What Pool Chemicals Do I Need?

Pool maintenance is a necessary skill for pool owners. When you start to own a pool, you need to consider how to maintain your pool. The purpose of maintaining a pool is to make your pool water clean, healthy and meet the hygienic requirements. The top priority of Pool Maintenance is to maintain the water quality of the pool. This requires the help of pool chemicals. So what chemicals do I need to achieve this?

In pool maintenance, two types of pool chemicals are generally required: pool purification chemicals and chemical balancers. The following will explain them one by one.

Pool water purification

You need to understand that the pool water will not be automatically purified when you do not do anything. It needs to add chemicals regularly to help purify it. This process will use disinfectants and algaecides.

1. Chlorine disinfectant

Chlorine disinfectants are the most common and final pool chemicals. Its disinfecting effect comes from hypochlorous acid produced by hydrolysis.

Common chlorine disinfectants include sodium dichloroisocyanurate, trichloroisocyanuric acid, calcium hypochlorite, and bleach (sodium hypochlorite solution). They all have the function of disinfecting pool water and preventing algae growth. These chemicals are in the form of tablets, granules or liquids. Each form has different usage methods. It should be used according to the merchant’s operating instructions. These disinfectants are divided into stabilized Chlorine and unstabilized Chlorine. For the differences between them and how to choose, please refer to my previous article “Which form of chlorine is good for swimming pool treatment?”

2. Algaecide

Generally, if the swimming pool is maintained reasonably periodically, algae is not easy to grow in the swimming pool. Because chlorine disinfectants have a certain inhibitory effect on the formation of algae. However, this is not absolute because of fluctuations in free chlorine level. When algae grow in the swimming pool, it will affect the appearance and chemical balance of the swimming pool water. The treatment to remove algae is very boring, so please add algaecides to the swimming pool during weekly maintenance to prevent algae from occurring.

3. Flocculant

When there are some suspended particles in your swimming pool, making the water turbid, you can remove the suspended matter through flocculants. Commonly used flocculants in swimming pools are aluminum sulfate and polyaluminum chloride (PAC). Of course, a few people also use PDADMAC and pool gel.

4.Pool Shock

Generally, during normal pool maintenance, there is no need to perform additional pool shock. However, when the following situations occur, you must shock your pool to keep the water healthy：

Strong chlorine smell, turbid water

Sudden outbreak of a large number of algae in the pool

After a heavy rain (especially when the pool has accumulated debris)

Pool accidents related to the intestine

After the above situations occur, you need to quickly take the countermeasure “Shock”. When shocking, you can use the following chemicals: sodium dichloroisocyanurate granules, calcium hypochlorite, or bleach. The chlorine content of the swimming pool is increased rapidly in a short period of time to achieve the purpose of shock. Of course, this is the chemical for chlorine shock. If you don’t want to use chlorine disinfectants for shock. You can choose to use potassium peroxymonosulfate for shock, but the cost is relatively higher.

For more information about pool shock, you can check my article “Types of pool shock”.

Chemical balance agent

The chemical balance of swimming pool water is an indispensable step for swimming pool maintenance. When paying attention to these balances, you need to know several indicators: pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and available chlorine

1. pH regulator:

Stable pH is the key to ensuring that disinfectants work stably in the swimming pool. The normal range is between 7.2-7.8. Too high or too low pH will affect the disinfection effectiveness of chlorine disinfectants, which is not conducive to the maintenance of swimming pool accessories and will also affect the health and experience of swimmers. At this time, a pH regulator will be needed to maintain the pH value of the swimming pool. If the pH value is too high, pH Minus needs to be added, and vice versa, pH Plus needs to be added.

2. Total alkalinity regulator

To prevent a sudden fluctuation in pH, make sure the pool water has an ideal alkalinity level. If the total alkalinity level is too low, this can be assisted by an alkalinity increaser (sodium bicarbonate). If it is too high, it is necessary to add acid at a fixed point to reduce the total alkalinity.

3. Calcium hardness regulator

Calcium hardness is also an important indicator in swimming pool maintenance. If the calcium hardness is too high, scaling will occur, and metal chelators need to be added to reduce it to normal levels. If the calcium hardness is too low, the pool wall or metal fittings will corrode, and calcium chloride needs to be added to raise the calcium hardness level to the normal range.

4. Chlorine Stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid)

Sunlight is the main factor causing chlorine loss in swimming pools. Cyanuric acid protects the pool from sunlight, thereby helping to keep the chlorine content in the pool stable.

Having the right chemicals ready is key to keeping the water safe and clear. To learn more about pool maintenance, contact our professionals today. We are happy to help you!