Pool stains diminish the perfect beauty of well-designed swimming pools. Fortunately, your pool doesn’t have to get them. More importantly, if you already have stained pool surfaces, you can clean them off and prevent their reappearance. Learning and leveraging the right stain removal techniques starts by identifying the underlying causes of stains.
Calcium Stains
If you have chalky white stains on your pool walls or pool floor, run your hand over these surfaces. If they feel gritty, your pool has too much calcium. Not only are these rough coatings unpleasing to the eye, but they can also be painful to delicate foot bottoms and other exposed skin.
Unfortunately, you can’t easily scrub these stains off with a brush. You’ll need to consult with a professional pool cleaner instead. Licensed pool cleaning companies can add special cleaning solutions that gradually break these buildups down and prevent them from recurring.
You can avoid calcium buildups in the future by regularly testing and balancing your pool water’s chemistry. In summer, the level of dissolved calcium in your pool should never exceed 400 ppm. When it rises above 500 ppm, you’ll start seeing chalky deposits. Your pool will also have a higher likelihood of developing deep rust-colored stains from dissolved metals.
Organic Stains
Organic stains occur when carbon-based materials break down in pool water. These materials include leaves, twigs, and other tree-fall. They also include:
- Bugs
- Algal blooms
- Body lotions and hair products
- Skin oils
- Hair
Depending on which organic materials break down in your pool, organic stains might be black, green, brown, or yellow-tinged.
If you catch organic stains early on, you can usually scrub them off with a stiff pool brush. It’s also best to skim off floating items and sediment on the pool floor with a pool vacuum. A high-dose chlorine “shock” treatment will break down residual compounds and prevent these stains from recurring. You can also require pool users to shower before entering.
Metal Stains
If you have deep, rust-colored stains, your pool water might have higher-than-recommended amounts of dissolved metals, such as manganese, copper, or iron. Metal stains could be due to the overuse of algaecides or the progressive corrosion of pool equipment or pool accessories. High alkalinity and high-dose chlorine “shock” treatments can accelerate the formation of metal stains.
Regular pool water testing will help you avoid metal stains in the future by allowing for timely interventions. However, much like calcium stains, these stains require professional treatment. Pool cleaners can apply solutions that break these stains down and balance your water’s alkalinity.
The best way to avoid the problem of stains on pool surfaces is by having seasoned professionals handle your ongoing pool maintenance. To schedule professional pool maintenance services in Douglassville, PA, get in touch with DS Pools.