Prepare your pool for summer fun

Higher temperatures, increased use and lots of sunlight means more maintenance for Central Valley pools during the summer time.

But it also means more fun, said Michael Wyse of Visalia Pool Supply. His pool sits in full sun and gets a lot of use by his family, including a German shepherd.

"It's pretty clean," he said. "We don't cheat."

Basic maintenance involves chlorine treatment and filtration. He said his wife is proactive with chlorine.

"Chlorine is still the granddaddy of pool maintenance," he said.

Troubleshooting

Most people who come in to his store, located next to Harbor Freight on Mooney Boulevard, are reacting to a problem with their pool. On Friday, a woman came in and said her pool has black algae. She said she brushes it off but it keeps coming back.

Black algae is the worst algae to have and it can happen quickly in a pool, he said. It gets a foothold on plastic which makes it difficult to get rid of.

He told her she needs to add extra chlorine to her pool and scrub more often, not harder. Think of it as brushing off a scab so the poison can do its work.

He also reminded her not to overdose her pool with copper-containing algaecides because a finite amount of water can only hold so much copper.

"Metal is heavy," he said. "It's the first thing that will drop out."

Phosphate levels

Higher temperatures can lead to high phosphate levels which encourages algae growth in a pool, but most homeowners don't check phosphate levels. Anyone can bring a pool sample in to the store to be tested for phosphates at no cost, he said.

Pool services check phosphate levels, said Ricardo Reyes of Reyes Pool Service in Visalia, Tulare and Porterville.

"Phosphate is food for algae," he said. "Many people don't check for that."

Most pool maintenance dip sticks measure everything but phosphates.

To measure the phosphate level at a Visalia pool recently, Reyes filled a plastic tube with pool water and submerged a special dip stick for about 5 minutes. It turned blue, indicating an increased phosphate level. He added chemicals to the pool and advised no one to swim in it for three hours.

A green pool indicates the pH is too high or the chlorine level is too low, he said.

Routine maintenance

When Reyes services a pool, he brushes, sweeps and vacuums it in addition to using a net to pull out leaves and other debris. He checks chemistry, adding chemicals as needed. Most residential pools require weekly maintenance while commercial pools, such as at hotels, get two visits a week.

He also checks the pressure on the pool's filters.

Filters need to be changed when the pressure gauge indicates an increase in pressure from a normal pressure of 10 psi to 30 psi. That's when it should be cleaned out, Reyes said.

Before starting his own pool service company five years ago, Reyes worked for another pool service in Farmersville for 15 years. Now, he has almost 500 customers in Visalia, Farmersville, Tulare, Lindsay, Strathmore and Porterville. He employs three people.

Safety first

To prevent drownings by small children, barriers such as perimeter fencing, gates, walls or the exterior walls of the house must meet certain standards by the State of California.

• Fencing must be 5-feet tall.

• Gates must be self-closing, self-latching and open outward, away from the pool.

• Openings in fences cannot exceed two and a half inches.

• When the side of the house is used as a barrier, doors leading to the pool area must be self-closing and self-latching or the door must be alarmed.

• Windows need to be impact resistant and tempered.