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How to Clear Cloudy Pool Water Fast
Cloudy, discoloured water is not the most pleasant to swim in, so you’ll want to restore your pool to its pristine self as soon as possible. Luckily, cloudy pool water is a fairly common issue and isn’t too tricky to resolve once you’ve diagnosed the problem.
With the right pool chemicals and maintenance, you’ll be able to clear things up in no time.
There are a couple of factors that may be affecting your water quality.
One of the first culprits to look into is your filter. A dirty, broken filter cannot properly remove contaminants from your water, so these particles remain in your pool, resulting in cloudy, dull-looking water.
Either backwash (for sand filters) or rinse (for cartridges) your filter to help get it back on track. You may need to replace your filter media or the filter itself if you are performing regular filter maintenance but still seem to get cloudy water.
If you keep noticing cloudy water, you may also need to start running your pool for longer to ensure all the water is run through the filter system.
Another likely cause of cloudy water is insufficient levels of pool chlorine or other sanitisers. Contaminants and bacteria will build up in your pool if they are not being managed with the right chemicals. Chlorine disinfects your water and keeps it clean, so not keeping on top of your chlorine maintenance may lead to an increase in visual pollutants and cloudiness.
You should maintain a chlorine level of 1-3 ppm to ensure it is working effectively in your water.
Similarly, if your other pool chemicals are outside of their recommended ranges, this could start to cause problems with the water’s quality and cleanliness.
If your pH levels are too high or too low, you may see cloudy water. Poor pool chemistry can also lead to a build-up of scale on your pool’s surfaces and plumbing, again leading to water that’s not the clearest.
Regularly test your pool water to ensure your pH, total alkalinity and calcium hardness levels are properly balanced.
Algae is another common issue that may arise if you’re not staying on top of good maintenance practices. Early stages of algae growth may manifest in the form of cloudy water before it turns things green.
Before things progress, you should be quick about treating signs of algae growth with a pool shock treatment.
We’ve already mentioned a few ways to tackle cloudy water when you’re diagnosing the issue, but what else can you do to get a sparkling, clear pool again?
Start by giving your pool a deep clean to help get back to a blank slate of sorts.
Once you’ve done this bit of manual cleaning, you can start putting your chemicals to work.
Using a pool shock treatment should always be part of your deep clean as it’ll rapidly raise your sanitiser level, killing off any remaining contaminants.
Also take this time to recheck your water’s chemistry and rebalance it where necessary.
Leave your pump running continuously over the next day or so to ensure all the water in your pool has passed through your filter more than once. This will help remove more of the offending particles that are causing cloudiness.
Once you’re happy your pool is clean, you can use a clarifier to finish off the job. This water treatment works by binding small particles together, turning them into bigger particles that can be captured by your filter more easily.
If you have very cloudy water, it is better to use a flocculant rather than a clarifier. While they work in similar ways to bind smaller particles together, pool floc will create large clumps that sink to the bottom of your pool. These will then need to be vacuumed rather than captured by your filter.
Exactly how long your water will take to clear up will depend on the cause of the issue and the severity of the cloudiness.
Once you’ve addressed your water quality with some of the fixes above, you should expect to have clear water after about 1-3 days. It can take a bit of time for your water to circulate through the system and for your filter to work its magic.
For more pool maintenance tips and guidance on the best products for the job, check out the rest of our blog.
