Non Chlorine Pool

Jump to latest Follow Reply
MissFancypants

MissFancypants

0
Jan 1, 2017
40
Australia
Hello everyone! What a great forum this is, its so full of info, I have been poring over it for hours. I would love your input on my experimental pool setup. I have chlorine so does my skin and body so I have been trying different non chlorine solutions for my pool and this is the one I'm using now. Instead of chlorine I use a product called sanosil, its a peroxide, silver mix,, its mostly used for sterilizing drinking water, I also put magnesium chloride and salt in, I have for a long time wanted to add borax to the mix and this is what lead me here, you see I am a litre girl, gal and oz totally confuses me! I would like to know how much borax I would need to add to my 20,000L AG pool.
This is my latest test readings, I haven't found a borate test as yet and my test kit only covers the basics
Ph is about 8.0
TA 80
CYA is inbetween 30-60
This is after I added 1kg of borax (guess) and acid
I love the feel of the water but its not quite crystal clear, Im not sure if the stuff I'm putting in are getting along? as I said its a bit of an experiment, I would love your input, comments or ideas.
 
Welcome to TFP!!:handwave:

I think it's a bad idea, you are experimenting with your health. Obviously you are down under, but in the US there are only 3 EPA-approved disinfection alternatives: Chlorine, Bromine, Baquacil/biguanide/PHMB.

Baquacil is a peroxide based sanitizer, but I don't know the differences between Baqua and sanosil.
 
Welcome to the forum. :wave:

Agree with tim5055.......bad ideas. We NEVER suggest the use of ANY metal in swimming pool water. Just too many problems with residual staining. Hydrogen peroxide leaves no residual disinfectant in your pool and is certainly not an approved sanitizer for pools here in the US.

My suggestion would be to understand how to better use chlorine. Millions of pool owners find it works and works well.

I do not understand the use of magnesium chloride or CYA. CYA is effective only with chlorine.
 
Perhaps you can post on which SanoSil product you are using as there are various grades with differing amounts of hydrogen peroxide and silver nitrate in them.

I can tell you this (as others have alluded to) - you are NOT sanitizing your pool if this is the only product you are using. Pools require oxidation and sanitation to keep them clean and clear. While hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer, it's not nearly as effective as chlorine and you can not maintain a residual peroxide level high enough for it to be effective all the time. Peroxide is NOT an effective sanitizer, i.e., it does not effectively kill biological pathogens. The only way for peroxide to be considered effective at sanitizing is to have it at concentrations which would be very uncomfortable to swim in, greater than 100ppm.

Silver ions can effectively kill many bacteria but are not very effective against virus' and has almost no effect on algae. Silver typically only works when it is used in conjunction with an oxidizer like peroxide BUT is only considered effective when water temperatures are very high, greater than 95F (35C). In the USA, silver ionization methods for water sanitation are only allowed in hot tubs or spas where the water temperature is typically at or above 100F (38C) and the product must contain an oxidizer, typically potassium monopersulfate (MPS). MPS + silver is the basis of the Nature2 sanitizing system offered by Zodiac.

Your water is cloudy because of algae. The algae is present because you effectively have no proper sanitizer in your water. Your experiment is only going to lead to poor water quality over time and an eventual algae bloom (green swamp). You can certainly continue to do what you are doing, but this topic has been discussed many, many times before and there is no better or more effective pool sanitation method than the proper use of chlorine.

Chlorine skin sensitivities are quite rare and can only be properly diagnosed by a trained physician with a background in allergy medicine. When people complain about their skin being sensitive to chlorine because they swam in pools before and it caused problems, it's not because of the chlorine per se but rather the fact that most public and private pools are not properly cared for. Combined chlorines (chloramines) and disinfection by-products (DBPs) are typically the cause of most bather discomfort and their presence is always the result of improper pool water management. The techniques we teach here at TFP completely eliminate those problems and the water quality the TFPC Method achieves is by far the best possible for a swimming pool. People who come over and swim in my pool routinely tell me that they love the way my water feels and they don't believe me when I tell them it's a chlorine swimming pool. They simply assume that I have found some kind of magic chemical and that I refuse to share my "secrets". This is how conditioned people have come to swimming pools - they just assume that all chlorine pools are bad for you and don't think that there's anyway to improve it.

As I said, it's your pool and you can do what you want with it. I hope you stick around and read about our methods and give them a try....I think you'll find experimenting with the TFPC Method will be far more successful than the Sanosil you're currently trying to make work.

Good luck.
 
Yeah we use sanosil here when we flush our water treatment plant or our water pipes
But after flushing we switch back to chlorine for disinfection as its cheaper
To be fair under proper usage rates it is effective against [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]mould, bacteria, yeasts and fungi
[/FONT]But those shock levels (10+%) would be well above safe drinking water levels
I would not want to swim in water that had 10-15% sanosil in it

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]However I doubt the OP has the speciality testing kit you are supposed to use with it
[/FONT]I also doubt that the OP has been using it at its effective rates

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Nowhere on the manufacturers/distributors website do they authorise it for swimming pools

[/FONT]
 
Hi Guys thanks for the help, I have decided o dump the water in our pool and start again, being 20,000L I can fill from our water tanks, anywho I,m starting from scratch and want to use the TFPC method what would be the first thing I need to do?
 
The first thing you need to do is get a good test kit
The easiest one for you to get would be the one from https://clearchoicelabs.com.au/product-category/kits/
Unfortunately they are out of salt water kits at the moment, but you could get a fresh water kit and add the salt test from them when they arrive

This way you can test and balance your water to within safe parameters.

Once you have ordered your test kit please fill out your signature with a bit more detail
I would read the following and ask any questions you have
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

FYI my partner and I both have very bad skin, but love to swim in our TFP pool. We actually find its kinder to our skin than our tap water
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
What is the name of the pool testing kit- i.e. is it one of the recommended ones we suggest-generally not available to buy in pool stores etc. When you say you have your water tested at a lab do you mean a 'scientific lab' or professional water testing service (pool store doesn't count by the way). Sorry to sound difficult but it is important to know exactly where your results are coming from. ;)
 
If that is the tests from your new fill of water they would make sense

The aquacheck tests I assume are the strips? I would not use them to balance your pool. They are not precise enough and only reliably report numbers under certain conditions.

For chemicals I get most of my stuff from bunnings, prices and quality are good
Sometimes I use the supermarket too, you will need to look around to find the best prices in your area
The poolmath link at the top of the page will help you calculate what you need of each, based on your test results
You need to test your FC daily, ph a couple of times a week, CYA monthly and everything else weekly

ph of 7.2 is within the ideal range of 7.2-7.8
You will need to use hydrochloric acid to keep it there, aka muriatic acid

With our harsh sun I find a CYA of 50ppm over summer is good
They cya will protect the chlorine and buffer its harsh effects on skin
So with 20,000 l you will need to add 1000g of isocyanuric acid, often called stabiliser

With 50ppm CYA you need to target 8ppm FC and never let it drop below 4ppm FC
Below 4ppm FC you run the risk of algae and bacteria growth
Use either liquid chlorine or plain bleach (no scented or splashless)
Unless you have a SWG?

If you are not using a SWG and just using salt as a water conditioner then 3000ppm is ideal, which is 60kg

This is some useful reading to help you get started
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Pool School - Recommended Levels
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
 
It depends on a couple of things really
Make sure you have poolmath on metric up the top
Enter your volume of 20000 litres (without any commas or full stops)
What % of bleach do you have? Make sure you enter that into the yellow FC box
Enter your 'now' value from your tests into the left FC box
Enter your 'target' value of 8ppm and hit calculate button

As an example
I entered your details into poolmath and used Now of 0 and Target of 8 FC, with 10% bleach
In the yellow box on the right it showed to add 1599ml of bleach, or 1.6 litres of bleach
 
A few reasons, to help keep ph stable, help with Fc levels, keeping the water nice and if any gets absorbed its good for the bones!
Also I just grabbed some white king bleach but now I have it home I dont think its very strong, it says available chlorine is 4% active ingredient sodium hypochloride 42g/l
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply