It’s July 5th, and yesterday you had the BEST pool party. Kids were giggling and running around throwing Pop-its at each others’ feet, your dad and brother were lighting smoke bombs and fireworks, and everyone was having a great time relaxing in the pool with a drink in hand. This morning wasn’t as fun when you woke up to wrappers, Red, white, and blue bead necklaces, and red solo cups floating around in your now hazy-looking pool. How do you treat your pool after hosting your summer extravaganza?
The first thing you need to do goes without saying; you need to scoop all the cups, cans, and wrappers out of the pool. Your pool took a beating yesterday, so check your filter and clean or backwash if needed. Vacuum up any dirt off the floor of the pool and brush the walls. Clean out your skimmer and pump baskets.
Once you’ve given your pool a good cleaning, you will need to chemically treat it. Cosmetics, suntan lotion, sunblock, bug spray, sweat, and many other types of contaminants are introduced to the pool water in very large quantities during a pool party. You will need to add at least a double dose of your usual shock to oxidize any remaining contaminants in the water and boost your chlorine level. Add an extra tab or two to your skimmers to keep up with the demand for chlorine in your pool over the next day or two.
Keep your filter running for the next 24 hours. It has a lot to filter out (even if it looks clear.) After shocking and letting the pump and filter for a full 24 hours, test your water or bring a sample to your pool store. The next thing you need to do is get your pH and Alkalinity back in check. Anything that enters the pool will affect the pH, so your chemistry will be off-balance after a party.
When you re-balance the water, these are the ranges to follow for a chlorine pool.
pH: 7.4 – 7.6. The perfect pH for pool water, swimmers, and equipment is 7.5.
Alkalinity: 125 – 150
Calcium Hardness: 175 – 225
CYA (Stabilizer): 30 – 150
Free/Total Chlorine: 1 – 3
I also recommend trying an Enzyme product, like the products in BioGuard’s Pool Juice line. If you weren’t using one before, now is the best time to try enzymes for your pool. You’ll find that the clean-up with this addition will be much quicker than ever before. What’s the harm in trying something that could only help?
When pool water is over-stressed from something other than phosphate (like after a pool party, a severe rainstorm, or cleaning up after an algae outbreak), use Pool Juice™ 911 to instantly rescue your pool – or use it occasionally to help prevent cloudy water from happening at all – whenever, whatever your need!
- Instant Water Rescue for cloudy/hazy or murky/swampy water
- Targeted enzymes and high-powered clarifiers
- Significant results in 24 hours – also for occasional use
We want to help you keep the party going all summer. The sooner you get to taking care of your pool after a party, the better chance you have of your pool not turning cloudy or green, which will save you valuable swimming time, and money.
