What is Balanced Water?
In the warm to scorching Arizona sun, nothing beats the cool refreshment of a swimming pool. But when you bought your home or built your pool, you may not have known about the components of maintaining healthy water and all the pool upkeep. A pool’s chemistry is key to its overall appearance and health, and you don’t even have to be a science wiz to figure it out. Basic testing and supplies can keep your water balanced all year long. And there’s always Pink Dolphin Pool Care to the rescue if you need us!
Finding Balance
Aside from being sanitized, having balanced pool water is the most important aspect to maintaining your pool. So what does “balanced” mean when referring to pool water? There are five major elements of pool water: pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, dissolved solids and stabilizer. Each element has to stay within a certain, specified level and each element interacts with the others to help chlorine, the sanitizer, work effectively. With all the elements and external variables, the levels are constantly changing. Keeping the water balanced is keeping these five elements in their target levels.
Periodic Pool Elements
The five basic elements of pool water need to stay within their ideal levels to maintain balanced water. Alkalinity and pH are major contributors to the balance. A low alkaline level leads to a low pH level and vice versa. pH refers to the acidity of the pool water. In low pH water, chlorine will dissolve too quickly, whereas high pH makes chlorine inactive altogether. Enter the stabilizer. Stabilizer helps the chlorine be as effective as possible and is sometimes added to ward off UV rays that can decrease chlorine’s efficiency. As with pH, a low level means you’ll need more chlorine.
Calcium in the pool may not seem like its important, but it can affect chalkiness in the water and increase stains long the waterline. Dissolved solids refer to the minerals left in the water when the water evaporates. Too many dissolved solids get in the way of chemicals working and encourage stains.
There Will Be a Test
Due to constantly changing variables and element levels, it’s important to test your pool at least once a week. Convenient test strips are available, though their reliability is not as strong as good old test tube kits. Kits are easy to read and help you add the necessary ingredients or guide you to add fresh water.
In Arizona where temperatures are constantly over 100 degrees in the summer, more frequent testing is probably a good idea. Additional testing is also needed after storms or parties where water may have been exposed to additional elements. Shocking the pool, or adding extra chlorine to sanitize and get levels back to normal, may also be needed once a week. It’s especially important to test the water balance after adding any chemicals, but especially after shocking to make sure no one swims in dangerous levels of chemicals.
Trade in Your Lab Coat
If chemistry and balancing elements aren’t your thing, or your balance has been off for quite some time, just call Pink Dolphin Pool Care. We offer routine maintenance, part and pump repair, spot treatments, algae removal and more.
