How to Clean a Brown Pool

Has your swimming pool gone brown from heavy rain or run off from gardens?

When the pool goes brown, what should you do? Can brown pool water be fixed? The most common cause of brown pools is dirt and debris washing in from gardens or storm water. This causes the water to become cloudy, especially after flooding. Brown pools aren’t able to be fixed like traditional methods of cleaning pool water, such as algaecides or chlorine.

REMEMBER: Do not drain your pool water! The brown pool water may be cleaned without draining and re-filling (*plus there can be issues with Draining)

5 Quick Tips to Clean a Brown Pool

1. 1. Remove Debris – Clean out the skimmer baskets and remove as much debris from the pool as possible. This may involve a lot of pool scooping of debris.
   2. Check the Pool Equipment. If your pool has gone brown due to a storm, this can cause malfunctions in your pool equipment. Power outages can reset the timer on your chlorinator and lightning can severely damage your pool equipment.
   3. Backwash the Sand or Media filter. Rinse and Clean it! Give the filter a quick backwash then rinse the filter.  If it is a Cartridge Filter, clean the cartridge thoroughly.
   4. Add a Pool Shock or Chlorine as per recommended dose.  You will now have to decide if you are filtering the brown pool or “Flocking” the brown pool?  If Filtering, then run the filtration system for a few hours. Clean Filters, repeat until clear.  If “Flocking” the pool, add Flocculent, circulate and turn system off for 24-48 hours.  Then when dirt settles to bloom of pool, vacuum it to waste.
   5. Finally, top up the pool, then Test the Chemicals with a Water Test. You can test the water yourself or give us a call on 131 546 to come and test it for you for a standard service charge, then add the chemical needed to bring your pool water back into balance.

You or a Pool Professional may need to Floc the Brown Pool

Can you see the bottom of the pool?

If you can see the bottom of your pool, a clarifier works well to get your pool clean and sparkling again. This fast acting liquid will also boost your filter performance and removes all the suspended particles from cloudy pool water.

If you can’t see the bottom of your pool, use a high potency flocculent. If used in combination with a Super Shock or Chlorine, you should be able to quickly fix cloudy brown pools by dropping everything to the bottom of the pool so it can be vacuumed out to waste. *Always follow pool chemical instructions.

If your Pool is Green form algae and NOT brown from dirt or garden run off (sometimes your neighbours), you should check out our blog on How to Fix a Green Pool

NOTE: Depending on the type of dirt/mud your Sand Filter Media or Cartridge may need replacing, so keep that in mind.

Always remember that we are just a phone call away if you would rather leave it to the experts!