The biggest threat to a crystal clear swimming experience in your backyard oasis is contaminants. Things like algae, dirt, metals, chloramines, and bacteria naturally accumulate in your pool over time. As contaminants accumulate they make your pool’s water appear cloudy or hazy. Depending on how much they’ve accumulated, they can even make swimming in your own pool physically unpleasant. With a few tips from your local poolside experts though, keeping your pool crystal clear all year long is a breeze.
Essential Pool Maintenance for Crystal Clear Water
- Monitor your pool’s balance: Knowing the state of your pool’s chemical balance is key to keeping it clean and clear. In particular, it’s important to test your pool’s pH and alkalinity balance as well as the free chlorine level once every week. Checking calcium hardness monthly is also crucial to maintaining hygiene. For the best experience, it’s important to maintain a pH level of 7.2 – 7.6, an alkalinity level of 125 – 150 ppm, a chlorine level between 1.0 – 4.0 ppm, and a calcium hardness between 200 – 400 ppm.
- Shock your pool, especially after it rains: Unfortunately, monitoring your pool’s chemical levels isn’t always enough to keep things balanced. Which is why we recommend shocking your pool once a week. Especially after stormy weather and rain. Regularly shocking your pool will get rid of a lot of potential contaminants before they become an issue, which makes keeping your pool clean that much easier.
- Circulate your pool water: An easy method to keep your pool clear is to ensure smooth water circulation. Bacteria has a harder time growing in moving water, so checking on your pool’s pump and running it for at least 8 hours a day can go a long way to a more hygienic pool. Keeping any jets pointed down can also help improve circulation if your pump can’t quite cut it.
- Keep it clean: A clean pool is a clear pool. One of the best ways to keep your pool crystal clear is through regular cleanings. Dirt, debris, and particles can all cause cloudy pool water or even throw off its chemical balance. Checking your pool filter, investing in an automatic cleaner, and manually removing large bits of debris helps cut down on the time spent maintaining your pool. It can also help to pop a few tennis balls into your pool every once in a while. Tennis balls can catch some of the smaller particles in your pool’s water before they have a chance to grow bacteria or algae, preventing some of the most common causes for cloudy water.
- Add a water clarifier: If you’ve tried everything else with no luck, adding a water clarifier to your pool may just do the trick. Water clarifiers are chemicals specifically designed to improve the clarity of pool water by binding particulates together into larger clumps, allowing your pool’s filtration system to more easily remove them. Clarifiers are a handy way of expediting the clean up after first opening your pool for the season or after an algae bloom. Prolonged use however, can end up clogging your filter so it’s best to avoid prolonged use.
Talk to an Expert Today
For help in keeping your pool’s water crystal clear, contact All Poolside today! Our expert above and in-ground pool installers are happy to help. Whether it’s advice on the best water clarifier for your pool, scheduling an appointment to open/ close your pool for the season, or something else we offer year round services.
