Mastering Your Pool – Page 2

When your swimming pool crashes and turns cloudy green it feels like starting all over but it's the middle of the summer and the kids are waiting to get into the pool so you gotta get right on it and turn that pool crystal and you know just what to do. After a day or so nothing happens now. Why isn't the pool flocculant working? Reasons Flocculant didn't Work: You are using flocculant on living algae-you need to shock your pool with chlorine first to kill algae then settle You didn't wait long enough-Flocculant directions have a dozing rate & wait time. Cloudiness in the pool could be caused by an in-balance in water chemistry Be sure when using Flocculant pool products that your filter stays on bypass or recirculate so that the floc chemical stays out of the sand media that would corrupt it and eventually lead to emptying the sand vessel. This also is the case and worse for DE Cartridge filters. Pool Flocculant Not Working It is important to note that aluminum flocs only work at a high pH so you must first raise the pH of the pool to at least 8 when using Alum or 7.8 when using a liquid PAC-based product. Alum has a low pH and will immediately reduce the pH of the water after addition. A common practice when using Alum is to raise the pH to 8+ using Soda Ash and then add 2 to 4 kg of sodium bicarb (buffer) at the same time as adding the Alum. This will compensate for any drop in pH and also increase the Total Alkalinity. (PAC) Poly Aluminium Chloride is a kind of inorganic polymer, which is made from the reaction of aluminum mineral powder and hydrochloric acid. How do you use Pool Flocculant? Read directions Turn the filter to the ‘Recirculate’-for 2 hrs. Adjust pH-7.4- 7..6. Determine the amount using the volume of your pool to gals. Dilute in a 5 gal. bucket-pour around pool edges T/Off pump & leave sit for 8 hrs. After 8 hrs., turn the filter to ‘waste’, & vacuum .............................................. Read more What is Pool Flocculant? A pool flocculant is a chemical that helps to remove small particles from pool water, these particles can include dirt, debris, algae, and bacteria. Flocculants work by clumping these particles together helping them settle out so that they can be removed from the pool H2O ................................................ Read more If the Pool Flocculant that you are using is not working there are a few things you should look at: You are using flocculant to remove living algae-flocculant chemicals can't remove algae that is still alive You need to shock your pool with chlorine first to kill algae, the most commonly used disinfectant and oxidizer for pool water. Once the chlorine kills and leaves dead cells in the water the flocculant is able to clump them together and settle them out to the bottom of the pool where you can vacuum them out. You didn't wait long enough- On the back of the Flocculant is a dozing recommendation and a wait time. You need to follow the direction because each product could be different dozes and different wait times. If your application of flocculant didn't work the solution might be as easy as wait time. Read the label and directions on all chemicals including pool flocculants, The cloudiness in the pool could be caused by an in-balance in water chemistry Pool flocculants are made to physically remove debris from your pool by settling them out and then physically vacuuming them removing them from the pool completely. If there is a balance in the pool water such as TA (Total Alkalinity) then these Balance issues are the underlining problem and the Flocculant will never clear your pool water. The solution is always to test pool water chemistry first and then adjust the chemistry of the pool water before adding shock chlorine to kill the algae and organic contaminates-followed by adding the correct and recommended amount of flocculant according to the directions on the package to settle out the dead algae to the bottom of the pool in order to vacuum. As the video says above; You need to solve the underlining problems your pool has so you don't have to use a Pool Flocculant otherwise the pool water problems you have come back and the Floccculant product will cause more bad than good. Can I Use Clarifier After Flocculant? Yes, Clarifiers use after Flocculant Removing light floc left over from quick-settling heavy floc Floc knocked into suspension vacuuming High TDS/Salt in H2O prevents flocculation. Using too much flocculant Low pH start Not waiting long enough ............................................................... Read more JimGalloway Author/Editor