Green to Clean – Turning a swamp back into a swimming pool

There is nothing like having a sparkling clean pool in your backyard!  Mild algae bloom outbreaks are easy to deal with when discovered early on.  A simple trip to a local pool store to test your water and a little guidance should do the trick.  But what about a seriously green pool when you can’t see the bottom drain, pool returns (jets), or even the steps have disappeared into the green abyss?  This is what we call a true swamp pool or a frog pond in the pool industry.

There are a few great products that stand out and offer a 1 to 2-day solution from a real swamp to a safe swimming environment.  One of the products I’ve had excellent success with is, “Swamp Treat” by United Chemical.  Here are the 6 steps to achieving this goal:

Step 1 – Use a leaf or skimmer net attachment on your vacuum pole to skim the debris from the surface and the bottom of your pool.  Unless you have more than an inch of leaves and debris on the pool floor, this should not take long.

Step 2 – Brush the walls and floor to stir up the algae.

Step 3 – Add 1 pound of Swamp Treat per 20,000 gallons.  Broadcast across the pool.

Step 4 – Add 4 pounds of chlorine shock on top of the Swamp Treat to activate the product.  Make sure you choose the appropriate shock based on your pool finish!  I always brush the pool floor right after the chemical application to stir things up and avoid any undissolved crystals from sitting on any pool surface.

Step 5 – Clean your cartridge or backwash your sand/DE filter and Run the pool pump for a few hours. Then shut off to allow all the circulating dead algae to drop to the bottom.

Step 6 – Clean or backwash your filter and turn your pump on.  Watch your pump pressure gauge – when it goes up 10 psi from the clean starting pressure to current pressure, it’s time to backwash or clean the cartridge(s).  For example, the starting pressure was 12 psi right after you properly back washed or cleaned your cartridge(s) – When the pressure hits 22 psi, it’s to clean the filter.

I take this one step further and manually vacuum the pool to speed up this process.  If you have a suction type of pool cleaner or an electronic robot, you can use them to vacuum the floor.  Remember to always check the filter pressure when using a suction cleaner or empty out and clean the robots filter bag or cartridges often to remove all the dead algae from your pool!

In conclusion, getting a pool from green to clean is labor intensive and costly. Proper water maintenance will avoid future clarity issues.  As in all things worth having, maintenance is the key!