Perhaps the leading cause of frustration for pool and spa owners is trying to maintain the water balance of the water. It sometimes seems , no matter how hard you try and regardless of how many “Shock” or “Burnout” or other advertised cure-all magic pool care products in a foil pack they throw in the water, the water seemingly not only resists, it becomes cloudier by the hour and finally in total defiance it turns green.
Don’t feel bad about it, we are talking about water chemistry and not many pool owners are chemists. Sometimes even skilled pool techs with many years experience and buckets full of expertise find a pool that can be very challenging to understand.
There's a lot more involved in trying to make your pool remain in an ongoing clean, clear, and above all hygienic condition, than just chucking in chlorine and running the pump.
The process’s that are taking place in your pool are filtration and sanitisation. The filtration process will remove anything particulate from the water like leaves and bugs and any particles in suspension between about 10 to 40 microns in size depending on the pools filtration system.
The sanitisation process uses a disinfectant in the form of either granular chlorine (calcium hypochlorite) or liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) in pools, and bromine in spas.
The pool sanitisation process’s effectiveness is dependent on all the combined elements being in balance. For example, regardless of how much chlorine you add to a pool, if the Ph level is excessively high the chlorine will be chemically unavailable to act as a sanitizer.
It is like adjusting the Ph levels in your garden soil to make nutrients available to your plants, the Ph must be within a particular range.
As with many processes’ pool water balancing has a sequence, and that sequence has a definite order. The starting point must begin with the reference point test for Total Alkalinity before anything else. Unless and until this test and adjustment is made no other tests or adjustments can be relied upon.
A chemical balance is what it is all about and as most of the pool chemicals involved are interdependent, the structure must be built on a proper base to ensure your pool looks great and more importantly is safe to use.
It is helpful for a pool owner to understand the relationship between the TA (Total Alkalinity) and the Ph levels of a swimming pool. To monitor these pool chemical levels a simple pool test kit is all that’s needed to tell whether you need to make adjustments.
To raise TA, sodium bicarbonate is added to the pool. This is also known as “buffer”. If the TA is too low the next test for Ph levels will be subject to what’s known as Ph bounce, meaning the test result is probably inaccurate. Hence the need to buffer or hold the Ph more stable resulting in an accurate test result.
Total Alkalinity is diluted over time by water added to make up for that lost through splash out, back-washing and rain. Ideally TA should be between 80 and 120ppm. With the Ph level, the aim is to have it at a level where the water in the pool is comfortable to be in but also allows the chlorine to do its job. Ideally a reading between 7.2 and 7.8 is good and between 7.4 to 7.6 is even better.
If the homeowner can carry out the TA tests and make the appropriate adjustments the only other changes that may be needed would be to bring high Ph levels down by adding hydrochloric acid. Chlorine levels need to be monitored at a level of between 1 to 3ppm. As most pools today are salt chlorinated it’s as easy as adjusting the output of the chlorinator cell provided the pool salt level is around 3200ppm.
There are quite a number of other pool water tests that can make it much more complicated, such as calcium hardness, cyanuric acid levels, totally dissolved solids, and phosphates to name a few.
Other considerations that may make a difference to how much of which chemical is best for any pool can be the volume of the pool, the number of hours it is in direct sunlight, backyard surrounding vegetation, prevailing winds, maintenance schedule, bather load, etc.
There does come a time, and maybe the only one-time in a year, just as the weather starts warming up, to arrange with your local pool service company to have a professional pool technician carry out a comprehensive water analysis.
To make sure all pool chemical levels are at optimum levels to ensure the pool is ready for all the upcoming activity of the season, with no unpleasant surprises. Pool Technicians have the experience to identify problems efficiently and will save you the hassle and avoid a possible green pool recovery.
Leisure Time Pool Maintenance take pride in offering our professionalism and a comprehensive pool or spa service with complete pool water analysis in the Mount Martha area.
For pool servicing, to repair equipment or for equipment sales, we offer equipment supply and installation. If you need help with any pool issue call us for a free quote.
Pool owners in Mount Martha can contact Leisure Time Pool Maintenance for all pool maintenance services including scheduled pool cleaning packages
Leisure Time Pool Maintenance operate an exceptional mobile pool and spa cleaning service to residential and commercial clients in the Mount Martha area.
