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Understanding Pool
Water Chemistry
Just imagine, your drinking
water may not be good enough to swim in. After all, tap water often has high
levels of minerals and low pH - two factors that can harm your pool and prevent
chemical treatments from doing their job.
The two most important things to remember about the health of your pool water
are that it must be sanitized and the water balanced. The most cost effective
way to sanitize your pool is with chlorine, as you will read later. Keeping your
pool balanced, which means keeping the five basic pool water components (pH,
total alkalinity, calcium hardness, total dissolved solids and stabilizer)
within their proper ranges, helps your sanitizer work more effectively.
The Five Basic
Components of Balanced Pool Water
- Total
Alkalinity In simple terms, total alkalinity refers to how
much alkaline is in the water. But you can't fully know the importance of
total alkalinity without referring to pH, because the two go hand in hand.
High alkaline water leads to high pH. Low alkaline water leads to low pH.
For now, just remember that the average swimming pool should have an
alkalinity reading of 100 ppm.
- pH
Keeping your pH levels within the proper range is not only important for
swimmer comfort, it's also important for keeping your equipment and pool
finish in good condition. pH refers to the acidity or baseness of your pool
water. All you need to remember is that a proper pH level is around 7.4 to
7.6 on a pH test kit's numeric scale. 0 to 7 reflects a low or acidic pH. 8
to 14 means the pool has a base pH level. Low pH readings mean your chlorine
will dissipate a lot quicker. High pH levels make chlorine inactive. And
that means the money you're spending on chlorine is a waste.
- Calcium
Hardness Anyone who's ever washed their hair in hard water
knows that hard water doesn't do much for getting up a good lather. But in
your pool, just the right amount of calcium is essential. Too little and
your plaster can erode. Too much and your water could become cloudy, scale
could form and stains might start. 200 to 400 ppm is the general range for
calcium hardness, while 300 ppm is ideal for the average pool.
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Stabilizer Stabilizer is to chlorine like your home's
insulation is to keeping in hot or cold air - it helps retain your chlorine
longer just as insulation helps retain heat or air conditioning. Stabilizer
is even added to some chlorine compounds to protect them from the breakdown
effects of sunlight. When your stabilizer level is low, you'll use a lot
more chlorine. When it's high, you may need to dilute your pool water to
bring it back into the 40 to 70 ppm ideal range.
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Total Dissolved Solids
(TDS) Like calcium, there are many other dissolved
elements in pool water. Unless it's distilled, all water contains dissolved
minerals. As pool water evaporates, minerals remain behind and become
concentrated. The more concentrated these minerals become, the harder it is
for chemical additives to work and stains can form. If you have 2500 ppm or
more of total dissolved solids or TDS, you may need to drain some water and
add fresh water.
Capabilities
- Capability 1
- Description of capability 1
- Capability 2
- Description of capability 2
- Capability 3
- Description of capability 3
Reference Accounts
- Reference 1
- Description of services provided
- Reference 2
- Description of services provided
- Reference 3
- Description of services provided
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