How bad are different biological in the pool?

[MIKEC5]

I was looking in the filter and skimming the pool and it gives me time to think and ponder navel lint which brings up the point.

On a scale of 1 to 10 how bad are different things that are likely to find their way into a pool? just talking reasonable quantities of each and I am just making a guess but…

1 rain water
8 decaying plant matter
10 fecal matter.
10 dead animals

how about things like the odd leaf, dog hair or a few grass clippings? i wonder most about the dog hair.

i am not talking large quantities of anything. I clean the skimmer and skim the surface with a pool skimmer daily and I have a great pool and take pride in staying “on top of it” but I wonder if I am obsessing a little too much.


thanks
mc5

 

[whoozer]

I'd be more worried about fecal matter than I was about dog hair! Of course with the dog hair you may need to skim more or clean out your filter....... and dogs do usually roll in fecal matter......they also roll in dead things.....Change that I would be more worried about dogs in my pool than anything else

 

[AnnaK]

I have a lot of dog hair in my pool. Other than cleaning the skimmer and the PoolSkim, and scooping that which sinks and bunches up on the bottom occasionally I've not noticed any ill effect. A swimmer load bringing in sun oils, hair gunk, and the occasional urine is much more of a concern.

Leaves, pollen, grass clippings and other such things are easily skimmed or vacuumed, as are bugs and nightcrawlers or other critters. Since you're on top of it and skim, net, and scoop out whatever solids you find you really don't have to worry too much about them unbalancing your water's chemistry.

We had one fecal accident last year. I closed the pool for the afternoon and dumped in a gallon of bleach. That was probably overkill but better safe than sorry.

And whoozer, just to set the record straight, the absolute worst things our dogs roll in are the blankets on the beds

AnnaK

 

[whoozer]

Anna K - I knew there may be some dog lovers I would upset. Of course it was a joke! I'll try to be more sensitive to those that might not get my sense of humor. sorry

 

[AnnaK]

Oh heck, whoozer. I was kidding, too. No need to apologize.

All of our friends have dogs and while we initially built the pool for water therapy specifically for the dogs there are some I would not ever allow in my pool - for the very reasons you mentioned. Poor owner maintenance, and there's no way they're going get a bath in our pool!


AnnaK