Sponge to clean

[mpeatc13]

hi all, just want to say thank you all for the knowledge you have provided for helping me understand how to maintain our pool. i just would like to add my two cents worth of knowledge that helped make our life easier. the pool is a 6 years old inground, gunite pool with pentair DE filter and we are the original owners. we have trees that overhang the area with morning shade and afternoon sun. we shock the pool weekly and add chlorine after vacuuming and backwashing. we get the green algea build up on the walls and bottom and i realize this is normal from the overhanging trees that drop their debris into the pool.
this past weekend as we were relaxing in the pool and using our hands to wipe down the walls, my girl leaves the pool and comes back with one of those " o-cello " sponges and starts wiping down the walls. the algea just came right off with little effort. i have been busting my hump using the brush that came with the pool with little result. from now on, i will be getting a sponge mop for the larger surface area and long handle so i can do it without getting into the pool.

i don't know if this will work for everybody and may seem obvious and simple to some, but since it worked for us and were amazed with how easy the job was to do we just wanted to share our experience.

take care,

mike

 

[duraleigh]

Glad it worked for you. My suggestion would be to maintain adequate chlorine in the pool to keep it sanitary and algae free.....then you won't need the sponges or anything else.

read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

You know...if you test and dose the chlorine every day and maintain the proper free chlorine level for your stabilizer level, you won't need to "shock" weekly, nor will you get algae. My poool gets too cold to swim in, but it never closes as such, and I've maintained it for over three years now without ever once having to shock it nor deal with green or cloudy water.

I'd be curious how high your CYA level is. There's a good chance that those weekly "shocks" have raised the CYA level so high that "normal" FC levels are not adequate. Which means you need to elevate FC, which you do by "shocking" which raises the CYA level even more, which means you need to elevate FC even more, which you do by "shocking" which raises the CYA level even more, which means you need to elevate FC even more, which you do by "shocking" which raises the CYA level even more, and on and on in and endless spiral until finally the pool store expert tells you that your Total Dissolved Solids are too high, so you need to drain. And then you get on the spiral again.

 

[JohnN]

To add on to what was already said, if you want to keep algae away, you should get a proper test kit and follow the shock process. Then if you maintain proper chlorine levels, this algae will never come back.