Fill water – Don’t take it for granted

In Blog, Chemistry, Maintenance Tips by Timothy Petsch

When we take on a new commercial pool, we like to gather baseline data from the Pool Operator to better understand the account we are going to support. 

One of the most important of those is the chemistry of the water that they fill the pool with. It continually amazes me how many commercial pool companies ignore this vital information, as it has a significant effect on many aspects of the chemical balancing of the water.

Let’s assume that your make up water is pretty alkaline, with a high pH; I would not choose CO2 as my first option for pH balance, why..well CO2 has a tendency to push pH up so you potentially would be having to add a bunch of acid into the water to reduce your TA (Total Alkalinity). So, I would in that circumstance then choose to use acid as the pH medium. Now, armed with that information and based on the level of the make up water’s Alkalinity, I would dilute the acid less the higher the Alkalinity was.

If I had acidic make up water, I would know that I would be good using a high pH chlorine such as Bleach or Cal-Hypo.

I would also check with the local water department to understand if I am getting well water, and if so, do they change wells during the year, and would ask to be notified when they do change so I am ahead of the game..well water can be harder than reservoir water, and could be contaminated with animal waste, which is high in phosphates and nitrates, which will neutralize chlorine in the blink of an eye.

So, get to know your source water and stay ahead of cloudy & unsafe water, and hundreds of dollars wasted to get your water back to where it was before you were surprised.


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