Basics on Flocculant and Clarifiers

As a top swimming pool contractor in Utah, we at Dolphin Pools & Spas are here to help with all maintenance aspects of your pool. Our pros are experienced with many cleaning and maintenance items that go well beyond the base level. One such item is called flocculant, or pool floc. This is a heavy-duty chemical that can clean pools even when others are struggling. Let’s look at how flocculant works, and how it compares to clarifiers, another cleaner item.

What is Flocculant?

When flocculant is placed in your pool, it goes to work clumping together tiny particles in the water like bacteria, viruses, algae spores, and other microscopic contaminants. These particles are generally too small and light to sink to the bottom of the pool and be vacuumed up, and the pool filter often has trouble with them as well. Flocculant, though, clumps these particles together in big chunks. This makes them heavy enough to sink, where they can either be sucked into the filter or you can vacuum them up with your pool cleaner.

Flocculants vs Clarifiers

Clarifiers are another pool cleaning item that’s used, perhaps a bit more commonly than flocculants. A clarifier is similar to flocculant, a slightly milder chemical that will go about clearing a pool over a period of several days. The biggest difference here is time – flocculant does its job almost instantly, while a clarifier takes a few days.

When to Use a Clarifier

With that said, though, using flocculant takes a lot more work and can be more of a hassle. Flocculants shouldn’t be used with cartridge filters, for starters, meaning you should check this before you use them at all. But clarifiers simply require less elbow grease, and they also waste less water – unless you have an immediate need for a clean pool, such as a party or event, many homeowners stick to using clarifiers here. For more on clarifiers and flocculant, or to learn about any of our custom pools, speak to the pros at Dolphin Pools & Spas today.