How to clean your pool after the calima: advice from a professional

We asked a professional for his advice on how to clean your swimming pool after the recent calima

After the recent calimas and the terrible mess they left behind, we asked a professional swimming pool expert on the Costa del Sol for his advice on how to clean the pool. Here is what Tarek Ghouri from Inland Pool and Property Maintenance, based in the Marbella municipality of Coin, advises you to do.

1. Turn the pump off. It won’t go green as long as you have a good level of chlorine in it. The reason for turning it off is because this sand is like clay, and it will block your filter. It’s also very fine so a lot is passing back through the filter if your sand is not new/recently changed.

2. Wait until Tuesday, March 29! There is some more sand in rain expected this Monday night, March 28.

3. Add liquid flocculant on Tuesday 29. You need about 1.2 litres for an 8 x 4 pool but it depends on the brand. Read the label but usually, it’s 10ml for every m³. A standard 8 x 4 pool has around 46,000m³ so it needs 460ml. HOWEVER, this is not just suncream and wee wee, so the pool needs more flocculant than normal.

4. Set the selector valve to RECIRCULATION and turn the pump back on for about 2 hours. Some say it’s best to not run the pump, but we found it useful last week.

5. Then turn the pump off again.

6. Wait anywhere between 8 – 36 hours for the flocculant to work its magic and you will see clumps of it on the bottom of the pool. Flocculant is like a glue that sticks all the small suspended particles together, and as they get heavier, they fall.

7. When it’s clear enough to see the bottom, hoover it up, but with the selector valve on WASTE, and be sure to open the drain valve if indeed you have one. This means the sand will not pass through your filter and will go to the drain outside.

8. Do a backwash with the selector valve on BACKWASH or LAVADO for about 2 minutes, or until the water runs clear in the small clear plastic cylinder you can see on the selector valve.

9. Stop the pump and turn the selector valve to RINSE. Run that for about 20 seconds.

10. Stop the pump. Put the selector valve to CLOSED and open the top of the basket in the pump. Add a Jolly Gel or similar jelly block of clarifier. This will help to catch the last pieces, and clear up the water. Screw the lid back on.

11. Put the selector valve back to FILTER and the pump on manual for about 24-48 hours. Once it’s cleared up and looking like it did you can flick the pump back to automatic.

You can contact Tarek Ghouri on 664 363 687, alternatively, by email: info@poolandpropertycare.com
For more information, you can visit his company’s website: www.AirAndWaterChoices.com.

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