Part two of our little guide for new pool owners is about the chemistry.
Maintaining the right chemistry in your pool water could be the most important job you’ll have as a pool owner. Not only is it crucial to keep your pool clean and healthy, it's also important that you always consult the pool manufacturers guide to ensure your warranty is not voided because of poor water balance.
Sanitiser
The main reason for treating your pool with sanitising chemicals is to prevent the growth of bacteria. These bacteria can cause infections in ears, nose and throat and possibly other more dangerous diseases like Meningitis.
Bacterial control is easily accomplished by adding sanitiser, most commonly chlorine, regularly and then passing the water through a filter.
Chlorine comes in different forms (liquid, granular and tablets) as well as stabilised and unstabilised. Beside that it can also be produced by a salt water chlorinator.
- Liquid Chlorine: + can be dosed automatically by a dosing system
- bulky and can't be stored for long periods
- Granular Chlorine: + Easy to store and dose
- can't be dosed automatically
- Salt Water Chlorinator uses a process of electrolysis to convert salt into a chlorine gas
+ ability to set timers and change chlorine output as needed
- higher initial cost
No matter which form you use, your chlorine levels should be 1-3ppm.
Stabiliser
Stabilising refers to the combining of isocyanuric acid with chlorine. It protects the chlorine from the UV rays, which drastically reduces it's effectiveness. Therefore it is often referred to as "sunscreen".
Stabiliser can be manually added, if you are using pure chlorine or a salt water chlorinator. If you are using stabilised chlorine, the stabiliser levels should be checked frequently. Stabiliser is not getting used up like other chemicals and if your levels are getting too high, it actually inhibits the effectiveness of chlorine.
To protect your chlorine, the stabiliser levels should be 30-50ppm.
pH & Alkalinity
pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline your water is. The recommended range for your pH is 7.2 - 7.6. Everything below 7.0 is acidic, everything above is alkaline.
Topping up your pool, heavy rain, heavy use of the pool and adding chemicals can all effect your pH.
If the pH gets higher than 7.8, the water is becoming too alkaline. When water is too alkaline, it reduces the effectiveness of the chlorine. Water with a pH that’s too high also can cause skin rashes, cloudy water and scaling on pool equipment. Over time, scaling inside pipes can build up, restricting water flow and putting a strain on your pool circulation system that can lead to costly repairs.
Low pH levels lead to a number of issues like premature erosion of grout and corroded fixtures like your equipment or ladders. Low pH causes pool liners to become brittle and crack. It also causes discomfort for swimmers like burning eyes and itchy skins.
The Alkalinity is a measure of bi-carbonates, carbonates and hydroxides in your water. Ideally these levels are between 80 - 120ppm.
Low Alkalinity will lead to erosion of the surface of concrete and painted pools. It also causes the pH levels to be unstable.
pH and Alkalinity is connected and therefore needs to be adjusted together with the following chemicals:
- Buffer / Alkalinity Increaser: raises Alkalinity and pH
- Hydrochloric Acid: lowers pH
- Soda Ash: raises pH without touching the Alkalinity
- topping up or draining water: Lowers and raises Alkalinity
Hardness
The hardness is a measurement of the amount of dissolved calcium in your pool water. It is ideally between 200 - 400 ppm.
Low levels will make the water corrosive to the pool surface and equipment. High levels on the other hand will lead to a scale on the surface and equipment.
To adjust the calcium levels there is Hardness Increaser and reducer available.
Salt
If you have a salt water chlorinator, you will have to add salt to your pool water as well.
How much salt you need depends on your type and brand of chlorinator. The average salt leveller the chlorinator to work efficiently is between 4000 - 5000ppm. However, it is always recommended to check the requirements for your model.
Once your pool is set up, replacement salt is only required when you loose water through backwashing, splashing, draining or overflow.
You can either use premium pool salt or mineral salt. The benefits of bathing in magnesium-enriched water Magnesium has been recognised by medical professionals and consumers all over the world for its ability to alleviate a variety of ailments relating to the skin, muscles and nervous system.
A large body of mainly anecdotal evidence has shown that magnesium salts, the main mineral in the Dead Sea and naturally occurring in the human body, markedly improves skin hydration, soothes common skin conditions such as dermatitis, eczema and Psoriasis. Magnesium-enriched water also provides temporary relief from muscular inflammation and fatigue.
Mineral Crystals are also known for its mild flocking abilities, which helps to filter out fine material such as dust and dirt. Reducing the need for additional chemicals like clarifiers and algaecides, delivering pool owners further cost savings.
The special treatments
Beside all these balancing chemicals, there is lots and lots of other chemicals you might need or want to add to our cleaning routine.
We will run you through a few basics.
Clarifier
They’re great for mildly cloudy pool or if you have a silt problem that your filters just can’t catch. What they do is they bind to these tiny particles to increase their size, allowing your pool filter to catch them.
Phosphate Remover
Phosphates typically enter the pool from a range of garden products, plant debris and rain. Phosphates can also come from dead skin cells, body fats and oils and residue on the skin from soaps and hair treatments.
The main ways of phosphates finding their way into the pool are:
The wind blows dirt into your pool
Sprinkler run off from your lawn or landscaping enters your pool
Leaves, twigs, or bark enters your water
Algae thrives on the phosphates as their food source. Phosphate remover is for prevention. If there's no sign of algae but you're starting to get phosphate levels, treat your pool water with some phosphate remover.
Algaecide
Algae blooms are an inevitable part of pool ownership. Maybe you had a rainstorm or a big pool party that threw off your pool chemistry. Or maybe you have been slacking on your pool maintenance for a bit. Either way, your pool may not be a fun place to be right now. In addition to being unsightly, algae can come with a host of problems, including water bugs, irritants and infections, and damage to your pool’s surface.
Algaecide, to put it simply, is a pool chemical that can kill algae or prevent it from growing in your pool. Generally, it works by interrupting some vital life processes in algae – perhaps stopping photosynthesis or causing algae cell walls to burst. Algaecide works best in tandem with chlorine sanitizer to keep your pool water clean.
Shock Treatment
Shocking a pool is the term given to using a heavy dose of chlorine, or other chemicals, to kill bacteria, algae, and chloramines from building up and becoming harmful. Another term for shocking your pool is known as super chlorinating.
Shocking your pool raises the free chlorine in the pool for a short time. This process is what kills the algae, bacteria and combined chlorine which is otherwise known as chloramines, a byproduct of chlorine.
It’s chloramines that create that strong chlorine smell which is a sign of pool water that is not correctly treated. Chloramines form when chlorine is doing its job and mixes with body fluids (think sweat and ugh, urine), sunscreen and heavy debris.
By shocking your swimming pool you keep your pool water healthy and clean, making it safe to swim.
Flocculant
Pool flocculant is a chemical that when added to water clumps together particles sending them to the bottom of the pool where they can then be vacuumed.
It works by clumping together particles suspended in the pool water, which are too small to be caught in the filter. By clumping them together, it makes them big enough to fall out of suspension to the bottom of the pool. They can then be removed by manual vacuuming.
Flocculant is a good choice if you have limited time to clear your pool water or the water is particularly cloudy – maybe you have a party the next day and the pool needs to look great.
Quite a bit of manual work is involved to clean up the mess left by flocculant though. If you have a week or so, pool clarifier may be a better choice
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