If you have allergies, seasonal pollen can be a real pain. But it’s not just your sinuses that are bugged by high pollen counts in the spring. Seasonal pollen can also wreak havoc on your pool. If you’re a pool owner, you’ve probably seen your water turning yellow with pollen in the spring. But what can you do about it? How do you remove such fine powder from water and keep your pool clean? Keep reading to get some tips on pool cleaning in Buford, GA, for how to remove seasonal pollen and protect your pool.
Daily Skimming and Vacuuming
During pollen season, you’re going to need to make some extra time for cleaning and maintaining your pool. The best thing you can do to keep your pool clean at this time of year is to skim and vacuum it every single day. You’ll want to start doing this early on in the pollen season, which can start as early as February in Georgia. On days with high pollen counts, you may even want to do this twice a day. Skimming the water’s surface will remove pollen that’s still floating atop the water, and vacuuming will pick up the particles that have already become waterlogged and sunk to the bottom. Plan to continue this daily routine through late April and possibly into May.
Keep Your Filtration System On
Coming out of the winter months, you might be used to having your filtration system off. However, once pollen season rolls around, you’ll want to keep the filters running and resist the urge to shut them off to conserve energy if you want to keep that water clear. Your filtration system will help to filter out the floating particles in the water that you don’t catch with your skimmer.
Try Aluminum Sulfate
Adding aluminum sulfate to your pool can make cleaning out the pollen a bit easier. This chemical will bind with the smaller pollen particles and make them sink to the bottom of the pool, making it easier for you to vacuum them up. This is a great way to help keep your pool clean if you prefer vacuuming over skimming your pool, or if you rely on a robotic pool vacuum for keeping your pool clean.
Make Sure It’s Pollen
If you’re trying all of these things and you’re still noticing a yellowish film on your pool, you might not be fighting against pollen at all. Pollen and algae look very similar, and the two can often get mixed up. If you’ve been trying to keep your pool clean and it’s just not working, pay attention to the behavior of that yellowish substance. Is it floating on the surface at all, or just clinging to the walls? Does it wipe off the walls easily, or does it tend to cling tight?
Pollen particles tend to drift in the water, and they wipe off your pool walls and floor easily. Algae, on the other hand, doesn’t drift, and it tends to cling to surfaces much more stubbornly; it also won’t be removed through increased use of your filtration system. If you suspect your pollen problem is actually an algae problem, you’ll want to talk to a pool cleaner about algaecide.
Contact Sunrise Pool Services, Inc., for pool cleaning services or to purchase pool maintenance supplies in Buford, GA.