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There’s so much you can enjoy from having a pool in your home. It’s one of the best places to cool off after a stressful day at the office as well as a perfect venue to play with your family and friends.

However, maintaining a swimming pool is not such an easy task. While inspecting your pool daily, you may find that algae have started growing in it or that the water has started getting cloudy.

Over time, you’ll find that your crystal-clear water has turned green. You’ll need to restore your pool to its sparkling best. So, in this article, I’ll guide you on how to clean a green swimming pool and the things to do to ensure that your pool doesn’t get green too quickly.

Why is Your Pool Green?

You’ll be asking this question if this is the first pool you own or the first time you’re living in a residential apartment with a swimming pool.

The major reason your swimming pool will turn green is due to an overgrowth of algae. And the following could be the reason for the overgrowth:

  1. Improper PH Balance: The PH level of your swimming pool should always be balanced. Too low will erode pool materials and cause eye irritation. Too high, on the other hand, and it won’t be able to kill bacteria or algae. In both cases, you’re prone to have discolored water.
  2. Clogged filter: If you have a bad filter, you’ll have issues with keeping your water clean. A filter that’s not working well will breed algae and bacteria, and introduce debris that will discolor your pool water.
  3. Weather Change: Warm, humid weather is the perfect breeding condition for algae. Hence, you’ll need to pay extra attention to cleaning your pool in warm weather.

What You Need to Clean a Green Swimming Pool

When you’ve gotten down to cleaning your green swimming pool, you’ll need a filter system, pool chemicals, and you (of course).

There’s hardly an effective automated way of cleaning your green swimming pool. Human effort is always needed and depending on how swampy green your pool is, it will take time and money to bring back your swimming pool to its ocean blue color.

Step-by-step Guide on How to Clean a Green Swimming Pool

If you’ve got all you need to clean your green swimming pool, let’s get started with the cleaning.

Step One – Decision-making: Should You Drain Your Pool?

Before you decide to drain your pool because it’s green, know whether the situation can be helped without draining. Check how “greenish” the water is by peering into it. If you can see close to the bottom of the pool or up to eight inches into the water, then you don’t need to drain your pool. Treat it with chemicals. If, on the other hand, it’s way too green to see anything, you’ll need to drain the pool and wash it with acid.

Step Two – Check the pH Level of Your Pool

The normal pH level of a clear pool is around 7.2 to 7.6. If your pool water is green, the level of chlorine in it is very low, don’t bother testing for that. What you need to do is reduce the pH level of the pool because it’s probably high. However, test the pH level first so you can know the extent to which you should lower the pH level of the pool.

Step Three – Increase Free Chlorine Level

Free chlorine level tells the amount of chlorine that is keeping your pool water disinfected. The normal level it should be is from 1 to 3 ppm (parts per million). Remember that we said your chlorine level is really low if your water is green. You’ll have to increase the free chlorine level through shocking. When shocking your pool, chlorinate the water to get up to 30 ppm, as this will destroy the algae completely. However, don’t use the pool until the free chlorine level is back to the normal level.

Step Four – Filter Your Pool

When you shock your pool, you kill the algae in it. After killing them, you’ll have to get rid of them by filtering the pool. You’ll need to clean your filter a couple of times in the process, irrespective of the filter you’re using. Leave your filter to run for a full day, while cleaning it between intervals. Afterward, thoroughly wash your pool and resume the process until you achieve a clear pool.

Step Five – Extra Measure: Flocculate

Although shocking the pool will kill off the algae, you may still want to use algaecide as well as flocculate the pool. Flocullution gathers the dead algae into a fluffy mass that can easily float on the water, making the filtering process easy. The reason you want to take this extra measure is so that the residual dead algae skipped by filtering doesn’t bloom again.

How to Prevent Your Pool from Getting Green

To prevent your pool from getting green, inspect your pool daily for at least ten minutes.

Do the following:

  • Look for signs of algae growth
  • Check the chlorine levels and make adjustments to your pool water when necessary.
  • Check your skimmer net for stuck vegetation and dead insects.
  • Backwash your filter if your pool water looks a little cloudy.
  • Check your pool’s pH level to ensure they are in the right range.

Need Extra Help?

If these seem like something you can’t handle or something that can’t fit into your busy schedule, leave it for the professionals. Peoria Swimming Pool Pros are your go-to swimming pool service contractors. We are the best in Illinois if you’re looking for an experienced service provider to regularly clean and prevent your pool from turning green.

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