Saturday, April 23, 2011
Summer Start Up
One of the most important things to remember when you're starting your pool for the summer swim season, is that organics, that just about anything that's alive in your filters, will start to GROW once the weather warms even a little bit. You have two alternatives to handling organic load; you can bleach it or remove it. Superchlorination, which is the most commonly recommended procedures, doesn't necessarily clean anything. It simply bleaches the lipids so you can't see how nasty the pool really is. A lipid is basically a fat cell or a lump of organic that comes with just about any living thing. Your typical pool guy will tell you that you simply "bleach the crap" out of your pool and, since you can't see anything with your naked eye, you're "good to go".
But, you and I (and any reasonable adult) realizes that just because you can't see something does not mean that it does not exist. And, once you bleach something, it becomes almost impossible to manage, because you can't find it to fix it.
There is another alternative to bleaching the crap in your pool...get it out! A typical chlorine or salt system is 80% chemicals and 20% filtration. A "natural system", like Nature Boy™ for instance (hint hint) is 80% filtration and only about 20% chemistry.
So. let's filter. Run a good quality metal sequestering agent throughout your pool water to "pull out" the metals that have built up over the fall/winter season. You'd be amazed at the amount of metal in tap water and/or rain water....both of which add major problems to managing your pool through the summer. We recommend our Advanced Prep, but there are a number of sequestering agents available.
Next, use a non-chlorine shock to dissemble organics. Our Advanced Shock is an oxidizing agent. (Think oxy-clean on speed). An oxidizer contributes to the speed at which organics are broken down. This agent also helps to increase DOC (dissolved oxygen content) in your water, which also speeds the breakdown or organics. Once an organic compound has been dissembled, it can be managed much more easily WITHOUT CHLORINE.
Finally, backwash your filters (if DE or sand). If your sand is three years old or more, considered "recharging" with ZeoSand. After three years, your sand will clump (think kitty litter) and it's worthless to the filtering process. If you're using DE, consider switching to ZeoFiber. You use a lot less and get a lot more filtering for less money. You'll also be helping to reduce the amount of nasties you dump into the rivers and streams.
Also, we would recommend having a pool store do a full spectrum pool water test. Even if you're using chlorine, you can make a better decision about what to do or what not to do once you have a true picture of your pool's chemistry.
But, you and I (and any reasonable adult) realizes that just because you can't see something does not mean that it does not exist. And, once you bleach something, it becomes almost impossible to manage, because you can't find it to fix it.
There is another alternative to bleaching the crap in your pool...get it out! A typical chlorine or salt system is 80% chemicals and 20% filtration. A "natural system", like Nature Boy™ for instance (hint hint) is 80% filtration and only about 20% chemistry.
So. let's filter. Run a good quality metal sequestering agent throughout your pool water to "pull out" the metals that have built up over the fall/winter season. You'd be amazed at the amount of metal in tap water and/or rain water....both of which add major problems to managing your pool through the summer. We recommend our Advanced Prep, but there are a number of sequestering agents available.
Next, use a non-chlorine shock to dissemble organics. Our Advanced Shock is an oxidizing agent. (Think oxy-clean on speed). An oxidizer contributes to the speed at which organics are broken down. This agent also helps to increase DOC (dissolved oxygen content) in your water, which also speeds the breakdown or organics. Once an organic compound has been dissembled, it can be managed much more easily WITHOUT CHLORINE.
Finally, backwash your filters (if DE or sand). If your sand is three years old or more, considered "recharging" with ZeoSand. After three years, your sand will clump (think kitty litter) and it's worthless to the filtering process. If you're using DE, consider switching to ZeoFiber. You use a lot less and get a lot more filtering for less money. You'll also be helping to reduce the amount of nasties you dump into the rivers and streams.
Also, we would recommend having a pool store do a full spectrum pool water test. Even if you're using chlorine, you can make a better decision about what to do or what not to do once you have a true picture of your pool's chemistry.
Monday, August 9, 2010
August
Hey, everyone. We're so pumped about finally getting this blog up and running. Please do stop in and comment, yell or inquire. We're after the very latest in safe, healthy, inexpensive, viable and green pools, spas and hot tubs. We're going to try and fill your cup full here, so check back often. This is our first entry, so I'm going to try to make this short and sweet.
Salt Systems
We get a lot of people who are looking at "salt" as an alternative to chlorine. This, unfortunately, is a bit of a trick played on the public by unseemly pool guys. Salt is chlorine! It's been touted as the green alternative, but the fact is that salt systems produce hypochlorous acid...which is chlorine. If you dig a little bit, you'll also find that salt systems simply convert NaCl to chlorine. The systems run anywhere from $1200 to more than $3000 per....plus salt, conditioners, algicides, etc. For those of you who've already switched, don't take it so hard. You're in about $2000, but you can still find ancillary systems that will help reduce the amount of chlorine you're using. And, of course, we'd highly recommend our own.
Salt Systems
We get a lot of people who are looking at "salt" as an alternative to chlorine. This, unfortunately, is a bit of a trick played on the public by unseemly pool guys. Salt is chlorine! It's been touted as the green alternative, but the fact is that salt systems produce hypochlorous acid...which is chlorine. If you dig a little bit, you'll also find that salt systems simply convert NaCl to chlorine. The systems run anywhere from $1200 to more than $3000 per....plus salt, conditioners, algicides, etc. For those of you who've already switched, don't take it so hard. You're in about $2000, but you can still find ancillary systems that will help reduce the amount of chlorine you're using. And, of course, we'd highly recommend our own.
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