Featured Image Caption: Pool Chemical Safety
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The filtration system of a pool does the heavy lifting when it comes to cleaning the water. However, it needs a chemical reaction for a more fine-tuned result. Pool chemical safety is available here for more info. It’s essential to manipulate everything carefully and maintain the balance of the pools at the same time.
Many chemicals are needed to maintain the water’s balance and cleanliness. Some of the reasons why you should do a little manipulation are the following:
- Dangerous pathogens like bacteria and viruses thrive in untreated water. If the pool is filled with this neglected water for an extended period of time, it’s going to be a perfect place for organisms that carry disease to move from one place to another.
- The wrong balance of the chemicals can make the other areas of the pool deteriorate faster.
- There can be irritation to the eyes and skin if there are too many chemicals.
- The improper balance of chemicals will result in very cloudy water.
If you want to take care of the pathogens in the water, a disinfectant can help remove most of them. One of the more popular disinfectants is chlorine. Chlorine often comes in the form of calcium hypochlorite that is solid. The liquid form is sodium hypochlorite. Other swimming pool cleaner chemicals that you should check out if you want to know more to have the proper balance needed. There’s a variety of them out there and you may want to use several at once when you want to have a cleaner pool.
When you add these compounds, they will react with many other chemicals and hypochlorous acid. This is the acid responsible for killing pathogens and bacteria by attacking their entire structures and enzymes. The acids also dissolve cell walls with the help of a reaction called oxidation. Other sanitizers are available aside from chlorine-like bromide that can do the same thing but may have different results.
Chlorine is typically applied in the pool in tablet or powdered forms. Other experts may use gaseous chlorine to add this to the water anywhere in the entire cycle. The professionals may recommend using chlorine after the filter process, which may be possible with a chemical feeder. If everything is added directly into the water through skimmer boxes and tablets, the chemicals will concentrate in one area, and the distribution may be unequal.
Another problem with the hypochlorous acid is that it’s not relatively stable. In some instances, the sun’s ultraviolet rays can cause this to degrade, and it can combine with other chemicals in the water that will result in a whole new compound.
This is why the chlorinators in a pool may include cyanuric acid as a stabilizing agent. This will react to the chlorine and form a more stable compound that does not degrade quickly, especially if your pool is exposed to the sun’s rays.
About the Chloramines
Even if a stabilizing agent is present, there’s also the chance that the hypochlorous acid can combine with other chemicals, and they won’t be as effective as sanitizers. For example, the acid can mix with a urine’s ammonia and it ultimately produces chloramines.
The by-products like chloramines aren’t only acting as poor sanitizers; they can also irritate the eyes and skin. Another thing is that they can cause an unpleasant odor. There’s a distinctive smell in an outdoor pool caused by chloramines and not just an ordinary hypochlorous acid, and an expert can identify this right away.
A pungent smell may signify that there’s too little chlorine or hypochlorous acid floating around rather than too much of this. If you want to get rid of the extra chloramines, you may want to shock the pool by dosing it with many chemicals with the maximum dose to remove the unhelpful chemical compounds and organic matter. Understand the chloramine better through this link here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/chloramine.
About the pH Levels
The total pH level is measured with the balance between alkalinity and acidity. There should be a relative proportion of alkalis and acids in the water. To put everything simply, the water should not be too alkaline or acidic to prevent any undesirable reactions from chemicals.
Another thing is that the factors of alkalinity and acidity can affect the effectiveness of chlorine. If you have acidic water, it can cause etching and corrosion on the metal equipment and skin irritation. The alkalinity can cause scaling of the surface of the plumbing equipment and pool surface. Know that chlorine won’t destroy the bacteria and viruses if there’s too much alkalinity in the water. If the surface is too acidic, the chlorine will dissipate more quickly.
A pH scale level of 0 can mean extreme acidity, while 14 is highly alkaline. The neutral state is seven, and many experts may recommend that the levels be between 7.2 to 7.8. Adding soda ash can raise the pH levels, and a dose of muriatic acid can lower it.
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