How To Clear a Cloudy Above Ground Pool: Step By Step Guide

When your above ground pool turns cloudy, it becomes time-consuming and difficult to clear it. Sometimes, you might find it turning overnight.

Not only it will be uninviting, but it is also a breeding zone for dangerous bacteria or destroy your circulation system. To avoid severe potential illness and expensive damage, you will need to figure out what to do. Solutions vary on the cause of the way water became cloudy at first.

Why My Pool Is Cloudy?

When your pool turns cloudy, these could be the factors that resulted:

   1. Poor Filtration:

If you lack proper pool filtration, it could be the cause of cloudy in your pool. You need to check whether your filter is clean or running long enough. You need to ask yourself when you cleaned or backwashed the filter. It could be the cause of cloudiness in your pool.

  2. Environmental Factors:

It is possible your pool to get cloudy because of environmental factors. You might be responsible when you put things in your pool. Some of the environmental factors causing includes:

     a) Run-off Water: when there are storm, phosphates, nitrates and other chemicals flows inside your pool.

     b) Dust, leaves, pollen, etc.: sometimes, the particles are not visible to your eye and therefore small for filtration. Over time, when you don’t treat the pool, it will turn cloudy.

    c) Animals, insects, etc.: regardless of the state that you stay, you are bound to come across small animals, insects and other creatures to invade your pool. Bird droppings or other nasties produces chloramines similar to human and may cause water clouding up.

3. Chemical Imbalance:

One fundamental that can ensure that your pool is always clear for swimming, it to ensure you balance the chemicals appropriately. When it lacks chlorine or too high Alkalinity or pH, it is a sure way that it offsets the balance and therefore causing cloudiness in your pool water.

When did you last check the chemical levels of your pool water? If it's not within 24 hours, we then recommend you to do the test. In case you don’t have a testing kit in your home, collect a water sample. You can take the water sample to a local pool store for them to test for you. It will depend on:

The level of calcium hardness level: If you live in an area with hard water, you may not know that your water contains higher average mineral content. So, you may avoid hypochlorite pool shock because it leads to clouding in the pool water with high calcium.

4. Shocking Pool:

When you shake your pool, it turns cloudy and will be clear after 24 hours. You can use clarifier and then filter the pool. However, shocking will depend on the pool type and therefore temporarily.

When you find that the water is not apparent within 24 hours, you have to look deeper for a better solution.

5. Chlorine Level in Your Pool:

Once you test your water, pay close attention to the chlorine levels. Lack of chlorine will cause cloudiness in your pool. Chlorine is essential because its used in sanitizing the water and with the results, contaminants will build up causing water cloudiness in the pool.

If the levels of chlorine remain higher for a long time, having a dark pool will be your least worries. For shocking your pool, you can use slam method.

How Do I Clean a Cloudy Pool: Step-By-Step Process:

And here is how it goes: here is the way to clean your clouding pool.

If this is something, you don’t have to do regularly make sure it is always free from cloudiness causing agents. Follow these steps whenever you note your pool water is becoming cloudy.

Instructions:

1. Replace the Pool Filter:

When you find the pool filter malfunctioning, then backwash cleaning methods damaged your filter or its a sand-bed filter. Dysfunction needs proper maintenance. You will have to check filtration media and lines and then decide what you have to replace.

2. Cleaning The Walls And Floor of The Pool:

Scrub the floor and sides with a brush and vacuum loose debris. Run your pool filter for 8 hours to remove debris that could be clouding your pool.

3. Treat Your Water Chemically:

Loose colloidal particles will cause cloudiness. They can be organic like algae. You will have to adjust your chemicals to the recommended range.

4. Adjusting Water pH:

Use a commercial basify or acidifier to adjust the pH of the water. Be cautious and don’t mix strong bases or acids without skin and eye protection.

You have to keep monitoring your chlorine levels for stability.

5. Shock The Pool:

The process will happen when you find that combined chlorine level exceeds 0.3ppm. You can adjust your pool water alkalinity using muriatic acid or bisulfate.

Depending on your pool volume, your solutions should disperse and ensure there are chemical reactions after six hours of treatment.

6. Adjust The Water Hardness:

You need to use a softener. The hardness will vary with location and dilute, and you need a recommendation from a pool cleaning profession.

7. Use Clarifier On Your Pool Water. 

Follow the directions after everything else fails. Clarifiers will help to bind the colloids from your pool water and suspend them. You will then use a filter or remove by vacuum. Continue filtering without interruption and make sure your pool water clears.

When your water doesn’t clear completely, consider to use a second dose or a stronger clarifier and run your filtration system.

Have in mind that when you use too much clarifier, it will act against its clarifying process. Follow the label instructions and don’t use more than twice a week.

In case you have a continued failure, call a cleaning profession. When you have multiple treatment failures, then there is an unseen problem that a professional will detect.

Can You Swim In a Cloudy Pool?

You shouldn’t swim when your pool turns cloudy. Avoid when you do not see your pool's bottom because its hard to spot a struggling swimmer. It becomes easy to drown.

Besides, these clouded pools contain bacteria and other pathogens that cause infections such as E. coli bacteria.

How Long Should It Take To Clear a Cloudy Pool?

When you are shocking water, run the pump, and within 24 hours the pool water should start clearing. In a few days, it should turn blue. You can then test the water and begin adjusting alkalinity and pH levels.

Conclusion:

You will find some people trying to clean pool water with baking soda. It is a bad idea due to various side effects such as alkalinity and pH and at a different rate. Instead, you can follow the above tips to remove cloudiness in your pool water.