It’s fun to have your pool at home. You can take a dip anytime, and you don’t have to drive anywhere if you want to hold a pool party for your special occasions. A pool is also perfect for health-conscious homeowners who like to do a few laps every day.
Pool ownership, however, entails some extra responsibilities, including pool maintenance and cleaning. In some cases, you may have to face a common problem with pools: algae formation. In this, the first installment of a two-part post, we will discuss the different types of algae that you might find in your pool and where this problem usually occurs. We will also delve into how they find their way into your pool.
Types of Pool Algae
- Green algae: This is the most common type of algae found in many pools. It can be any shade of green, including yellow-green and blue-green. It may attach to surfaces in the pool or float in the water. If you feel a surface in the pool is too slippery, you might be walking on a film of green algae. Algae blooms can spread green algae so rapidly that it might overwhelm sanitizer methods. Green algae can cause staining and discoloration. They can also clog filters and make your pool pumps work twice as hard. A pool that tests negative for copper and other metals probably has small-celled green algae.
- Yellow algae: These yellow or yellow-orange algae, also known as mustard algae, grow in clumps. They usually look powdered or dusty. You can typically find yellow algae in shaded areas of the pool, such as under ladders and slides. Pool water filters cannot usually catch their spores because they’re much smaller than green algae spores.
- Black algae: Black or blue-green algae are the worst types of pool algae. They are typically tough to remove. You can observe their growth as small black dots on the floor and walls of your pool. Like yellow algae, black algae like shaded areas, crevices, cracks, and most places that require pool repair. Black algae grow in layers, with spores rooting to the crevice and the outer layer protecting the spores. They are not easy to remove.
- Pink algae: This isn’t algae. The “pink algae” you find in pools are formed by rapidly growing colonies of bacteria. You can usually find them around lights, ladders, and corners. They also like shade and protect themselves with a slime coating.
Algae forms in pools that receive shade do not receive enough maintenance and have water that lacks pH level balance. There are different ways in which algae can start growing in your pool. In most cases, the spores are brought to your pool through the wind, dirt, and rain. In the second part of this two-part blog, we will discuss how to get rid of algae in your pool.
Get in touch with Pool and Patio Pros for pool resurfacing and other pool services.