Water Care

Balancing Your Water

Everybody wants a sparkling clear swimming pool and hot tub. And the way to do that is to keep your water chemistry balanced. Not only does balanced water ensure a sparkling pool, it maintains the health and safety of your equipment. Learn about all the different chemicals that are required to keep your water safe and clean.

Bring a sample of your water into Valley Pool & Spa to receive a free water test. Our expert staff will tell you exactly what you need to balance your chemistry. You can also use the Spa Star App by Valley Pool & Spa to test your water at the comfort of your own home.

Weekly Maintenance

Pools and hot tubs offer the ultimate in entertainment and relaxation. But, they do require some work. It’s important to clean your pool and balance the chemistry on a weekly basis in order to maintain the health of the pool and of the equipment. Read out guides to learn more about pool and spa maintenance.

Valley Pool & Spa offers a maintenance service, so you can enjoy all the fun without any of the work! Read more about our services here.

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Salt Water Pools

Salt water swimming pools are unique in that you don’t have to add chlorine on a weekly basis. But, you still need to watch and maintain the water chemistry.

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Chlorine Pools

Chlorine pools require you to watch the water chemistry on a weekly basis to ensure that the chlorine levels are within range.

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Hot Tubs

Since hot tubs have a small body of water, they are fairly easy to maintain. It involves adding certain chemicals to the water to keep it sparkling clear.

Diagnosing Your Water

Does your pool water look a bit off? There’s probably a reason for it. Our experts at Valley Pool & Spa will help you diagnose your water to find the right solution to the issue.

Cloudy Water

There may be a few reasons why your water is turning cloudy. Learn what may be causing this.

Algae in Pool

Algae

Algae comes in many different shapes and colours. If you think you have it in your pool, you’ll want to clean it up before you swim.

Scale

Are the sides of your pools rough to the touch? You may be battling scale from hard water.

Understanding Water Chemistry

Pool and Spa Chemistry

To have a properly balanced swimming pool and spa, you need to keep your your water within these various chemical ranges.

ChemicalRecommended Range
Free Chlorine2 – 4 ppm
Combined Chlorine0 – 0.2 ppm
pH7.2 – 7.6
Calcium Hardness175 – 350 ppm
Alkalinity100 – 140 ppm
Copper0 – 0.2 ppm
Iron0 – 0.3 ppm
Borate30 – 50 ppm
Salt2800 – 3500 ppm

Bromine Spa Chemistry

ChemicalRecommended Range
Bromine4 – 6 ppm

Pool Chemistry

It’s important to keep your water chemistry in balance so that the water is safe for swimmers and for the pool equipment.

Aqua Trol for alkalinity

Total Alkalinity

Total Alkalinity refers to the amount of alkaline material (carbonates, bicarbonates and hydroxides) in your pool water.

High alkalinity can cause: eye irritation, cloudy water, scaling, and make pH difficult to adjust.

Low alkalinity can cause: eye burn, etched plaster, corrosion, and staining.

Aqua pH Minus

pH

pH is a measurement of the relative acidity and basicity of water. pH is measured on a scale that runs from 0 to 14. pH values below 7 are acidic and values higher than 7 are basic (alkaline).

Your pool water should always have a pH in the range of 7.4 to 7.8.

Aqua cal

Calcium Hardness

Total hardness refers to the amount of calcium and magnesium carbonate in water.

High hardness can cause: cloudy water, scaling.

Low hardness can cause: etched plaster, corrosion, and staining.


Sanitation

Sanitation refers to the control of infectious organisms (bacteria, virus, etc.), the removal of excess organics (perspiration, body oils) and the prevention of algae growth.

Chlorine Pucks

Chlorine is how most swimming pools and spas are sanitized. Stabalized chlorine cleans the water at 2 – 4 ppm.

If your chlorine levels are too high, you could risk skin and eye irritation. If you chlorine levels are too low, you risk getting algae.

Swimming pool salt

Salt Water

One of the largest misconceptions is that salt water pools are not chlorine pools. But salt water pools are, in fact, chlorine pools. A chlorine generator changes the NaCl into chlorine, which sanitizes the water.

It’s essential to keep your salt levels at the recommended range to keep your equipment in good condition.

Spa Life Bromine Pucks

Bromine

Bromine is an alternative sanitizer to chlorine. It is only used in hot tubs and should be kept between 3 – 6 ppm.


Shocking

To effectively eliminate chloramines from pool water, super chlorination or “shocking” is necessary. Shocking should be performed on a weekly basis or whenever you notice a “chlorine odour.”

Aqua Super Shock

Super Shock

Aqua Super Shock is the most common product used to shock your pool. This chemical, which contains unstabalized chlorine, spikes the chlorine and cleans the water of all contaminates and chloramines. The high chlorine levels should drop within 24 hours, but until then, do not swim. You should also leave your cover off the pool after using Super Shock.

This product is only suitable for swimming pools, not hot tubs.

Aqua Brite Plus

Brite Plus

Aqua Brite Plus functions in the same way as Super Shock in that is cleans out all contaminates and chloramines in the pool water. The biggest difference between the two is that Brite Plus does not contain any chlorine. Instead of spiking the chlorine levels, it simply oxidizes the contaminates out of the water.

Since Brite Plus doesn’t spike the chlorine, you can safely swim after this is put in the water.

This product can be used for both pools and hot tubs.

AQUA Easy Shock

Easy Shock

Aqua Easy Shock is another form of chlorine shock that spikes the chlorine to get rid of all the impurities in the water.

This shock has a lithium base, which means it will not cloud your water. But because lithium is primarily being used for batteries—and not for pool chemicals—it’s an expensive shock.

Typically, this product is only used for hot tubs.