Aeration, whoda thunk it?

[poolmomma]

We "opened" our pool to a green swamp monster back at the end of March. Yeah, early, but when your cover disappears with the wind, well... Anyway, after almost 2 months of constant chlorine shocking and endless cases of beer and wine, I was about to give up because we STILL couldn't see the bottom last weekend and all my numbers except pH were sitting perfect and we were passing the overnight test. So I read and read and read and finally decided to build myself a little aerator to raise my pH without chems. OVERNIGHT, the bottom showed up! I was so extremely excited I almost jumped in the water myself! (It was way too cold that day at a whopping 60 degrees out and 70 in!) Now here we sit, 3 days into aeration and we are almost sparkling! I cannot contain myself. I never took a picture of my green swamp except for when the kids were so hot they wanted to swim so we let them...no worse then swimming in a lake since all numbers were good. Once it starts to sparkle, hopefully tomorrow, I will post the before and after. I just can't believe that a little think like pH was holding me back from sparkling.

 

[chem geek]

That is strange that low pH was causing the water to remain cloudy. Is it possible that your aerator churned up the water more so that perhaps previously still water at the bottom was now getting circulated to the filter to clear up the cloudiness? Above ground pools are notorious for poor bottom circulation having no floor drains, pop-ups, or returns stirring up the depths. Pointing the return(s) diagonally downward often helps to improve circulation by moving water flow to the bottom and creating a circular swirling/mixing effect. Of course, one can brush the pool as well which is one of the reasons that is suggested as part of the clearing algae process -- not just to remove algae from walls, but to improve circulation/mixing as well.

 

[poolmomma]

Chem Geek...I thought about that after typing this and you are probably right. I am sitting here now, next to my sparkler, wondering if I should just make myself a new return since my, for a better word, sucks. I mean it was cheap and easy to make the aerator, why not make a longer return that I can point any way I want? I still have a little silt at the bottom of my pool and some dirt because we let the labs swim, but other than that, when I use the aerator I made and tape off 3 holes, it pushes all the dirt to one location on the bottoms so yeah, it probably helped push around all the left over dead algae. Either way, I am clear, the aerator works wonders for pushing all the dirt past the ladder and I am loving the fact that we are hitting 90s this week and I have a pool!!

 

[chem geek]

There is also The Circulator that has been talked about before in this thread. Usually it is just better to point returns in such a way to create a good circulation pattern, but for smaller pools with only one return or other poor circulation situations, this product may be helpful.