Pool Maintenance: Water Quality Tips

Maintaining the water quality of your pool is required to keep your pool safe for swimmers. Despite the many components that go into creating the right balance of chemicals in treating your pool water, you’ll always be able to tell if something is off balance by just looking at the water. If you see that your pool water is cloudy, green, or looks different than the day before your chemical balance may be off. Maintaining the right chemical balance is key to preventing bacteria growth that can cause infections and irritation to swimmers. We’ve taken a look at the basic chemicals and processes used to treat your home’s pool water. These are basic remedies to fix a water quality problem however, it’s recommended that you have a professional pool maintenance contractor come and test your pool water three to five times a season to perform chemical tests that are not available for consumers.

Filtration: Having a filtration system is important when maintaining the cleanliness and pH level of your pool. A filtration system will pick up any debris or particles that may be carried in by swimmers, nearby plants, and chemicals. Determining the amount of time needed to run your filter is based on the size of your pool and speed of the system; you can check with your local pool maintenance contractor to help you decide on an optimal run time for your pool.

Pool pH Test Strip: Use a test strip from your local pool supply store to test the chemical level of your water. Make sure the test strip tests for, chlorine, pH, and cyanuric acid. It’s also recommended that you get a separate strip that specifically tests alkaline levels. Don’t forget to read the directions to check and see how long and how deep you need to place the test strip in the pool water. When checking your pH level you want the reading to be between 7.4 and 7.6, a reading below 7.2 shows that the water is more acidic and a reading above 7.8 shows that the water has a higher alkalinity level. Maintaining an ideal pH level is all about balancing your chemicals.

Tip: Place the strip away from any pool filters so as to not get in contact with the debris or other inflow of chemicals.

Total Alkalinity: Your level of alkalinity is in direct relation to your pH level, meaning that if your pH level is too low then your alkalinity level is also low. If your alkalinity level or pH level is low you can use baking soda, alkaline increaser or alkaline up. If levels are too high, use an alkaline decreaser or pH decreaser.

Chlorine: Doing weekly chlorine shocks helps reduce and stop the growth of bacteria and algae from growing in your pool water. Chlorine can come in tablet, powder or liquid form so it is important that you read the instructions to determine how much to use in accordance to your pool size. If you decide to use bromine tablets instead of chlorine to sanitize your pool the readings will also be different, so keep in mind the ideal level when working with either. After placing either chlorine or bromine, don’t forget to do a final check on their levels.

Tip: Chlorine and bromine will combine with bacteria and other organic contaminants to kill the toxic contaminants in your water. Once the chlorine has “combined” with the bacteria the chlorine molecules become inactive and can no longer sanitize your pool. The combined chlorine will be filtered out of the the water and will be burned up by your next shock treatment. However, a large portion of bromine will stay active even after combining with bacteria and a shock treatment will also only burn away the bacteria leaving the bromine present in your water.

Cyarunic Acid: Cyarunic acid is a chemical that prevents chlorine from being evaporated by the sun. Although chlorine contains cyarunic acid, it is available for you to place in your pool if the levels are too low. However, adding too much will reduce the effects of the chlorine in the water and tends to lower the levels of alkalinity and pH.