Basic Swimming Pool Maintenance

I have decided to post a very brief pool maintenance guide, this is just a very basic guide on how to properly maintain a pool.

In all pool maintenance there are three equally important things that need to addressed, they are

1) Sanitization (water purification)

2) Water Balance

3) Water filtration

All three of these need to addressed in your regular maintenance of your swimming pool. I'll briefly discuss each one.

Sanitization

Water is sanitized by adding an oxidizing agent to the water, in most cases Chlorine is used for this purpose. The chlorine is added to kill bacteria and prevents algae from growing.
In order for the chlorine to work the best, the following needs to considered.

pH
The pH of the water is critical, if the pH is incorrect the chlorine will be ineffective. Maintain a pH of 7.2 - 7.6 for both chlorine efficiency and bather comfort.

Stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid)
Whether you are using a Salt Water Chlorinator or adding the chlorine manually, the pool need stabilizer to prevent the loss of the chlorine due to sunlight. It is impossible to maintain the chlorine levels if there is no stabilizer and the net effect is that you are waisting your money on chlorine if your water is not stabilized.

Dosing times
we now know that chlorine is affected by sunlight, it stands to reason therefore that the best time to add your chlorine is in the evening after the sun is off the water.
It is also important to understand that we need to maintain a constant level of chlorine and chlorine has a limited lifespan in the water, it therefore follows that we should add small quantities often as opposed to adding a large amount periodically.

Water Balance

The water balance of your pool is equally important and we measure the following in pool water:

Test Correct Level
pH 7.2 - 7.6
Total Alkalinity (TA) 80 - 120 ppm (Plaster) 125 - 150 ppm (fibreglass)
Calcium Hardness 250 ppm
Cyanuric Acid 60ppm
Chlorine Concentration 1.5ppm
Copper 0.0ppm
Iron 0.0ppm

If you look at the average home water test kit you will notice that the test will include pH and Chlorine, and some will include TA, the reason for this is that they are the ones that are prone to change over time in your pool and need constant monitoring, and should therefore form part of your weekly test.

Water Filtration

This is the heart beat of your pool. It is essential that you consider the following:

1) your pool pump needs to run for long enough to turn the water in your pool around twice a day, this is important as sand filter in your pool is a polishing plant and the more times the water passes through the filter, the cleaner it will be.

2) The filter collects dirt and debris from the pool water and will need to be backwashed to remove this collected dirt. You should backwash your filter when the pressure gauge shows an increase of pressure of 0.5bar. If you do not have a pressure gauge, you should install it.

3) The sand in your filter has a limited lifespan. The common misconception is that we replace the sand in the filter because it has become too dirty to filter properly, this is in fact incorrect. The sand is a rough silica sand, that is useful to filter water because of it's rough texture. As water passes over the sand the sand granules are eroded and become smooth. Once this happens the filtration is no-longer efficient and the sand will need to be replaced.
You should replace your Sand every 2 years.

4) Remember to clean the baskets in the weir and the one in pump regularly.

Summary

chlorine, add your chlorine daily in the evening and make sure that there is stabilizer in the water.

Water Balance Test your water regularly and correct things before you see the symptoms like green water etc.

Filtration Run your pump for a minimum of 8 hours a day, backwash when needed and replace your filter sand every two years.

Remeber that at Ridd's Aqua Centre our water testing facilities are available to you for free, bring your sample in whenever you like and we will be more that happy to assist you.