Algae

While the goal of water chemistry is to help maintain crystal clear and blue sparkling water, at times your pool water - its water clarity - will be problematic. It may even be algae-ridden.

There are effective chemicals (Phosphate Removers and Algistats) and maintenance procedures that will help prevent algae, but every pool owner will battle algae. For most pool owners though - as long as you take care of your pool - battles with algae will be few and far between.

The reality is that even if you are the most astute of pool owners when it comes to water chemistry, chemical testing, and making the correct chemical adjustments, if conditions are favorable - and there are a lot of conditions that make the presence of algae favorable - then algae will appear in your pool. Some of these conditions you simply cannot control. Other conditions, though, you can control. What you can always control, though, is the degree of algae. In other words, you can control if it is just going to be a modest appearance of algae or a full outbreak of algae all over the pool.

By troubleshooting the look and color of the algae, you can get the correct algaecide and other chemical requirements and you can start the required maintenance procedures to eliminate the algae. You must be able to troubleshoot the algae to eliminate it.

The brutal truth is that algae - any algae - is going to be somewhat expensive, laborious and burdensome to eliminate. Please remember that it is always easier, less time-consuming, and less expensive to prevent water clarity problems than it is to remedy them, primarily algae.

Within this pool manual, the following information is available about algae in a pool: