Pool water chemistry forms the most important aspect of pool maintenance. It is critical to the safety and hygiene of the pool and its users. Regular maintenance helps save a great deal of bucks for the pool owners too. Therefore a basic understanding of swimming pool care is necessary.
Chlorine is known to be a very good cleaning agent for it readily dissolves in pool water to combine with bacteria, fungi or other foreign substances present to destroy them. This happens because the chlorine combines with the foreign substance to render it inactive, which saves the water from getting contaminated. These combined chlorine and foreign substances are then removed using pool filter system.
Chlorine is found available in different forms in the market. And new types are being introduced with time. They come in tablet, stick and granular forms. By comparing the different types, you can easily find out the one which will be most suitable for your purpose.
The pH level of the pool water is of utmost importance. A pH level of 7.2 - 7.6 is considered optimal. "Burning eyes" that many swimmers complain of is usually the result of a disturbed pH level of the pool water. The pH can be easily detected by using "drop" type test kit. If the level of pH is found to be high, it can be reduced to the optimum level by adding Hydrochloric Acid into it. Whether it is to increase or decrease the pH level, add only small amounts of the chemical at a time. Retest the water after about 6 hours of continuous filtration before adding further.
In case you face availability issues with chlorine, it can be substituted by bromine. This works similar to chlorine and helps kill bacteria and other foreign contaminants. Bromine is commonly used in spas and hot tubs because of its stability in spa water temperature. It also causes less irritation of the skin and eyes because of which many professionals prefer bromine over chlorine for pool water.