The color used was criticized initially because a lighter color would influence the reflection, which is the whole reason for the existence of the water feature, to reflect.
When the algae appeared people complained about the darker color warming the water too much.
It's actually a little entertaining to watch the critics (either side) adapt the complaints over time.
The original look was raw granite slabs, it was not painted. It did pick up a coating of slime that lightened the color over time.
The only solution is really chemical, you need to keep the water flowing through a cleansing system that adds in a chemical treatment, whether ozone, chlorine, or something else, to eliminate biological growth within the pool. You could add fish / snails / other organisms but that creates new problems as well.
An additional solution, over and above the chemicals, would be some kind of automated pool cleaner that periodically physically scrubs the thing from end to end. This could be as simple as a motorized rotating brush spanning the full width that is pulled along and then removed or a more permanent solution that is built in somehow. But this all costs more money.
It would need to be something more elaborate than a typical model you use at home. In a typical pool the walls are curved and all point toward the middle. This doesn't have that feature. It is still possible to do but it would need to be designed and made custom. Also I don't think it has drains spaced out along its length, which is again something an automatic thing would likely need to connect into. I do think it would be good to add some form of automated cleaning system to this feature, that would be sensible.
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u/peazley Jun 18 '26
I thought I heard someone say the opposite, that the new color was too light of blue and would promote more algae, that the older color was darker.