Q&A: Should A Pool Be Drained If It Has An Algae Problem?

John’s Questions
This question may be out of your realm but any opinion would be helpful.  I rent a house with a pool.  The lease states that the Management Company will contract someone to provide the pool service. The pool turned green.  At the time it turned green, it had not received any service for 2 weeks.  I immediately contacted the service and management companies.  5 days later the service person showed up.  He set-up a pump to drain the pool.  He instructed me to monitor the pump and after it had drained the pool to refill and give him a call when it was full.

John’s questions:

1. With the pool empty, isn’t this an ideal time to give the walls and bottom a good cleaning and inspection?
2. My contention was that the water did not need to be replaced to solve the problem. Your thoughts?
3. I was also told that the levels of chemicals had gotten out of balance and the only possible way to re-balance was to replace the water. I asked to see the results of this test and the previous tests to verify the information. I was told that these readings are not available or documented. Again, your input please.
4. In your opinion who should bear the cost of the water? Tenant,Service Co, Management Co. I would anticipate that there would be a charge for the disposal (it was pumped into the sewer system) and the refilling of the pool. Thank you for your attention. Any information or referral would be welcomed.

My responses:
1. Yes, this is a good time to clean the walls and the bottom of the pool. Although, it’s not a must. You really only need an inspection when something is wrong.

2. You are correct. The water did not need to be replaced to solve the problem. Pool algae can be cured with chlorine, plain and simple. It is much cheaper to use chemicals too, but it might be faster to drain and re-fill depending on the size. Also, I’m going to assume it was a concrete or fiberglass inground pool. These are the only two types of pools you should drain. Vinyl liner pools should not be drained.

3. Again, you DO NOT NEED to replace the water to cure the chemical problem. Balancing the water is as simple as adding pH and alkalinity according to the test. My thought here is laziness or just plain ignorance. I hate to assume things, but this is not how I would go about a simple green pool problem. We have plenty of articles on this site alone about how to get cure a green pool problem.

4. In no way should you be responsible for replacing the water. It costs money but maybe not as much as what the chemicals would costs. I would think that if they neglected to service the pool in a few weeks, then they are responsible for fixing the issue.

I hope my answers were helpful. And I hope that our readers will find this information helpful too.