Papirex
Jun 28, 2005, 7:13 PM
Post #10 of 12
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Re: [manda405] Pools in your backyard. Yes or No?
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If you are going to put in a pool, you might want to check out this site: http://www.de-fontenay.com/poolhmpg.htm It is in Australia and it has some very good info. You will need to search the site to find everything you need to know, but it is there.
Incidentally, “Salt filters” are not filters, but chlorine generators. If your eyes burn from chlorine in the water, then the water balance has not been properly maintained. Even if you have a completely automatic system to maintain the balance of your pool water, I recommend that you buy a water test kit and check the water every few days. They come with a couple of test vials, test chemicals, and easy to follow instructions. Replacement test chemicals are available at low cost. It takes about five minutes to test your water.
You may need to add chlorine, it is cheap in Mexico, it comes in tablet or granule form. I prefer the granules, the tablets are big, and take a long time to dissolve. You may also need to add some pool acid, it comes in liquid form, and is cheap in Mexico too. Run another test after adding the acid.
You should stay out of the water until the chlorine is fully dissolved and mixed in the water. Make another test after the chlorine has dissolved, and mixed well in the water, run the circulating pump to do that. If you did it right, your eyes won’t burn.
To bring the PH in balance, you may need to add some ash that is sold in pool supply stores for that purpose
There are two types of filters used most often, sand filters, and DE (Diatomaceous Earth) filters. DE filters are the most efficient. Diatomaceous Earth has a unique advantage for filtering water. The molecules of diatomaceous earth are so dense that there is only room for a water molecule to pass through it; anything in the water will be filtered out. The filter pads must be cleaned every few months, and coated with a fresh layer of diatomaceous earth.
Sand filters seem to be the most widely used pool filters in Mexico, they should be back-flushed once a week during the swimming season, and the sand should be replaced every four “swimming seasons.” Since the swimming season lasts for most of the year in Mexico, I would replace the sand every two years. When you have your pool installed, make sure that “unions” are installed in the piping system so that the top of the tank containing the sand can be removed to periodically replace the sand.
The first house we leased here had a pool with a sand filter. The house and pool appeared to be about 30 or 40 years old. The sand in the filter had never been changed. No unions had ever been installed to remove the top of the filter, it was impossible to change the sand without adding the unions to the piping system. We lived at the edge of town, near some farms. When the farmers would burn the sugar cane fields after the harvest, heavy ashes would fall. The next day there would be a green growth in the pool, it looked like an algae. It would settle to the bottom of the pool, when I would try to vacuum the pool, within five minutes the green stuff would start coming back into the pool through the skimmer ports on the side of the pool. The sand filter was just too overloaded, back-flushing it would give me only another five minutes of use, before the stuff I was vacuuming out of the pool would start returning through the skimmer ports.
It would take me a week or ten days to get the pool water clean again. Then the farmers would burn more fields.
Our landlord kept stalling us on having the work on the piping system done, and replacing the sand in the filter. In another life, I have installed the piping systems for many swimming pools. I am perfectly capable of installing the needed unions for his pool filter, but I wasn’t going to be pressured into doing something that was his responsibility. Our lease was nearly up, so we moved.
These are just some of the things to think about when considering having a pool. Our gardener in that first house told me he would maintain the pool. The only thing he ever did was to run the filter once in a while. I never saw him back-flush it, or test the water. That’s when I started doing it myself.
Even if you intend to hire someone to maintain your pool, learn how to do it yourself, then you will know if it is being done right.
Rex
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
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