Cloudy Pool Water? Here’s How To Clear It Up

It’s never fun to see that your pool water has turned cloudy. It seems that cloudy water can come out of nowhere. Your pool might be fine one day and then nasty the next.

Clearing up the cloudy water can take forever, and can be difficult to do. Thankfully, there are several cleaning methods that can make this task easier.

Before you clean your pool and forget all about the cloudy water, you should think about why the pool water became filthy in the first place.

Why Is Your Pool Water Cloudy?

There are many reasons why a pool’s water turns cloudy, but here are a few of the most common causes.

Problems With the Filtration System

If you have a busted filtration system, it’s not going to be doing its job properly. When it doesn’t work properly, your water can turn nasty in all sorts of ways.

Your filter should be running at least eight to ten hours a day.

Improper Use of Pool Chemicals

Any unnecessary amounts of pool chemicals can alter your pool water’s chemistry in an undesirable way. A ph level that is too low or too high can cause cloudy water. So can high amounts of chlorine, calcium, and pool cleaners.

Use the appropriate amount of shock for your pool’s size. You should be shocking your pool every week. Use a quality brand of shock with the main active ingredient calcium hypochlorite.

After shocking your pool, it’s normal to have some cloudy water. Just run the filter until the water clears.

The Pool’s Surroundings

Anything that gets into your pool can cause cloudiness. People, plant matter, dirt, and algae can cause it. Even the UV rays from the sun can turn your pool water cloudy.

Clearing Your Cloudy Pool Water

Now that you know how to keep your pool from becoming cloudy again, you can clear your pool and keep it clean. Here are a few of the ways that you can clear out your swimming pool.

Cleaning With a Pool Flocculant

A flocculant is a chemical that is capable of cleaning up your pool quickly. With it, you’ll have clear waters in no time.

Pool flocculants act on the particles that make your pool water cloudy. It draws the particles to the bottom of the swimming pool. You’ll be able to see the cloud of particles at the bottom after it has done its job.

Unfortunately, a flocculant will not draw these particles out of your pool. They’ll remain at the bottom until you manually vacuum them up.

When you go to vacuum the cloud of particles, you need to have your filter set to the ‘waste’ or the ‘backwash’ setting. DE and cartridge filters will need to have the drain plug removed.

You’re removing water from your pool, and you’re not letting it be filtered back in. You’ll have to fill your pool back up. You need to be sure that you’re using a manual vacuum. Automatic cleaners will just blow the particles around and make a bigger mess.

Cleaning With Your Filter and the Floor Drains

You can clear the top of the pool with a skimmer, but you’ll need to filter the bottom as well.

If you have an inground pool with bottom drains, then you can filter the bottom with these steps:

• Stir up the water with a pool brush, bringing particles to the top of the pool.
• Turn on the bottom drains. This allows the filter to pull water off the bottom of the pool.

If you have a pool with no bottom filters, then you can filter the bottom with these steps:

• Hook up a manual vacuum, and leave it in the middle of the bottom of the pool.
• Turn the vacuum upside down. This allows the filter to pull water from the bottom.

After shocking your pool, it’s normal to have some cloudy water. Just run the filter until the water clears.

Clean With a Pool Clarifier

It’s a good idea to use a coagulant pool clarifier on a regular basis. You probably wouldn’t have cloudy water if you did.

A pool clarifier works by attracting the smaller particles to each other to form larger particles. The larger particles are easier for the filter to pick up and trap.