Maintaining chemical balance in your swimming pool

There are two important things to maintain the condition of your swimming pool: sanitation and chemical balance. Sanitation and balance should be preserved in your pool. Here are the reasons why: 1. Disease causing pathogens, such as bacterium, may dwell and multiply in untreated water. 2. Various parts of the pool can react negatively to the presence of disproportioned chemicals in water. Too much acid in water will oxidize metal equipment and will cause skin irritation. 3. Chemically imbalanced water can also cause irritation to the eyes. 4. Chemical imbalance will also cause the water to appear cloudy. Chlorine is the most popular disinfecting agent used in the swimming pools and is a excellent swimming pool fence. It is used in the form of a chemical compound which is either in solid state (calcium hypochlorite) or liquid state (sodium hypochlorite). The swimming pool also has the following components: 1. Ph level Ph level refers to the relative proportion of acid and alkalis present in the water. A pool pH of 7.2 and 7.8 is recommended by experts. Low pH levels will make your chlorine disperse faster while high pH levels will make it idle. Too much acid in water will also cause metal equipments to rust. 2. Total alkalinity The ideal alkalinity reading is 100 ppm. Too much alkalinity of the water will result undesirable affects to both water and plumbing equipment. Additionally, just like too much acidity, it can also affect the effectiveness of chlorine. 3. Calcium hardness The ideal range of calcium in the pool is 300 ppm. It is essential to maintain this range to keep the condition of your plaster. The presence of too much calcium may also cause the water to appear cloudy. 4. Total dissolved solids There are other dissolved elements in pool water just like calcium. These minerals may affect the efficiency of your chemical additives. The appropriate amount of total dissolves solids in water should not exceed 3000 ppm. 5. Stabilizer Hypochlorous acid which is the result of the reaction of chlorine to water kills harmful pathogens through a biological reaction it normally undergoes. Hypochlorous acid is not a stable kind of acid. It reacts with various factors including the ultraviolet rays exhibited by the sun. Pool chlorinators need to add a stabilizing agent to react with chlorine and produce a compound that will not disintegrate as easily even with the presence of ultraviolet rays. The ideal range of stabilizers is 40 to 100 ppm. However, with hypochlorous acid unstable as it is, may react to the other chemicals present in water even with the use of a stabilizing agent. It is due to the combination of hypocholorous acid and ammonia, which is present in urine, that chloramines are produced. Chloramine is a chemical compound which has poor disinfecting effect and also causes irritation to the skin and eyes. A shock treatment is usually used to free the pool from chloramines and other unnecessary chemical compounds that are present.