How to Balance Pool Chemicals

Your swimming pool water is comprised of different components, which collectively form your water's chemistry. The balance required among these components is critical to achieve a clean and clear pool with water that sparkles. Each chemical component has a known range of acceptable parameters or an ideal zone. Providing this ideal operating environment is necessary for the sanitizing system of choice to function properly. Once all of the chemicals are balanced and working together, the result should be a balanced pool that looks, feels and smells great.

Things You'll Need

• Water testing kit
• Alkalinity Increaser
• PH Plus
• PH Minus
• Calcium hardness increase product

Instructions

1. Make sure that you begin with a freshly swept and vacuumed pool filled to the proper height.

2. Run the pump and filter throughout both the testing and chemical addition portion of the process.

3. Use a Water-Test Kit that tests for Alkalinity, PH and Calcium Hardness. Test water samples twice to make sure that accurate readings were taken. Base your additions of balancing chemicals on the number of gallons of water in your pool.

4. Begin by reading the proper dosage of Alkalinity Increaser to add, which should be on the bucket of Alkalinity Increaser itself. The ideal range for your pool's alkalinity is between 80 and 120 parts per million. Separate the required dosage into equal thirds for addition, allowing ten minutes between additions. Broadcast the powder across the surface of the pool to distribute it.

5. Retest the water after each addition to make sure that the prescribed dosage is not too much, which would cause you to overshoot the ideal range marker.

6. Repeat the testing for PH after the addition of the Alkalinity Increaser, because alkalinity raises the level of your PH. Add either PH Plus or PH Minus to fine tune the PH until it is in the ideal range, which is 7.2 to 7.8. Broadcast the PH Plus as needed, but add the required PH Minus to a bucket of pool water and dump the contents into your skimmer. Since the PH Minus is so acidic, the less handling, the better.

7. Reading the label and using your test result, measure out the recommended amount of Calcium Hardness Increaser. Separate the dosage into thirds and add. Allow ten-minute intervals between additions accompanied by retesting the water for calcium content. The ideal range for calcium hardness is between 180 and 240 parts per million. Use the bucket method since this chemical is very harsh to handle.

8. Add your sanitizer of choice (such as chlorine) only when all three of the balancing chemicals are within their ideal range, which will permit the chlorine to function in an optimal environment.

Tips & Warnings

• Pool-Water Testing Kits can usually be purchased wherever pool chemicals are sold. They are sometimes included as part of the initial pool package purchase. Remember that when fresh water is added to the pool by rainfall or by hose to compensate for evaporation and splash out, you need to test the water and re-balance it. Add each of the three balancing agents as required by the test results to compensate for the lack of those chemicals in the fill water that was added. Wear protective goggles and gloves before handling any chemicals. Test your pool water several times a week because it is important to keep the pool balanced. If the alkalinity is too low, the PH will not stay in place and that will cause your chlorine to stop functioning. Use a weekly dosage of a concentrated algaecide and follow instructions about the initial dose and weekly booster dosages. Sweep and vacuum the pool each week as part of a regular maintenance routine. Empty out any accumulated debris from the skimmer basket and the pump basket as soon as possible to prevent leaves, for example, from breaking down and becoming an organic food source for algae.

• Never allow a week to go by without testing your pool water and making the necessary adjustments.

References

• Alkalinity
• PH
• Test Kits