9 Ways Sahara Dust Affects Your Pool

How Sahara Dust Affects Your Pool

Ah, yes…the annual red dusting. Each year in June and July, Sahara Dust floats across the ocean on the trade winds and affects all of us here on the other side. While this phenomenon does create some beautiful sunrises and sunsets (not to mention lower the chances of tropical storms), it can easily wreck your pool if you aren’t careful. In this article, we will be going over what damage Sahara Dust can cause for your pool and how you can prepare for it and clean up afterward. Let’s learn something new!

So, what is Sahara Dust? This happens when the winds pick up the dry dust in the Sahara Desert in Africa, and it moves across the ocean to blanket wide areas of the US…especially Florida. Sometimes it can be incredibly thick, blanketing pools and clogging filters. Like most people, you probably don’t want to swim in muddy water with imbalanced chemicals. Taking the necessary steps to protect your pool when the dust season rolls in is a great first step, so let’s talk about how to do that:

• Our pool safety fences will keep your kids safer around the pool, but a pool cover is a good idea.Invest in a pool cover. Any time that you are not actively using your pool, keep the cover on the help keep the dust from getting in. 
• Do a daily clean during dust season. You’ll want to skim the surface, wipe down the walls, and be checking the levels of your pool chemistry to make sure that your pool’s water is still safe to swim in.
  • If you don’t want to do this cleaning yourself on a daily basis, you can look into an automatic pool cleaner. These little pool robots will clean your pool regularly so that you only need to check it once a week!

What happens if you can’t get those protective measures in place ahead of time? You will want to act fast to keep the Sahara Dust from getting clogged in your pool’s drains and filters. Here are the steps you’ll want to take to get your pool cleaned.

• Turn off the pump for your pool ASAP. This dust will basically turn into clay in your pool, so if you leave the pump on it will inevitably clog.
• Pour in some liquid pool flocculant. This will help improve the filtration and help disinfect the water (we’ll talk about exactly how this works in a moment).
• Turn the pump on and allow it to recirculate for a couple hours, then turn it off again.
• Allow the flocculant to work for anywhere from 8-36 hours. The flocculant will basically act like glue and stick all of the dust together, making it sink to the bottom.
• Once the water is clear enough to see to the bottom, vacuum out all of the clumps. Make sure you have your pool drain open if you have one, which will keep the sand and dust out of the filter.
• Do a few cycles with backwash and rinse, shutting the pump off in between.
• Once the water is clear, add some clarifier to the pump for a final touchup. Once that dissolves, after about 24 hours, you can set your pump back to automatic.

Now that you know the basics of what Sahara Dust is and how to recover your pool’s health, you can take the necessary steps to protect your pool. If this annoying dust still gets in your way, you also have the knowledge to get your pool in tip-top shape again. No matter the weather, you deserve a perfect (and safe) pool. Thanks for reading; we wish you happy swimming and minimal dusting!