Balanced Water Swimming Pool Help & Advice

Balanced Water ~ Water which is not corrosive and will not scale up your pool heater is said to be balanced.

Alkalinity Builder (Sodium Bicarbonate)

In areas where the tap water is soft, or if stabilised chlorine tablets (trichloro isocyanuric acid) are used it will be necessary to add alkalinity to the water.
Adding alkalinity builder will slowly increase the pH of the pool water.
Water with little alkalinity is corrosive to pool pumps, heat exchangers, concrete and tile grout.
The alkalinity should be kept above 120 ppm.
In hard water areas it will already be over this level.
Alkalinity builder is added direct to the pool.
It will sink to the bottom but will quickly dissolve if brushed.
1 kilogram of alkalinity builder will increase alkalinity by approximately 12 ppm in 45 cubic metres (10,000 gallons) of pool water.

Calcium Builder (Calcium Chloride)

If you have a tiled pool and are in a soft water area (an area where you kettle doesn’t fur up) it is important that you keep sufficient calcium in the pool water.
Hard water will naturally contain enough calcium.. If there is insufficient calcium in the water of a tiled pool the water will tend to dissolve the calcium in the grout making it soft. Eventually the grout will disappear leaving sharp edges which can cut the feet of bathers.
In a tiled pool the calcium hardness should be kept above 200 parts per million.
The calcium hardness can be increased by adding calcium chloride or by using calcium hypochlorite as your sanitiser. Spent calcium hypochlorite ends up as calcium chloride.

Our main aim is to help you have many years of happy usage from your swimming pool and this care giude should only be used as a general guide for more information on caring for your swimming pool please contact us now!