How To Add Chemicals to a Swimming Pool
Your swimming pool should be an oasis for you, your family and friends throughout the swimming season. It should not only look as good as it can through proper maintenance, but it should feel and smell good as well. Water balance is the key to success in making sure your pool's chemistry stays within acceptable parameters. Clean and clear water will not only make your guests feel wonderful, but the entire pool experience will be a pleasant memory. So test your water, add the chemicals you need, but be safe and enjoy some fun in the sun. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Pool-water test-kit (droplet type)
- A 5-gallon bucket with a handle
- Alkalinity increaser
- pH plus
- pH minus
- Calcium hardness increaser
- 3-Inch chlorine pucks
- Chlorine shock
- Algaecide
Instructions
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1
Use a pool-water test-kit that can measure the amounts of alkalinity and calcium hardness in the water, as well a, the pH level and the amounts of both free and total chlorine. Test the water for these basic components several times to ensure the accuracy of the process.
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2
Prepare to begin the chemical additions based on your test results by wearing goggles and rubber gloves to prevent direct contact with any caustic material. Calcium hardness increaser and chlorine shock are two substances in particular that can cause skin irritation, so you need to be careful when handling them.
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3
Add the chemicals in their proper order. Begin by adding alkalinity increaser if needed, followed by either Ph plus or Ph minus and then calcium hardness increaser, which concludes the balancing portion of the water treatment.
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4
Measure exact proportions of the chemicals that you need and use only that amount. Divide each chemical addition into 1/3 portions, adding each third separately over the course of 20-minutes or so. Run the pump and filter during these additions. Broadcast these balancing chemicals across the surface of the water since they are in powder form.
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5
Test and retest your pool water during the chemical portion additions to ensure that you do not overshoot your target numbers for each chemical's ideal range.
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6
Place chlorine tablets or 3-inch chlorine pucks into the skimmer basket, which will automatically distribute them as the intake water flows over and slowly dissolves them. Algaecide, which comes in liquid form, should be added to a bucket filled with pool water and then poured around the inside perimeter of the pool to have the most effect on pool surfaces where algae can form.
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7
Fill a bucket with pool water and add chlorine shock to the bucket, which should then be poured into the skimmer for distribution in the pool.
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Tips & Warnings
Know exactly how many gallons of water are in your pool, because that is how you will measure dosages of all chemicals to be added. Check the percentage of chlorine on the bag of shock that you use and make sure that one bag is enough. A higher chlorine concentration may be more expense per bag, but you may need fewer bags, which will save money. Use a concentrated algaecide, following the recommended initial dose for your size pool and then the subsequent weekly maintenance additions as well. Perform your water tests with a pool-water test-kit that utilizes drops instead of paper strips. Drops provide an accuracy that you will need. Test-strips give a general range based on color perception, which gets the pool owner near accuracy, but may result in an incorrect amount of a chemical to be added. Strips can unknowingly become contaminated and rendered useless by dripping moisture into their container from wet hands during the testing phase. If drops are outdated or no longer useful, they will show this problem by producing a color variation very different from anything in the realm of possibility for that particular test.
The addition of too much calcium hardness can only be rectified by dumping almost 1/5 of the pool water out and adding fresh water to the pool. There is no calcium hardness decreaser. Never swim in the pool immediately after adding chlorine shock or calcium hardness increaser because it is can cause skin irritations. Never drop 3-inch chlorine pucks directly into the pool or they will bleach out the color of the liner where they make contact. Never mix any chemicals together in a container.
