Roseville Pool Service

During nights and early mornings, when temperatures are expected to fall at night below freezing, your pool filter pump should be running during the night and early morning. Circulating water through the exposed pipes and equipment prevents ice formation and potential damage to your pipes and pool equipment.

You need to turn the pump on and off manually, unless you have a pool controller with an automatic freeze protection function. We cannot set the timer to cover this condition without running the pump excessive time and wasting your electric bill.

4 hours in winter, 6 hours in spring and fall and 8 hours in summer. These times are for average pool size and average pump flow rate. We will set the timers to run these hours, unless the timer control is inside of your house. In that case you need to set it. If you specifically request us to set it for less time than these recommendations, we will do it but, your pool condition may suffer.

There is an option to find out more accurately how long the pump should be running - not an average time - depending on your actual flow rate and your pool volume. That requires installation of a flow meter in your piping - approx. cost $100 - $150.

To drain or not to drain?

There are 2 ways to clean a pool full of green algae:

This includes draining entire pool, followed by acid or chlorine washing, and then refilling pool with water and chemically balancing pool water.

We recommend this only in extreme and unusual cases, because there are many risks associated with this method. We only recommend this if, for example, we find that there is unusually high amount of combined chlorine present in the pool water or total dissolved solids are too high.

There are risks and extra costs associated with this method. Structural damage may result if there is high enough water table under the pool - this risk is higher in rainy season. Pool water also needs to be drained legally, either by obtaining town or county permit to drain it to the street or by draining it to your main sewer clean-out. In this case, care has to be taken not to overwhelm the sewage pipes and flood the house. Even if the cost may be approximately the same as cleaning the pool without draining, you need to account for the cost of water required to fill the pool. Another disadvantage is that if there is an underlying problem which caused the algae to develop, like a filter problem or insufficient flow, you will not find the cause of it, algae will return and your money was wasted.

The advantage of this method is that it is faster, one or two days, and if your pool surface is stained and needs to be acid washed anyway, you are able to accomplish it at the same time.

This includes clearing algae by chemicals, filtering and cleaning pool without draining.

Takes 2 - 5 days (on average 3 days) depending on your pool equipment and severity of algae.

Test chemicals and adjust Alkalinity, Ph, Calcium hardness and Conditioner (Cyanuric Acid) and adjust chemicals to be in balance. Test for combined chlorine and if very high (over 5 PPM) do not continue, draining is preferred because the cost of chemicals will be too high. Shock the pool with liquid chlorine, amount depends on pool volume, water temperature and algae severity - typically 4 gallons. Add algaecide to pool water - we found Algatec (polymer algaecide) works the best.

Remove any debris from bottom of pool you can. Brush pool swim outs, steps and sides thoroughly.

Clean filter and inspect for any possible tears. Start filter pump and set it to run continuously. Make note of clean filter pressure.

You should see improvement in water color and clarity. Test chemicals and adjust as necessary to be in balance. Add liquid chlorine to keep chlorine level 10 - 20PPM.

If it is clear enough to see return jets, put about 2 cups of DE powder into the skimmer and watch return jets. If you see DE powder coming out of return jets, it means that your filter is bypassing dirt and returning it back to the pool. In this case stop, take apart the filter, find cause of it and fix it before continuing. Without good filtration you will not be successful.

Remove any remaining debris from the pool. Brush pool again.

If filter pressure is 10# or more over the clean filter pressure that you noted, clean filter cartridges or backwash DE or Sand filter, depending on your filter type.

In most cases your pool will be crystal clear.

If not repeat Second day instructions.

If it is clear, wait until chlorine level is normal (3-5PPM) before swimming.

Enjoy your clean pool and maintain chemicals, equipment, brushing and removing debris on a weekly basis.