How To Use Pool Flocculant And Clarifier? (The Best Advice!)

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Can You Use A Flocculant And Clarifier At The Same Time?

It is just before your grand pool party, but your pool is all cloudy! What are you going to do? It is too late to cancel the party. You need to somehow fix your pool. You could use a Flocculant. Or you could use a Clarifier. But Can You Use A Flocculant And Clarifier At The Same Time?

You should not use a pool flocculant and clarifier together. But you can use them in conjunction, for quick and best results.

Pool Clarifier

If your pool is not too cloudy, that is you can still see the pool bottom, then just using a pool clarifier will do the job. Of course, it will take time, possibly 3-5 days. With the pool filter running most of the time.

Your pool has a cloudy appearance because of a lot of microscopic solid particles floating around. They are so small that the pool filter is unable to trap them. 

Pool clarifier works by coagulating the microscopic solid particles into larger solid particles that the pool filter can trap.

Pool Flocculant

Sometimes, especially after a storm or chlorine shock, the pool may be so cloudy that you can’t even see the pool bottom. This could be because of a much higher quantity of microscopic solid particles or a lot of dead algae from the shock. Possibly both.

This is not the time for using a pool clarifier. It will take too long and your pool filter will keep getting clogged frequently. This calls for the use of a pool flocculant.

The pool flocculant will coalesce the microscopic solid particles and make them sink to the pool floor. You can then use a pool vacuum to suck up the muck at the pool bottom and discharge it into the yard or a drain.

Can You Use Clarifier After Flocculant?

For a heavily clouded pool, use the flocculant first. It is a quick way to remove the bulk of the solid particles without clogging the filters. Follow it up with the clarifier to trap the balance through filtration.

The clarifier will get the ones that got away from the flocculant!

You should not swim in a pool that has been flocculated, till the solids have settled down on the pool floor. Swimming will reduce the effectiveness of the floc. Best is to complete the vacuuming process before swimming. 

Adding a clarifier after vacuuming will require a wait of just 20 minutes before you can start swimming. You can happily swim with the clarifier still in the pool. It is safe for swimming. 

Meanwhile the pool filters are filtering out the remaining solids that are making your pool cloudy. 

Is Flocculant The Same As Clarifier?

Pool Flocculant and Pool Clarifier have a similar chemistry and very similar uses, but they work in somewhat different ways. So a pool flocculant is not the same as a pool clarifier, just similar.

A pool clarifier is a pool chemical, usually a polymeric compound of aluminum chloride or aluminum sulfate. The pool clarifier has cations (positively charged), which will attach to the microscopic solid particles in your pool, which have anions (negatively charged).

A pool flocculant is basically aluminum sulfate (with a few bells & whistles). The main difference is that the flocculant makes the coagulated particles bigger & heavier, so that they can sink to the pool floor.

What Is Better? Clarifier Or Flocculant?

If you are going to use them independent of each other, which will be most of the time, then your choice should be influenced by the table below:

QUESTION	Use a CLARIFIER if your answers match the ones below	Use a FLOCCULANT if your answers match the ones below
How cloudy is your pool?	Mildly cloudy. Pool floor is visible.	Pretty cloudy. Pool floor is not visible.
Are you in a rush for time?	Not really. Can wait 3-5 days.	I want to use my pool tomorrow.
Was your pool hit by a storm and you finished shocking your pool?	No	Yes
Was your pool hit by an “algae bloom” and you finished shocking your pool?	No	Yes
Is vacuuming your pool due anyway?	No	Yes
Do you hate hard manual work on your pool?	Yes, I would rather take it easy & relax	I do not mind a bit of a workout.
Do you have a cartridge filter?	Yes	No
Do you have a sand or DE filter?	Yes	Yes

Above table is a general guideline on which will work better for you in a particular situation.

Recommended Pool Chemicals

Best Pool Clarifier

HTH 67023 Super Clarifier helps you maintain a crystal clear pool all summer! It works by combining small contaminants in your pool into larger ones so your filter can trap & take them out. Use this clarifier once a week, 1 ounce per 5,000 gallons of pool water. You can order it from Amazon by clicking the link below:

Best Pool Flocculant

HTH 67080 Pool Care Drop Out Flocculant will help you remove dead algae, non-living organic contaminants, and is safe for all pools and filters. The flocculant is a clear odorless liquid and does not affect pH or sanitizer levels. You can order it from Amazon by clicking the link below:

Thank you very much for reading the post. I do hope you found it informative and helpful.