Spring is well on its way to us, bringing warmer weather, sunnier skies, blossoming flowers, and . . . lots of pesky pollen! Not only is this unfortunate news for any allergy suffers, but pollen also is a sight for sore eyes (no pun intended). Many of us experience those telltale yellow streaks of pollen disgracing our cars, but, equally annoying, are the specks of pollen floating in your pool water! Luckily, removing pollen from your pool is usually easier than having to run your car to the car wash every day!
Of course, it is important to first determine whether or not the yellowing of your typically clear pool water is actually pollen. The other alternative is a yellow-ish green algae, which will require different cleaning methods. You can tell the difference by simply observing where the color is. Pollen will be floating on the surface of your pool, whereas algae will be gunk collecting on the walls or bottom of your pool.
After determining that you do in fact have a pollen issue, it’s time to take care of the mess! First things first: make sure you run your filter. If your pollen problem is particularly bad, you are going to want to run your filtration system more than usual, despite the increase in energy costs. Your pool’s filter is the easiest and best defense against pollen (this is another way to test if it is really pollen and not algae – algae will not be easily filtered out of your pool).
In addition to running your filter more frequently, you will also need to skim your pool’s surface more often as well. Maybe even twice a day, depending on how heavy the pollen is in your area. A skimmer with an extra fine mesh is what is required to do this job – a regular skimmer will not cut it.
If you find that the pollen is even too small for the fine mesh to collect and seems to avoid your filtration system, try adding aluminum sulfate to your water. Aluminum sulfate will cause the pollen to clump by binding with it, effectively making the pollen “larger” and easier to be filtered out or grabbed with the skimmer.
If the fine mesh skimmer and aluminum sulfate is still not doing the trick, it’s time to grab that pool vacuum. Use this only as a last line of defense, as you will waste a lot of water and use up a lot of electricity going through this!
Swim University also recommends that while dealing with a pollen battle, it important to shock your pool at least once before you go to bed, and then skim and filter as usual in the morning.
If you feel uncomfortable doing any of these steps yourself, would rather someone else to take care of it, or just need some supplies, make sure to give Blue Ribbon Pools a call or stop by our retail store in Port Orange!