Swimming pools - water quality  

  If not properly maintained, the water in your domestic swimming pool harbours
a range of microbes, including bacteria and algae, that can cause health
problems such as ear, nose and throat infections. You should check your
swimming pool regularly to make sure that the water is healthy. A simple way to
do this is to take a daily look into the pool. Is the water clear? Can you see to the
bottom of the pool? Does the water look any different to how it looked the day
before? Any changes, such as cloudiness, mean that you need to test the water
and take steps to improve water quality before anyone goes swimming. 

Sources of contamination
Some of the various sources of bacteria and microbes in your pool can include:

 People swimming in the pool - this is the main source of bacteria.

 Animals, such as dogs - some pets like to paddle in the pool on hot days.
 Dead wildlife - for example, frogs or lizards or insects may occasionally
drown in your pool.
 Debris from around the property, such as leaves, grass and dust.

Swimming pool maintenance

The five keys to maintaining water quality in your swimming pool include:
 Filtration
 Chlorination
 pH level
 Total alkalinity (TA)
 Calcium hardness.

Filtration
The water in your pool is pumped through a filter to remove debris and particles.
How long you need to run the filter depends on the size of your swimming pool
and the horsepower of your pool pump. If you are unsure, check your instruction
manual or consult with a pool maintenance company. Remember that even when
you are filtering your pool according to specifications, about 35 per cent of the
water still won't be filtered.

Chlorination
Chlorine is a chemical that disinfects the water and helps to remove debris. You
should use a chlorine stabiliser to extend the chlorine's half-life. Generally, the
longer your filtration cycle, the less chlorine you will need. Similarly, the more
chlorine you use, the shorter your required filtration cycle. Remember that your
chlorine requirements will be affected by a range of factors including your pump
and filter system, water temperature, water level, amount of debris, and the
number of swimmers in your pool.

pH level
The pH level indicates how acidic or alkaline the water is at any given time. A
pH level of 7 means that water is neutral; above 7 means the water is alkaline,
while below 7 indicates acidity. You should aim for a pH level of between 7 and
7.6. If the water pH is higher than 8, anyone who swims in the pool is at risk of
skin rashes, while a pH of lower than 7 can sting the swimmers' eyes. Some of
the many factors that can affect your pool's pH level include heavy rain, lots of
swimmers and pool chemicals. Remember to regularly check your pool's pH
level.

Total alkalinity (TA) 

Total alkalinity (TA) means the sum of all alkaline chemicals in your water. If
TA is too low, the pH balance can become unstable; concrete and painted pool
surfaces will also deteriorate over time. TA and pH are interconnected; for
example, raising the TA could also raise the pH. Make sure you don't disrupt
your pool's pH when adjusting the TA, and vice versa.

Calcium hardness
Calcium hardness refers to the amount of the mineral calcium dissolved in your
water. Low calcium levels will deteriorate pool surfaces, while high calcium
levels will leave a 'scum' or scale on surfaces and equipment.

General water quality suggestions

Be guided by pool professionals, but general suggestions on maintaining good
water quality in your swimming pool include:
 Check your pH and chlorine levels daily. Preferably, these tests should
be done before the first swim of the day, to make sure the water quality
hasn't altered overnight.
 In very hot weather, it is a good idea to check the pH and chlorine twice
daily.
 Remember that heated pools need more chlorine than non-heated pools.
 Brush and vacuum your pool on a regular basis.
 Regularly check the pump, skimmer boxes and other pool equipment,
and repair or replace parts as necessary.

Solving common problems

Be guided by your pool maintenance specialist or pool chemical supplier, but
general suggestions include:
 Algae - these single-celled organisms have a short life cycle, and can turn
the water in your swimming pool green within a few hours. The cause is
zero chlorination, which allows these organisms to thrive. Treatment
includes lowering the pH level by adding pool acid and, later, adding a
copper treatment to the water to kill the spores. You can use a brush and
garden hose to remove algae from pool surfaces. The next day, vacuum the
settled algae from the floor of your pool - don't try to remove it by running
the filter. Make sure you check the TA, pH and calcium hardness before you
allow anyone to swim.
 Faeces - young children can occasionally have a toileting accident while
swimming. Get everyone to vacate the pool, and fish out the faces using a
fine mesh scoop. If your pool is small, you might consider draining and
cleaning it. Otherwise, super chlorinate the pool for at least half an hour
before letting anyone swim. Always ensure chlorine levels are back to
regular levels before swimming.
 Chlorine smell - a strong chlorine smell can affect the eyes, nose and skin.
Contrary to popular belief, it's too little chlorine that causes the smell, not
too much. Too little chlorine permits chloramine compounds to form. It is
these compounds that have the strong smell and that cause the irritation. If
your pool smells strongly, check the chlorine level - you'll find you need to
super chlorinate.

Safety suggestions for pool chemicals

Pool chemicals can be dangerous if not handled properly. Suggestions include:
 Keep pool chemicals locked up in a cool, dry place.
 Don't store pool chemicals near other chemicals or flammables,
including petrol, detergents or alcohol.
 Always use chemicals strictly as instructed.
 Don't combine chemicals together - for example, mixing different types
of chlorine together (such as granular and liquid) can cause an explosion.
 To avoid splashing the chemicals, add the chemicals to water - don't add
the water to the chemicals.

 If you are splashed, rinse contaminated clothing straight away and wash
your skin thoroughly in plenty of water.

Conditions for water disinfection

Disinfection of swimming pool water

Micro-organisms polluted swimming pools. Every swimmer adds 1.000.000 to
1.000.000.000 microorganisms to the water. The water itself contains microorganisms, as
well. After oxidation a disinfectant must be added to the water to kill pathogenic
microorganisms.

Demands on disinfectants
Disinfectants used for swimming pool water disinfection must meet certain demands.
They should be harmless and non-irritating to swimmers and attendants. They must be
active in small concentrations and remain their activity for a long time.
Contrary to drinking water disinfectants, disinfectants for swimming pool treatment must
be active in the pool itself, because pollutions and pathogenic micro-organisms are
constantly added to the water. Therefore the water has to maintain a residual disinfectant
concentration. The disinfectant must be easily traced and measured and should be safe to
use.

Disinfection methods for swimming pool water

 In some countries, sodium hypochlorite is used for both oxidation and disinfection of
swimming pools. When it is added to water, sodium hypochlorite increases the pH value.
It is better to use chlorine as a disinfectant and an oxidizer at a pH value of 6,5. Often,
acid is added to lower the pH value.

Demands on swimming pool conditions

Chlorine-based disinfectants are among the most frequently applied disinfectants and
oxidizers for swimming pool treatment. Chlorine is usually added as hypochlorous acid
(HOCl) or hypochlorite (OCl-).
Chlorine kills pathogenic microorganisms that are present in the water. When too much
chlorine is present, it can cause eye and mucous membrane irritation, as a result of
chloramine formation.
Threshold and maximum levels are set for chlorine concentration. For available chlorine
the minimum concentration in swimming pools is set to 0,5 milligram per litre. The
maximum level is set to 1,5 mg/l. When using cyanic acid (stabilizer) minimum and
maximum values are set to respectively 2,0 and 5,0 mg/L. For outdoor swimming pools
and indoor pools smaller than 20 m2, the maximum level is set to 5,0 mg/l.
Lowering the chlorine concentration is undesirable, because this increases the risk of
waterborne diseases.
Alternative disinfectants can be used as well, these decrease the required amount of
chlorine or cause chlorine addition to be irrelevant.
The pH value is measured daily. It should be between 6,8 and 7,8. At a pH of 7,0, the
amount of free chlorine present is 70%, while this concentration decreases to 20% at pH
of 8,0.
The water and air temperature in swimming pools is usually high. Furthermore the
humidity is high. This influences the activity of disinfectants and the behaviour of
substances that are formed in the swimming pool during disinfection. When sodium
hypochlorite is used, chlorine gas is formed due to reactions with the acid that is added to
lower the pH of the water. Chlorine gas must be removed, because it can be harmful to
human health and corrosive on materials. Chloramines, formed through reactions of
ureum and chlorinated disinfectants, are corrosive as wel

 Sand – The bullet proof filter

Water is pushed through a bed of filter sand and removed through a set of lateral tubes
at the bottom. The filter area of a sand filter is equal to the area of the filter itself. For
example, a 24” filter will have 3.14 sqft of filter area. Only the top 1” of sand is
actually used to filter the water. The principle behind this filter is that water is pushed
through the filter sand, somewhat like an espresso machine. Dirty water goes in the top
and clean water exits out the bottom. As the filter sand becomes plugged with debris
from the pool, the pressure increases on the filter and the water flow drops. In order to
clean the filter, you just run it in reverse and dump the waste water; this is referred to as
“backwashing” the filter. Once the filter is backwashed, you move to the rinse mode
and that repacks the sand and then back to filter. This has to be done manually every
few weeks. From a hydraulics standpoint, a backwash valve is typically the most
inefficient piece of equipment you can add to a swimming pool system. Should the
 sand ever become really dirty, it is easily and inexpensively replaced. In terms of
particle size filtered out, sand is the lease effective method – it can allow smaller
particles to pass back into the pool.
 Cartridge – The economic low maintenance filter.
This one is easy to understand. Water passes though a filter material and the filter
captures the debris. This is just like the water filters used under your sink. Cartridges
have much more available area to filter than sand. Most start at 100 sqft and the
majority of the cartridge filters sold are larger than 300 sqft. So they don’t clog up as
quickly and therefore you touch them less frequently. There are two types of cartridge
filters in general. In the first case, there are filters elements that are inexpensive to
replace and as such, they don’t tend to last as long. Then there are other filters that have
very expensive elements and these last 5 or more years. In both cases, cartridge filters
are designed to run at lower pressure than sand. This puts less back-pressure on the
pump and hence you get more flow and turnover for an equivalent pump size.
Generally these filters have to be cleaned once or twice a season by simply hosing them
off, so you don’t touch them as often. In terms of particle size filtered out, cartridge is
somewhere between sand and DE.
 DE – The water polisher.
Diatomaceous earth is mined and is the fossilized exoskeletons of tiny diatoms. They
are used to coat “grids” in the filter housing and act as tiny sieves to remove debris.
They are very small and as such can filter out particles as small as 5 microns. Diatom
filter area are sized between sand and cartridge – around 60-70 sqft are most common.
Once the filter pressure rises, the filter is backwashed just like a sand filter and then
“recharged” with more DE powder. Typically it is poured in a slurry into the skimmer
and it then coats the filter grids. DE filters run at higher pressures than cartridge filters
and as such can lead to some inefficiency and flow loss.

Cleaning the Swimming Pool water

Pollution in pool water comes either from the environment or is carried into the water by
the swimmers. Environmental pollution includes dust, leaves, chemical wastes, pollen,
spores, bacteria and so on, that are blown into the water by the wind. Swimmers carry
other pollutants into the water: sweat, suntan oils, urine, bacteria, viruses, etc.

Every swimming pool has a circulation pump and filter. The filters most common these
days are sand filters, and are much easier to maintain than the earlier diatomaceous filters
of a few years back. The pool pump ensures that the swimming pool water moves
through the filter every day, thus removing unwanted pollutants and disinfected organic
materials as quickly as possible.

Other common pool filters include DE (diatomaceous earth) filters, which are able to
filter out finer particles of dirt, though they require more maintenance. Cartridge filters
are also quite widespread and are quite simple to maintain. Nowadays a filter sand
substitute containing zeolite is gaining in popularity. The zeolite (specifically the
clinoptilolite mineral) is able to filter particles as finely as DE filters in addition to having
a capacity to absorb ammonia and its complexes (reducing combined chlorine and
offensive chlorine odours), while not requiring any extra maintenance.

Generally, the swimming pool pump should run for at least 6 - 8 hours each day.
There is usually a timer which cycles the pool pump on and off to ensure this constant
filtration. The circulation of pool water will remove floating or suspended particles of dirt
from the water, but has no effect on the substances which have settled to the bottom of
the swimming pool or "stuck" to the walls.

Depending on the environmental conditions and swimmer load, the swimming pool
needsregular brushing and vacuuming, generally about once a week in the swimming
season for home pools. With the circulation pump turned off, the walls and floor of the
pool are swept with a stiff brush. When the "dust" from the brushing settles, it is
vacuumed off the floor of the swimming pool. The pool must also be vacuumed after
treating with a flocculant. Nowadays, there is a variety of automatic swimming pool
cleaners, which suck the dirt off the walls and floor of the swimming pool whenever the
pool pump is running. These are really great for pool owners who never seem to have the
time for swimming pool chores.

Now that the vacuuming is done, it is time to backwash the filter. Sand filters trap dust
and dirt, as the name implies, in a bed of sand. When the filter has accumulated a large
amount of dirt, the water cannot pass freely through the sand and the filter loses
efficiency as the pressure increases. Backwashing sends water backwards through the
filter and flushes the trapped dirt out. After backwashing, you will notice an increase in
return pressure to the pool, and if you have a pressure guage, you should notice an
increase of at least 0,5 bar.

With the pool pump off, turn the filter setting to "backwash". Remove the leaf basket
from the weir, clean and replace it. Turn on the pump and let it run until the water coming
out of the waste pipe is clear. This generally needs a few minutes. Turn off the pump and
set the filter to rinse; this cleans out the pipes and prevents any dirt from returning to the
pool. It also settles the sand in the filter which has been stirred up by the backwashing.
Run the pump for about a minute and then turn it off. Set the filter to "closed". Open the
leaf trap near the pump, remove the basket and clean out all the leaves, twigs and rubbish
it may have collected. Replace the basket, set the filter to "filter" and turn your pump
back to its automatic (timer) operating position.

Great! The swimming pool looks clean and the filter has been rejuvenated. Now it's time
totest the pool water and adjust the pH and chlorine levels.

If your swimming pool needs topping up, now is the ideal time to put the hose in the
pool. It is very healthy for the swimming pool water to be replaced bit by bit, to prevent it
becoming stale and creating chemical problems or pool water problems. A routine of 5-
minute backwashing followed by a 1-minute rinse every week will ensure that you
replace about 5% of the swimming pool water each month. This means a complete
changeover of swimming pool water approximately every 2 years.
REMEMBER too, that the useful lifespan of the sand in your filter is 3-5 years. If you
neglect to change the sand, your filter will not be able to remove the finer particles of dirt
and your swimming pool can never be completely clean. Have the pool filter opened for
inspection at least every 2 years to avoid filtration problems

Swimming pool water treatment

Swimming pool water must undergo treatment, in order to remain clear and clean, free
from harmful substances, bacteria, viruses, algae and other pathogens and suitable for use
by swimmers.

Purification steps
Swimming pool water is treated by means of various purification steps (figure 1). The
water is first transported from swimming pools to a water purification plant (1). In the
water purification plant, it will flow through a hair removal filter (2), which removes raw
pollutions, such as hairs, plasters and leaves, from water. After that, a flocculant (3) is
added, which causes smaller colloids to bind together. Colloids are visible floating
particles of organic matter, such as skin tissue and textile fibers. This group of pollutants
also concerns colloidal pollutants, such as saliva, soap remains, cosmetic products and
skin fats. When these pollutants are abundant, they cause turbidity.
Parameters that indicate the presence of undissolved particles are water turbidity
and potassium permanganate (KMnO4) demand of the water. Potassium permanganate is
used as an indicator of organic matter oxidation.
Floating particles are removed from water in a sandfilter. The sandfilter is backflushed
periodically. Finally, pollutants are discharged into the sewer.

Read more: http://www.lenntech.com/processes/disinfection/swimming-pool-/swimming-
pool-treatment.htm#ixzz0meQRfZMr

. The balancing tank is located below and beyond the pool wall and it has a suction line
going to the equipment. The tank itself, is filled by pool water that either goes over the
edge ( like in a vanishing edge pool) or via a pipe or channel near the pool surface. The
tank itself is the reservoir that the pump takes water from and filters. That filtered water
is then sent back after being treated and heated, to the pool returns. This fills the pool to
the level of the wall (vanishing edge) or to the channel or pipe, for overflow to the
balancing tank. In a nut shell, that's how these pools work. How you plumb it, type of
pipe you use, etc, will vary depending on your local codes. These days, most
municipalities will insist on a schedule 40 PVC pipe or a red stripe poly pipe. If you go
with the poly, DON'T use nylon insert fittings. The nylon, though more expensive,
degrades when exposed to chlorine. Use the cheaper poly

Balance Tank
A balance tank is used in pools that do not use skimmer boxes. Its primary use is for the
storage of excess water generated from the displacement of swimmers bodies. A pool
with a balance tank maintains a constant depth regardless of how many people are in the
pool. Once the swimmers exit the pool the extra water that the balance tank has been
holding returns to the pool and the balance tank returns to its normal operating level. The
balance tank is also fitted with an equalising and control valve and is an ideal place to
dose chemicals that are able to be "slug dosed". The circulating pump's suction is also
located in the balance tank.fittings and avoid using any galvanized as well

Pool Tile
Pool tile has been around for a long time, mostly because it offers a customized look in a
variety of colors and patterns. The other big advantage to this material is its durability
and low maintenance. Aside from regular cleanings and the occasional re-grouting, this
material is built to last with relatively little care. If tile is your choice in a pool finish, you
will be happy to know that in addition to a rainbow of color choices, you can expand your
options even further with a pattern or design. Some pool owners love the look of a
random mosaic dotting the sides of the pool. Others enjoy a mosaic filled with dolphins,
turtles and tropical fish created with colored tiles.

Fiberglass Pools
Fiberglass pools come in prefabricated shapes with steps and platforms built into the
surface. These pools are relatively inexpensive compared to other types of pool finishes,
but fairly durable, making them a good value. Fiberglass offers a smooth, slip-proof
finish that families with children may appreciate. The pools are usually available in a
variety of shades of blue and grey for a natural look and feel.

Gunite Finishes
Gunite has become one of the most popular and durable pool finishes today. This
concrete mixture is sprayed onto a rebar infrastructure, allowing more flexibility and
strength than traditional poured concrete pools. These pools can be platered and or
painted to dress up the pool's interior.  The surface can also be coated with a skid proof
sealant to protect slipping in the pool. Gunite is a wonderfully durable material.  Often
times a plaster material is coated over a roughened concrete and give a permanent strong
finish.  Additives can be added into the plaster such as aggregate, colored quartz sand and
tile insets.