What are algae?

Algae, the plural form of alga. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, alga is:

...a plant or plantlike organism of any of several phyla, divisions, or classes of chiefly aquatic usually chlorophyll-containing nonvascular organisms of polyphyletic origin that usually include the green, yellow-green, brown, and red algae in the eukaryotes and especially formerly the cyanobacteria in the prokaryotes.

Simply put, algae are very simple, usually small nonflowering plants that grow in or near water and do not have ordinary leaves or roots. They are actually a varied group of aquatic organism.

Usually there are three kinds of algae that like to build their homes in your pool:

Green algae - Very common and easy to get rid of.

Yellow algae - Hard to kill.

Black algae - Very difficult to eradicate.

What harm will algae do to your pool?

The first and the most important thing is that you lose the interest and don’t wanna swim in the pool at all! Sometimes the algae in the pool are so disgusting that you don’t even want to look at them for one more second. That’s aggravating, isn’t it?

Second, the pores in the pool filter can be clogged up by the algae.

Third, algae can cause sanitation problem. Algae are not harmful to swimmers by themself, but they can turn the pool into a safe harbor for bacteria.

Last but not least, it takes time and costs money to get rid of algae completely from your pool.

Where do algae come from and how?

There are a few ways for the algae to enter your swimming pool, for example, they can be brought in by wind, rain, people or anything else entering your pool.

How to keep algae from your pool?

Basically it’s impossible to keep algae from your pool, because it’s so easy for algae to enter the pool and so difficult for us stop them. Where there is water, there will be algae. What’s important is that we should always keep the sanitation in the pool and treat the pool with chemicals so that algae won’t thrive. And to keep the pool sanitary, we should keep the pool water circulating. Algae are not likely to grow when the pool water is moving. That’s why it’s important to check your pump and filter from time to time and ensure they’re working continuously.   

What to do if algae-iuuse happens?

What to do if you’ve got algae in your pool? First of all, don’t panic! Second, skim the algae from the water, brush the walls or bottom to get algae off as much as possible. Third, keep your pump running and keep the water moving. And last but not least, shock your pool, which means adding enough chlorine to raise the chlorine levels high enough to kill algae blooms. Your pool needs to be “Shocked” on a regular basis, at least once per week. So, when you’ve got green algae in your pool, you need to double shock your pool, which means you need to use twice as many pool shock chemicals as usual. And when there’s yellow algae in the pool, you’ll need to triple shock it. For black algae, a quadruple shock is needed.

To solve algae issue takes a lot of hard work time. So, it’s best that your do a good job in maintaining your pool rather than spending a lot of time and money on fixing the problem. For regular maintenance, you can use proper algaecide to maintain the swimming pool. You can buy it easily from Walmart or Home Depot. 

Bluwhale Tile, as a professional pool tile supplier, is trying the best to provide you with the best swimming pool tiles and service. If you’ve got any other questions about our products or about pools, please feel free to contact us.