Just like your mood, your pool is affected by the weather. Well ok…not just like your mood.

Cool & Rainy

Rain is going to affect your pool water in a myriad of ways. First, rain typically has a pH of about 5.0 quite a bit lower than the ideal 7.4 to 7.6, so if you get a lot of rain especially over a number of days, your pH is going to need some attention. Although rain will lower your pH, this is not the biggest reason your pool water is affected. The most significant reason is when it rains as those raindrops are falling through the air they are collecting algae, soot, dust and who knows what else and dropping it right into your water.

A little rain shower is not going to affect the pool water much, and if you have been maintaining proper water chemistry before the rain, you will likely not notice any change at all. But a substantial rainfall of more than an inch is going to require some attention. You may have to drain some water from your pool, and you should check your pH, calcium and sanitizer levels. You will also be well served by adding an extra dose of maintenance algicide to your water to deal with all the new algae that came into your pool with the rain.

Hot & Sunny

Hot and sunny weather is the best time to be a pool owner.  Nothing beats sitting by the water, listening to music, enjoying your beverage of choice and taking the occasional dip in the water to cool off. But the chlorine level in your pool is taking a hit while you soak up the sun. When chlorine combines with water it forms hypochlorous acid, this is the killing agent that reacts with the lipids in cell walls rupturing them and destroying algae, bacteria and other pathogens. But when a ray of sunshine hits this hypochlorite ion, it breaks it apart, allowing the chlorine to “off-gas” into the atmosphere. In fact, on a bright sunny day, as much as 90 percent of the free chlorine in a pool can be lost in just two hours! Because chlorine is so prone to leaving your pool you need two things: a constant source of new chlorine and a stabilizing agent to protect your existing chorine. New chlorine is added via tabs, a  chlorine feeder or the like and you can give your chlorine it’s very own sunscreen by adding cyanuric acid also known as a stabilizer to your water.

The other reason the hot weather is hard on your pool is that the bather load is likely higher. And those bathers are also likely sweater and oilier than they were in the spring. Sweatier, because they are hotter and oilier because they are using more sunscreen. All these nitrates and things put additional strains on your chlorine level. It is a good idea to routinely check your chlorine level and to do maintenance shocking weekly, but you should almost certainly shock your pool after a party to break apart combined chlorine and to help boost what will be a lowered total chlorine level.

Warmer water also uses more chlorine, not directly but because bacteria and algae grow faster in warmer water; which means you are using more free chlorine to kill these new “swimmers.”

If you live in Minnesota, you are most likely familiar with hard water stains left on sinks and faucets.  The same water conditions that those pesky stains can come from can also cause big problems with your pool’s water chemistry.  Water hardness, or calcium hardness, is the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in your pool water, usually measured in parts per million (ppm). 

Hard water (water that measures around 400 ppm) can create stains, or scale, on the walls and fixtures of your pool.  But water that is too soft, or “aggressive,” can also create problems.  It can lead to premature failure of a liner, pull calcium out of the pool’s plaster, or destroy the metal from ladders and handrails of your pool.  Understanding what water hardness affects and how to manage the high levels of calcium hardness in your swimming pool, will help you better maintain your pool’s equipment and the quality of the water.

In our region of the world hard water is a part of life.  Minnesota is notorious for hard water because of the geographic location and the minerals in the soil.  While the ideal level of water hardness is 180-220 ppm (parts per million) in a swimming pool, Minnesota’s calcium hardness level is generally over 400 ppm.  That is quite the difference.  There are several things you can do to treat the effects of hard water, or products to add to soft water to achieve the ideal hardness. 

If your water is too hard, there are bonding or sequestering products, such as BioGuard’s Scale Inhibitor, which can be added to your pool water.  These products require an initial dose, along with a suggested weekly maintenance application, but can protect the pool equipment and surfaces from scaling and corrosion.  Also, maintaining a low pH and Alkalinity with high calcium hardness levels can help with water clarity.  On the other side of the spectrum is water that is too soft.  To harden your pool’s water, it’s a good idea to add a calcium chloride product; we suggest BioGuard’s Balance Pak 300.  There are also calcium-based shocks (calcium hypochlorite) or oxidizers, that will supplement with calcium along with shocking, we recommend BioGuard’s Burnout 3.

Want to learn more what water hardness is? Watch Dolphin Pool & Spa’s YouTube video on Water Hardness here:

Earlier this summer we had mentioned in our blog about algae that if you are still having cloudy water issues, you may have phosphates.  If your water chemistry is balanced (pH and alkalinity in range), but still suffer from rapid loss of chlorine and cloudy water, you may have a high phosphate reading.  This can cause problems. 

What the heck are phosphates, you ask? 

Phosphates are described as one of the most common elements on earth and are essential to life.  They are found “naturally in food, water, and even human bodies.”  Phosphates can be introduced into your pool water by rain runoff, dirt, soil, bird, and animal droppings, or decaying organisms.  Also, through the tap water that we use to fill our pools.  Phosphates are essential to all life, even algae life, and you cannot escape them.  But, they are considered a high-powered fertilizer for algae and can eat up your chlorine.  Therefore, it’s essential to maintain and monitor the levels of phosphates in your pool.

How do you maintain a high phosphate issue?

Keep your water balanced, maintain your sanitizer levels, shock weekly, and use an algaecide.  But, don’t be mistaken!  You can have a high level of phosphates in your water, without affecting the chlorine levels.  And, although it’s not going to cure algae issues, it will remove one contributor to the problem. 

How do you know your phosphate level?

You can bring a sample of your water down to Dolphin Pool & Spa, and we will test it, free of charge, to determine if you have levels of phosphates that will cause issues.  We also carry a variety of phosphate removers, such as BioGuard’s Pool Tonic and Sea Klear’s Commercial Phosphate Remover.

Want to learn more about phosphates?

Watch Dolphin Pool & Spa’s YouTube video on phosphates here:

Despite how it sounds shocking a pool has nothing to do with electricity or with revealing something completely unexpected.

Shocking is the process of adding chemicals (usually chlorine) to your pool to:

• break apart chloramines, also known as combined chlorine
• quickly raise your chlorine level
• kill algae, bacteria or other harmful pathogens