Re: Help..Nature 2 System vs. HealthCare System by Superior
The
Nature2 for pools uses a combination of copper ions (for algae prevention) and silver ions (for disinfection of fecal bacteria) so for an ozonator that would need to be purchased separately while the
HealthCare System by Superior Aqua uses a combination of what appears to be copper only plus ozone.
Copper ions do not kill fecal bacteria and both copper and silver ions combined kill bacteria slowly and do not inactivate viruses or do so very slowly. See
this post for technical details from numerous scientific peer-reviewed papers in respected scientific journals.
Metal ions can also stain pool surfaces and while we have dozens upon dozens of such reports, there are specific ones related to the HealthCare system in
this thread and
this thread. Copper ions also cause blond hair to turn greenish as described technically in
this paper.
Ozone is effective at disinfection for water passing through the ozonator, but does nothing for pathogens that are not circulated including those attached to pool surfaces and turnover rates for residential pools are measured in hours while bacterial reproduction rates are on the order of 15-60 minutes. Also, most residential ozonators are woefully undersized. If you were to have a very powerful ozonator that left some residual of ozone in the bulk pool water then that would be different, but then you would need to consider the risks from ozone outgassing and the additional chlorine loss since ozone reacts with chlorine increasing chlorine demand (which is the opposite of what you are looking for since you'd need to maintain a higher chlorine level to compensate).
Also, as for using a minimum of chlorine, you should be aware that with the proper use of chlorine with Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in a pool as described in the
Pool School, the active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) level is equivalent to a pool with only 0.07 ppm FC and no CYA so is a very low level. You can't compare this chlorine approach with what you find in some commercial/public pools, especially indoor or other pools that use no CYA in the water. CYA not only protects chlorine from breakdown from the UV in sunlight, but it significantly moderates chlorine's strength.
If you still want to reduce the level of chlorine in the pool and are willing to spend more money to do so, then you can use a supplemental algaecide, but one that does not cause staining such as adding Polyquat 60 weekly, but this really isn't necessary since chlorine alone can prevent algae growth at the levels described in the
Chlorine / CYA Chart.