What Kills Algae in a Pool: Shock or Chlorine?

Algae in Your Pool: What Do You Do About It? Pool care, algae, pool owners, swimming pool maintenance, laýyk If unchecked, algae will ruin your beautiful pool and leave it all green and cloudy. As you work to return your pool to its sparkling self, you might be wondering: When it comes to killing algae in a pool, is it shock or chlorine? Both shock and chlorine are an important part of keeping your pool clean and knowing how to use them will help you keep a clear pool.

This article discusses the difference between shock and chlorine for algae treatment, and how a robot pool cleaner can help keep your pool free of algae bloom and looking crystal clear.

Pool Algae Defence — The Importance of Free Chlorine

Most pool owners use chlorine as their sanitizer. It kills bacteria, viruses, and algae, but it is better for prevention than for elimination. This is how chlorine supports algae growth control:

Sanitizing Your Pool

The principal function of chlorine is for sanitization. As chlorine is added to pool water, it combines with contaminants such as algae, bacteria, and organic material breaking them down. Chlorine prevents algae growth at appropriate concentrations (1.0-3.0 ppm) by helping your pool remain clean and healthy.

Maintaining Clean Water

Chlorine makes certain that algae spores that may be introduced into the pool are destroyed before they have a chance to bloom. This helps maintain clear water in your pool and avoid algae growth. Regular use of chlorination reduces algae infestation over time and prevents outbreaks.

The Limits of Chlorine for Extreme Algae Blooms

Chlorine is an excellent preventative, but it probably won’t be strong enough by itself when algae growth becomes overwhelming. In such scenarios, more assertive intervention, including but not limited to pool shock, may be necessary to achieve balance and eliminate algae.

A Shocking Surprising Preventative Measure for Algae

Shock treatment is a supercharge of chlorine or non-chlorine products meant to get your sanitization levels a burst of speed. The best solution to eradicate a severe algae bloom is to shock your pool. Here’s how shock works:

Boosting Chlorine Levels

Snapping your pool increases the chlorine level to a much larger dose before simply a limited period. This blood of chlorine rigorously terminates algae that typical degrees of chlorine couldn’t handle. Shock works well where you already have an algae bloom established.

Targeting Algae Growth

When you raise chlorine levels with shock, it is deadly to algae cells. The treatment penetrates algae colonies and kills the cells, making it safe. Shock treatments are intended to deal with more persistent algae that might be resistant to ordinary chlorination.

Remove Algae Out of Tough Places

Shock treatments also kill algae that may be lurking in those hard-to-reach places, like corners, crevices, and the bottom of the pool. Even if your pool’s filtration system is working optimally, some algae can latch onto surfaces and show toughness to be displaced—shock can provide the extra power in chlorine to kill algae in these areas.

Combating Algae Resistance

If given too much time, algae can become resistant to routine chlorination. This is where the shock comes in, providing an immediate, massive dose of chlorine that can beat algae resistance and restore your pool to its clean state.

Shock versus Chlorine: Which Is More Effective?

So, what is the trick for killing algae in a pool: shock or chlorine? The short answer is that both are highly needed, but to different ends:

Chlorine: Most effective as a preventative, chlorine works to keep water clean and prevent algae growth before it occurs. Keeping steady chlorine makes the chances of algae blooms pretty much zero.

Shock: Good for killing off established algae blooms. If algae are already established in your pool, shocking the pool will give the chlorine levels a substantial lift, killing the algae more effectively.

In many instances, both methods are necessary: continuously adding chlorine to prevent algae and using a chlorine shock treatment on heavy algae.

A Robot Pool Cleaner That Can Remove Algae

And while shock and chlorine are critical to killing algae, physical cleaning is just as vital. A robot pool cleaner will do a huge part of the work by scrubbing algae off of your pool’s surfaces, and is even more effective at helping when used in conjunction with chemical treatments! Here’s how a robotic pool cleaner can assist you in keeping algae at bay:

Scrubbing and Agitation

Algae can latch onto the walls and floor and even steps of your pool, preventing chlorine and shock treatments from doing their job. Pool Robot Cleaner — A swimming pool robot cleaner goes through the pool to scrub the surfaces and agitate the algae, making it easier for your pool’s filter to collect the algae and take it out.

Efficient Suction

The iSkim Ultra traps some floating debris so that it does not settle on your pool’s surfaces and sticks there. A dedicated robot pool vacuum is designed to provide the best suction capabilities available.

Reaching Hard-to-Reach Areas

Algae builds up in hard-to-reach places such as corners, steps, and behind ladders. A pool robot cleaner can navigate to these areas without any visible problems with the cleaning, so no algae is left behind. This way, every corner of the pool is properly cleaned of every algae present.

Reducing Algae Growth in the Future

The robot pool cleaner minimizes the risk of future algal growth. Debris can often transport algae spores, and by keeping your pool clean, you do not allow their multiplication and cause them problems in the future.

Using Shock, Chlorine, and a Robot Pool Cleaner for Best Results

Successful algae removal requires a good mix of shock, chlorine, and physical cleaning using a robot pool cleaner. This is how to combine these for optimal outcomes:

Algae Present — Shock the Pool: If there are algae already present in your pool, shock it with the correct product. This will boost chlorine levels and kill the algae quickly.

Retain Chlorine Levels: After eliminating the algae, continue maintaining the chlorine levels of your pool to prevent the re-growth of algae. Algae prevention requires regular chlorination.

Run the Robot Pool Cleaner: To be sure that all algae have been physically removed from the walls and floors of the pool surfaces, run your robot pool cleaner to scrub and vacuum up all traces of the algae. This makes your pool cleaner for longer, and so water is clearer.

Conclusion

Shock and chlorine are both key to killing algae in your pool, but serve different purposes. Chlorine is more effective as a preventative treatment, keeping the water clean and algae growth at bay, while shock is necessary to treat major algae blooms. You can prevent algae building by applying chemical treatments but you should also consider using a robot pool cleaner to physically remove them. Products such as Beatbot AquaSense Pro and Beatbot AquaSense help you maintain a cleaner pool through the removal of algae and debris but allow you to maintain your chlorine balance in your pool.