from Total Chlorine.
If you have your FC below 3 ppm or combined chlorine above 0.5 ppm, whether it’s a saltwater or non-saltwater pool, FC is low and you need to shock your swimming pool immediately to fix cloudy water and kill bacteria before you get algae or ammonia in your pool.
If you have a saltwater pool and it’s cloudy, the damage is already done and raising the percentage setting in your saltwater chlorine generator or your pump’s run-time will not help much in clearing cloudy water. You have to shut down your SWCG and shock your saltwater pool manually using harsh chlorine just like non-saltwater pools.
A Great Home Remedy For Cloudy Pool Water
Why is it important to keep your pH and Alkalinity properly adjusted? We have already told you that it causes your pool water to turn cloudy at times if your pH and Alkalinity are out of balance.
It has other negative consequences too. Most notably, if your swimming water is too alkaline or too acidic, that pool water will hurt your eyes as you swim and it will damage your pool filtration equipment over time also. So when your pool water pH and Alkalinity are to the low side, then baking soda offers an easy solution to this problem.
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The Cause Of Cloudy Pool Water
The cause of your cloudy water is easily determined by the color of your pool. If the water takes on a green or yellowish color, your problem is very likely algae. The easiest way to treat algae is to use a calcium hypochlorite treatment, or in simple terms, using a pool shock.
Take a look at our article on how to remove algae to help treat your case of pool algae.
If your water takes on a colorless or white-ish cloudiness, your problem may be chemical. Test your pool water using test strips to find which chemical is causing the issue.
