Alternative sanitizers

[teapot]

Topic split off from this thread:http://www.troublefreepool.com/alternative-sanitizers-t16470.html

The frog just like Nature 2 sounds too unreliable regarding the dosing of copper which has to be tightly controlled.

I wish I could have got some figures from the other thread that had just suffered staining.


MikeInTN, the low chlorine system works as far sanitisation goes but the frog and nature 2 units are just not controllable enough.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

MikeInTN, the low chlorine system works as far sanitisation goes but the frog and nature 2 units are just not controllable enough.

I don't agree at all. If ones CYA is as low as 30, even attempting to try maintaining a FC of .5-1 is not going to accomplish a sanitary pool, in any pool. Especially systems like Frog/N2 where you would likely be unsuccessful using tablets to do so (the basis of the Frog/N2 systems). What ends up happening is you simply "turn up the dial" which causes the trichlor to dissolve faster and in turn drives the CYA up even further. They instruct you to shock the pool weekly! Why is that? Because they KNOW their system DOESN'T WORK.

Even if one were using bleach instead, with a CYA of 30 you would likely be adding bleach several times a day trying to maintain such a low residual.

I respect your right to experiment with an ionizer and MPS on your pool, but to state that low chlorine systems "work" is just not true, in my personal opinion (having lived it) .

 

[JasonLion]

If you keep reasonably careful control over the copper level and very careful control over the PH, it is quite possible to use a copper based system to reduce chlorine consumption. The big problem with this approach comes when people with light hair colors swim in the pool, and get green hair, or when the PH control fails and the PH goes up, which leads to staining that is very difficult/expensive to remove.

It is not possible to lower the FC level below about 2 ppm safely (give or take special extreme circulation systems), even with any combination of copper/silver/zinc. When FC levels get too low, the chlorine can all be used up by just a couple of people entering the pool, person to person disease transmission becomes possible, and the pool is no longer sanitary.

 

[teapot]

I agree in principle with the points you are both making, certainly in the case of the Frog and nature 2 there is no understanding from the manufactueres of the CYA/chlorine link so a low chlorine level with 30ppm cya will render such a low residual almost dormant. On that basis probably only suitabe for an indoor pool but the costs for both of those units are too high IMO

JasonLion any two people who used up all that chlorine would be way to dirty to get in my pool, it's a swimming pool not a bath! :lol:
It is only a small percentage of the chlorine that actually does the sanitisation 10-20%, the remainder is oxidising sweat, urea, dead skin cells and sun cream etc.

If people showered before they enter a pool then we would all lower our chlorine usage.

 

[chem geek]

Though normal pool use won't consume a lot of chlorine under light bather loads, local depletion can occur from kids (or adults, for that matter) who urinate in the pool, though after enough mixing with the rest of the bulk pool water the chlorine levels will mostly rise again. High bather loads use a lot of chlorine as any user of hot tubs will attest since that is typically a high bather load situation.

 

[teapot]

Very true Chem geek,

You already know my thoughts on sitting in a hot tub breathing in all those chlorine by products. If ever there was a case for alternative sanitiser that must be it, high bather load, low volume of water and much hotter than a pool. That lovely cloud of noxious gaseous substance.