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.
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.
Chlorine Pools
Chlorine pools require you to watch the water chemistry on a weekly basis to ensure that the chlorine levels are within range.
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
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.
Chemical | Recommended Range |
---|---|
Free Chlorine | 2 – 4 ppm |
Combined Chlorine | 0 – 0.2 ppm |
pH | 7.2 – 7.6 |
Calcium Hardness | 175 – 350 ppm |
Alkalinity | 100 – 140 ppm |
Copper | 0 – 0.2 ppm |
Iron | 0 – 0.3 ppm |
Borate | 30 – 50 ppm |
Salt | 2800 – 3500 ppm |
Bromine Spa Chemistry
Chemical | Recommended Range |
---|---|
Bromine | 4 – 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.