The flashes of lightning, apart from lighting up a night sky, create nitrogen in the atmosphere and the rain washes that nitrogen down and into your pool.

Nitrogen is a plant food, and a very good one. The algae in your pool, and there are always traces in even the best maintained pool, are plants and so they thrive on the extra nitrogen that is washed down when the heavens open.

Algae are microscopic and so, when there are just a few of them, they are invisible to the human eye but feeding on the nitrogen, they bloom and multiply very quickly until there are enough to turn the pool water green and murky.

So that’s why it happens, but of course you don’t want it to happen. So what can you do about algae?

How to control algae.

One way of avoiding a thunderstorm turning your pool green is to shock the pool with Burn Out and Treat the pool with Algae Killer as soon as possible after the storm.

However, recovering an algae infested pool can be a difficult and time-consuming task so prevention is better than cure. The more algae-free your pool is at all times, the less likely you are to have problems.

Keeping your pool water in balance is the key.

Oxidising the water regularly will get rid of organic wastes and other material that the algae can use as food.

Keeping sanitisers at a consistent level will greatly reduce the algae population as will using a specific algaecide like BioGuard Back Up to prevent algae. Algae grow very rapidly in warm water and bright sunlight so the best time to apply an algaecide is mid morning or early afternoon.

The algae will start to grow on the sides of your pool so weekly brushing is a good idea to get them off the walls and into the water where the pools filtration is more likely to remove them.

If you would like some specific advice on algae control – or indeed any aspect of pool maintenance – Contact Perfect Pools on 0860 697665 or email us