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What the floc?

OK…despite your best efforts, your pool water is now cloudy. Your pool professional, hopefully, one of the Happy Dolphin Retail Staff at our store in Plymouth, MN, has suggested you use a clarifier or a flocculent. So, what is a clarifier, a flocculent and what is the difference between them?

Not a cloud in the sky. BECAUSE it is in my pool!

First, let’s talk a little bit about why your pool water can get cloudy. Water is cloudy when there are substantial amounts of tiny, tiny little particles in suspension. These little particles are too light to sink to the bottom and are often too small to be caught by your filter. What are they made of? Dust, pollen, dander, body oils, make-up, urine, nitrates, high alkalinity, high calcium, yadda, yadda, yadda. The point? It is hard to know and, to some extent, it doesn’t matter. Cloudy water means a lot of something really small is floating around in the water; we don’t care what it is - we just want to get it out.

There are two courses of action you can take. You can make the particles bigger, so your filter can grab them, or you can concentrate them on the bottom of the pool so that you can vacuum them out.

A quick side note here: While it is not uncommon to have cloudy water after a pool party, algae bloom, or when opening in the spring, you should not rely on a clarifier or frequent flocking to maintain clear water. If your pool water is consistently cloudy, there are likely other factors in play. For example, your sanitizer may be ineffective, your water may be out of balance, or your filter may be undersized or damaged. It may even be that you are not filtering enough. You should be turning your pool over - moving your entire pool volume through your filter - at least twice a day (three times a day for a commercial pool).

I can see clearly now…

The easiest way to deal with cloudy water is to use a water clarifier. Water clarifiers are positively charged polymers, a macromolecule composed of many repeated subunits. When you pour this into your pool, these macromolecules attract the negatively charged microparticles that are making the water cloudy; this, in turn, causes the macromolecule polymer to grow even larger. It continues to do this until it gets big enough to get caught by the filter.

Why are polymers positively charged, and why are the cloudy particles negatively charged? I don’t know, but, I do know that if your water is balanced and your filter is working, adding a clarifier will do the trick. It will, however, take some time to work - often several days or more. Also, because you are relying on your filter to get “the stuff” out, you should run your filter 24/7 until your water clears up.

If you have a sand filter, you might be able to speed up the process by using a product like Bio-Lab’s Sparkle Up or even DE powder. These will sit on the top of the filter sand and increase its ability to filter down to a finer micron. But remember to watch your pressure gauge and backwash when needed.

Seems flakey to me

Floc is like a clarifier in that the chemical you add to your pool, the flocculent, attracts the tiny particles to itself. Nerd alert! It’s about to get technical! Flocculation is the process of bringing colloids (microscopically dispersed insoluble particles) out of suspension (not out of solution because they are not nor, will they ever be dissolved) to form a flack (floc). These flakes then become heavy enough and large enough that they sink to the bottom.

The primary difference is that flocs work much faster and grow the particle sizes to very large clumps that will clog your filter.  So instead of running your pump continuously until your water is clear, you add the floc to your pool usually through a skimmer, run your pump for a couple of hours, shut the pump off for 12-24 hours allowing everything to settle to the bottom. Then ever so slowly to not disturb or remix up the floc and contaminants, you vacuum to waste.

Note: If you cannot vacuum to waste then you should not use a flocculent.

So, which should you use?

Whether to use a clarifier or a flocculent to clear up your cloudy pool depends on several factors. Time, the ability to vacuum to waste, and the desire to use a little elbow grease.

If you cannot vacuum to waste, you really should not use a flocculent, only a clarifier.

If you would rather not do the work of slowly vacuuming the pool and can wait several days for the cloudiness to clear up, then use a clarifier.

Need your pool clear soon, don’t mind vacuuming and can do it to waste, then flocculating is for you.

How to Properly Winterize your Pool

While we are all sad to see it go, summer is drawing to a close here in Minnesota, and that means it will soon be time to close your pool for the winter. Because of our harsh winter weather, you will need to take steps to prevent your pool and equipment from damage, and you should also correctly treat your water to set yourself up for a clean and clear rather than swampy opening in the spring.

Dolphin Pool and Spa Named in First-Ever Top 50 Swimming Pool and Spa Service Ranking

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Dolphin Pool and Spa Named in First-Ever Top 50 Swimming Pool and Spa Service Ranking

 

Los Angeles, October 2018 – Pool and Spa News, the premier media outlet for the pool and spa industry, has named Dolphin Pool and Spa in its annual ranking of top swimming pool and spa service firms across the United States and Canada.

 

Based in Plymouth, MN, the company placed 48 in the PSN and Jandy Top 50 Service List.

 

Top 50 Service firms, specializing in the cleaning, maintenance, repair and renovation of swimming pools and spas, have proven themselves as the most well-rounded in the country.

 

Pool/spa service companies from around the U.S. and Canada compete to appear on the Top 50 Service list. To determine this elite group, the media outlet evaluates businesses based on six pillars that indicate business excellence in the field:

 

* Earning power, based on a company’s service revenue from the previous year, helps determine overall business acumen and success;

 

* Staff management, training and retention indicate how the firm invests in its most important resource to ensure the highest-quality products and services;

 

* Participation in the swimming pool/spa industry, peripheral fields, and the business community at large, indicates the firm’s commitment to elevate its profession;

 

* Web presence makes up a vital part of reaching, informing and staying connected to consumers;

 

* Community service proves the ability of a business to take its good citizenship beyond its own operations;

 

* Customer service scores indicate a company’s commitment to what’s most important.

 

Businesses such as Dolphin Pool and Spa are leading the way for pools and spas, and the industry providing these life-enhancing products, to continue getting better.

 

About Pool and Spa News:

 

Founded in 1961 and based in Los Angeles, PSN serves the residential and construction swimming pool and spa industry. It is part of the Hanley Wood family of media platforms serving fields related to housing and construction.

 

 

How to Store your Chemicals

Just a quick note at the end of our season to remind you of how to store your pool chemicals for the winter.

  • Store in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.
  • Keep out of reach of children and pets.
  • Store products in the original containers.
  • Be sure your storage area is well ventilated. Vapors may build up inside containers in high temperatures. Nose and throat irritation or more serious respiratory problems (cough or shortness of breath) may result if inhaled.
  • Never store oxidizers and acids near each other. Oxidizers will release chlorine gas if they come in contact with acids.
  • Do not store liquids above powders or solids. Do not stack containers.
  • Do not store products above your head.
  • Do not store pool products near gasoline, fertilizers, herbicides, grease, paints, tile cleaners, turpentine, or flammable materials. This tip is especially important when pool products are stored in sheds or small storage rooms.
  • Do not reuse containers. Wash out the container when empty and then dispose of it.
    • Swimming Pool Products : Osh Answers, http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/swimming.html (accessed March 28, 2018).

Finally, while pool chemicals are less sensitive to cold temperatures than too hot, most will lose some of their potency if they freeze.

Thank you for the great season, and we look forward to seeing you again next spring.

The Importance of Winter Closing Kits

The temperature is dropping, and it’s starting to feel colder outside.  Unfortunately, those two things mean that pool closing season is approaching.  With pool closings soon, we would like to take this time to discuss winter closing kits and why it’s a good idea to utilize them.

Why is using a winter closing kit important?

Living in the Midwest, especially Minnesota, the use of a winter closing kit when closing your swimming pool in the fall is undeniably an excellent choice to make.  Although people living in cold climate areas, don’t always use a winter closing kit, it can have an enormous effect on the clarity and condition of the pool water when opening in the spring.  Winter closing kits are specifically designed to keep your pool fresh and free of algae during those winter months that the pool is not being filtered or circulated by the pump.

What is included in a winter closing kit? 

While there are many different brands and formulations of winter closing kits, winter closing kits typically include two products: a formulation of shock and an algaecide.  Over at Dolphin Pool & Spa, we suggest BioGuard’s Arctic Blue Winter Kit (available in two sizes: 12,000 gallons and 24,000 gallons).  BioGuard’s Arctic Blue Winter Kit includes Arctic Blue Shock and Arctic Blue Algae Protector.  In this two-step product, it becomes a convenient way to treat your pool before you close it down for the off-season.  The first step, the Arctic Blue Shock, is formulated to oxidize and clarify throughout the winter months, while the second step, Arctic Blue Algae Protector, is used to prevent algae growth.  The combination of using these two chemicals will aid in opening to a clearer, cleaner pool in the spring. 

Why do I want to use a winter closing kit?

Along with helping customers open to a clearer, cleaner pool in the spring, the use of winter closing kit will save you considerable amounts of money in the spring on chlorine and other pool clearing chemicals.  In the springtime when opening their pool, our customers spend a significant amount of money restoring the residual of chlorine that was lost during the winter months and in clearing the water.  We have noticed that the customers who use the Arctic Blue Winter Kit will spend considerably less money on chlorine in Spring start-up, than the customers who admit they didn’t use a winter closing kit.  Why?  Because they don’t have algae and other contaminants using up the chlorine before it can build a residual, therefore using less chlorine and spending less money. 

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