# Forum Home Renovation Pools, Spa & Water Features  Reliable pool care info

## bigGayAl

Hi, 
I have had a pool for just under one year and it has gone green twice.
I now know how to clear it but I would rather prevent it. 
I have found lots of advice on preventing algae growth on Internet sites and from my local pool shops.
The problem is that there are so many different answers. Clearly, most must be wrong. 
Is there a reliable source of information on pool care, not just algae? Maybe a book written by an expert in this area?
I would appreciate any suggestion. 
Al

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## barney118

take a sample to your local pool shop and they will test it for free generally. I had a similar issue and it was related to phosphates in the water, I get this problem generally when it rains.

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## bigGayAl

> I had a similar issue and it was related to phosphates in the water.

  Some people say that you should reduce the phosphates in the water. Others say that phosphates do not cause problems if your pool is correctly chlorinated. Any way to know who is right?

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## ringtail

Phosphates are algae food. The biggest issue  with phosphates is when the PH gets too low ( alkaline). This is when you have a algal bloom. The PH should be kept around 7.2 in summer and just a touch higher in winter around 7.4 /7.6. Total alkalinity plays a massive part too. If its too low your PH level swings about too fast. Chlorine kills pathogens in the water and makes it sanitary to swim in. Chlorine bleaches the algae so you dont see it - but its still there. I'm still learning all of this too after having my pool in for 3 weeks so I'm no expert. The trick is to understand what is happening and why and preventative testing is always better than mass chemical injection to correct problems. Always test and correct the PH and total alkalinity first ​as other tests  are not accurate unless the PH is right. Always retest after 30 mins with the filter running before changing anything else. One thing at a time. 
Just as a aside, google Bioniser and have a read. I have one they work brilliantly. Dont believe all the naysayers and pool shop people, they just want to sell you lots of chemicals.

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## barney118

I bought a phosphate remover $45 and my pool is back on track, I was told the phosphates eat the chlorine so you will be chasing your tail all the time.  
Sent from my iPhone 4s using Tapatalk

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## METRIX

Is the pool chlorinated, or Salt Water ? 
Bunnings have a small book, and by small I mean small in size, which I found very useful when looking after a chlorinated pool, I also lost this pool a few times before looking into why, I was surprised how quickly it went from sparkly blue to forest green. 
I eventually got the hang of looking after it, (this was a big ass old pool of around 70,000 liters), we were recently doing a clients house and they had an average pool of around 4 x 7m, and I think we saw the pebble color about 3 times in about 6 months. 
For some reason the thing was always green and murkey, and they ran the pump / creepy for about 6 hours every day, not sure what was wrong with it, but one day I got the crappers with it, and tipped about 5 liters of liquid chlorine in it, and it came all sparkley in about half an hour. 
When the client came home she commented, gee the pool looks good today !!, possibly they just never checked the water quality and thought just running the pump all day would fix it, wrong.  
A lot of the problem I had was the Ph would go off its optimum of around 7.2 - 7.4, and the second thing that caused issues is the pool would simply run out of chlorine, then all hell would break loose ie:green forest color approaching quickly. 
As this was a chlorinated pool, and did not have a auto chlorination system, it relied on someone adding chlorine to keep it healthy, when the sun hits the pool it eats the chlorine up very quickly, this is also the same when you jump in, as people are very dirty the chlorine loves to attack you upon entering, therefore diminishing the available chlorine available to keep the water clean, them more people in the pool the quicker the chlorine dies. 
I found having those floating things that you put the tablets in, helped heaps, we had two as the poll was huge, and pop a few tablets in and it was happy, only needing to really add more chlorine when expected guests were coming over for a swim. 
There is two types of tablets, stabilized and non stabilized, the stabilize ones have an additional chemical which floats on the surface of the water (you cant see it), but it forms a barrier so the sun can't eat up the chlorine as quickly, we always used the stabilized ones, and all was good after this.    
IMO, I would have a Saltwater pool any day, these are so low maintenance in comparison to a chlorinated one, if you salt water chlorination is working correctly you can basically walk away from them, and only need to throw a few bags of salt in every few months, that is all we do with out current pool and it's always clean.

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## Compleat Amateu

As a 1  - and only 1 - pool owner I'd have to say that I've read all the books, and one has to filter (boom tish!) the facts through the experience of what works and doesn't work in your pool.  There are no universally applied solutions.  Mine is in a particular situation and requires particular chemical treatment, and it has taken me about 3 years to work out what that is.  It has an automatic liquid chlorine dispenser (except when it blocks!) and I would convert to salt except that I now know where I am with this solution.... comfortably numb ....
And at this time of the year, it's all good and gets used.  I guess that's what it is about!

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## Whitey66

As mentioned above,total alkalinity is very important and is often overlooked by the average owner who services their own pool.
When we got our pool installed about 8 years ago the guy who owned the pool shop showed me how to check the PH and chlorine levels when he did the handover.
Because I had already read up on how to check pool chemistry I asked him "what about the total alkalinity?".
He said,"oh don't worry about that it's not real important".
But over the years i've learned it's very important because if it is too low,all it would take would be a good downpour of rain and you pool turns into a swamp overnight. 
Some other things I have learnt along the way- 
A good pool blanket and roller is worth it's weight in gold.
In-floor cleaning is awesome if you'd rather swim in your pool than clean it.  
Keep your filter baskets clean always.
Check Chlorine and PH levels regularly,don't add too much of anything in one dose.Add a bit then re-check levels,it's easier to add some more than take some out.
Take the same pool water samples to 2 or more different pool shops to compare their test results with each others and to your own.

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## METRIX

> Hi, 
> I have had a pool for just under one year and it has gone green twice.
> I now know how to clear it but I would rather prevent it. 
> I have found lots of advice on preventing algae growth on Internet sites and from my local pool shops.
> The problem is that there are so many different answers. Clearly, most must be wrong. 
> Is there a reliable source of information on pool care, not just algae? Maybe a book written by an expert in this area?
> I would appreciate any suggestion. 
> Al

  I found the book I was referring to, it is called The Great Aussie Pool Book, By Geoff Carr, it was from Bunnings, and a great source of information in understanding how the balance of chlorine, Ph, Alkalinity etc works and how to keep your pool healthy.

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## bigGayAl

I took a sample to the local pool shop to have it tested for phosphates. Reading was zero. 
I had added extra chlorine to try to stop the algae growing so the reading was 7ppm (recommended is 1 to 3 ppm).
The pool guy told me to add another 10 L of liquid chlorine. This cleared the water and the algae has dropped to the floor.
I have been scrubbing the floor and cleaning the filter cartridge every two days since then. It is gradually improving but it is a hell of a lot of work. 
I am suspecting that my pool blanket is causing the temperature of the top layer of water to rise too high and starting the algae blooms?
Does algae grow well in warm (about 35 degree) water?

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## bigGayAl

> As mentioned above,total alkalinity is very important

  I keep my total alkalinity between 100 and 120 but it had dropped to 80 when the last algal bloom started. 
I also had problems with those strip testers not giving consistent results. Pool guy told me that they have a shelf life of only 3 months.
I had mine for over a year. I use drops and tablets now.

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## ringtail

Just a quick update on my plunge pool with a* bioniser.* TA is kept at about 90 - 100. Copper level is .8 ppm. Water is stunning + no chlorine or salt. A touch of acid ( 150 ml) per week to keep the PH @ 7.4 and that's it. Too easy.

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## macman142

In my experience: 
1. don't leave it dirty much more than a week (within reason). The more leaves on the bottom, the higher the chances of it going green.
2. keep it salty, if your pool has a chlorinator and requires salt - make the most of it, keep it salty (two or three bags every 4-6 months) and keep the chlorinator working hard.
3. the pool blanket will make the water warm to HOT if the pools in full sun. That will increase the risk of it turning green. Leave it off sometimes.
4. buffer is also important (after salt for chlorine creation) because it helps HOLD the chlorine in the water. Dissolve half a cup of buffer and add that to the pool.
5. always keep a Hy-Clor multi tablet in a floating dispenser. The dissolvable tablets contain chlorine, buffer, clarifier (to keep it clear) and some others. It will help hold levels stable.
6. don't fill up or top-up the pool with bore water or other waste water unless you're sure.
7. have your filter timed to come on for 3 hours in the morning (4AM to 7AM) and then 3 hours in the evening (5PM to 8PM), two hours more in the summer (not just 6 hours in one go, as to get the water moving twice a day).
8. keep the dog out of the pool, the chlorine will disappear! 
Do this and you'll have your pool clean and green-free year after year.

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## Whitey66

> In my experience:
>  snip:
> 4. buffer is also important (after salt for chlorine creation) because it helps HOLD the chlorine in the water. Dissolve half a cup of buffer and add that to the pool.
> snip:

  Buffer is used to raise the TA (total Alkalinity).
You do mean Stabiliser don't you?

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