A swimming pool is a beautiful feature of any backyard. Its glistening blue waters and the sounds of the water gently lapping inspire the highest levels of relaxation. Of course, this assumes that your pool is actually clean. What should you do to keep your pool clean? While you can certainly hire professional pool cleaning Duluth so you always have a crisp, clear pool when you want to dive in, it helps to understand some common issues that plague pool water. After all, even chlorinated water can develop some unusual issues when the local environmental interacts with it.
Take for instance cloudy pool water. If your water looks as opaque and dirty as the water on a mop bucket, there are a few steps that pool cleaners will need to take to make the water look clean and inviting again. In fact, cloudy pool water may even be unsafe to interact with.
Here are the top causes of cloudy pool water, and some tips on what can be done about it.
Common and Uncommon Contaminants
Cloudy water is clearly contaminated, but by what exactly? Clean water doesn’t cloud on its own. A cloudy appearance is caused when a substance is floating in the water–something that can’t naturally dissolve into it. Some of the common contaminants that pool service professionals have found in water include:
- Sunscreen from the bodies of swimmers
- Algae
- Bird droppings
- Construction pollution
- Soil runoff
- Chlorine
While most of these contaminants can easily be tracked into your pool water and stay suspended there until you hire pool cleaning services to professionally clean the water, some of these contaminants are a little less common. For instance, construction runoff is rare but usually happens when particles of dust and dirt are blown through the air and settle into your pool water.
Algae works similarly. Fungal spores in the air may naturally settle into your pool and start to flourish, eventually distorting the appearance of the pool water. You may need pool flocculants to restore your water to a healthy state.
And then there’s the last contaminant: chlorine. How can the substance that’s supposed to keep your pool clean actually responsible for making it look cloudy and contaminated? It comes down the environmental conditions.
How Chlorine Goes Wrong
The sun, weather conditions, and other environmental factors can affect the chlorine levels and water balance of your pool. If your pool becomes too high in chlorine, the chemical concentration can show in cloudy, mineral-heavy water. If your water filtration system isn’t working properly, this can also make a chlorinated pool look cloudy. If a pool service shocks your pool, cloudy, dirty looking water may be the result.
Thankfully, if your pool becomes too high in chlorine, you can simply wait out the problem. Sunlight will lift away some of the chlorine. Until then, stay out of the water.
If you need assistance with testing your pool water, identifying contaminants, and balancing the mineral content of your pool water, you can contact pool services in your area. From pool cleaning in Duluth to custom pool installation, Sunrise Pool Services has all of your needs covered.