So I am ordering a small pool for our kids. Something like this (http://www.intexcorp.com/57190ep.html). It is like 200 gallons. Approximately 20 inches deep.
I have had these before and you can’t keep water in it long without it getting scummy with nasty growth. After a week or two you have to drain it and get in there with a brush and some bleach to get it clean again. I would prefer to not grow that stuff to begin with.
I have looked up pool maintenance online and can’t seem to find what I am looking for. All these sites are made for larger pools. They talk about filters, chemical floaters, etc. This is way to small for all that.
Is there something simple I can do like “Put in X teaspoons of bleach twice a week. It will keep the yuck at bay and not burn the kid’s eyes out of their sockets.”
Been there, done that. Unfortunately stuff will grow in there whatever you do, assuming you don’t want to injure the kiddies. It helps to cover it when it not being used, to stop stuff falling in. Otherwise:
If you let the pool with water in it stand in the sunlight and open air, you will have both bacteria and algae. Algae grow in sunlight and are usually fought with copper; bacteria feed on the organic things - Skin cells from the Kids, stuff that Drops into the pool - and grow.
The usual solution for a big pool is a filter plus chemicals. The natural solution is to have two big “filter pools” filled with plants, and water from the Swimming pool is slowly filtered through there (in that case, the algae will stay, so in my City, the natural Swimming pool is painted green, not blue, so the algae are less noticeable).
Using chemicals is difficult because you usually take regular pH readings to check how much organic matter is in there, and you would Need a filter for big organic stuff.
If the pool is too small for a real filter System, but 200 gallons, it sounds like the wrong size. One size smaller, and just empty it out every couple of days, let it dry and re-fill it with clean water.
And this is the first natural pool in a Million-People City M/Bäder | SWM's public swimming pools , depending on the weather, there are several hundred visitors a day. The Isar river running through was always a Feature of this outdoor pool, but the conversion from chlorine-controlled to natural pool was seen as risk - what if the plants couldn’t Keep up with the volume during busy days in the summer? So for the first two years, they took many measurements and watched with eagle eyes before declaring it hygenically safe.
169 gallons, inflatable?
drain wash refill.
Its kind of smallish to rig up any decent filter and since its inflatable, can not really penetrate the sides to do one either.
Also it’s worth noting, too much chlorine will make the vinyl brittle and crack
I had one of the bigger Intex pools in 2014. Those EasySet ones. Those do have a plug-in filter but the one I had was generally too small to find any meaningful info on keeping it clean.
I purchased a chemical test kit for it and a box of various chemicals for spas. I also bought a scrubber (a little thing you could wear on your hand or foot) and a net to grab big pieces.
I didn’t really need the extra chemicals, and I doubt you would with your small pool. But you can probably get more use between re-fillings if you:
scrub and scoop every day
cover it
test and pour a little bit of bleach in it as needed
OP, add a few ounces of regular laundry bleach every day. You don’t want to go more than 1 day without changing the water or adding sanitizer. You will still need to drain every week, but the bleach will keep the water safe between water changes. Also, are you filling from a well or city water? If city water, you can skip adding bleach the first day, your city water will come with some chlorine.
As far as ‘natural’ pools…gross.
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The bleach I use is packaged in high density polyethylene.
Growing up, I had a non-inflatable kiddie pool – thin (vinyl?) bottom bonded to a high, round side made of some kind of reinforced tarp-like material, with a cute design printed on the outside. I can’t remember my parents leaving it filled for more than a couple of days at the time; so, as you can imagine, the wading pool was a treat rather than an everyday occurrence.
The OP’s pool looks like setup would involve a little more effort, so I wouldn’t expect you would have to drain it every day. The manual is a bit vague, but it seems to suggest changing the water often (and don’t get in the pool while dirty!).
Plastic bottles are usually made from hard plastic, and usually stored away from sunlight.
Inflatable kiddie pools are usually made from soft plastic (hence inflatable), which is a very different Thing, and exposed to sunlight for hours. Sunlight on its own (UV) is problematic enough, but adding chlorine bleach increases the corrosive Action.
I doubt you can make that a blanket Statement. Is the water Quality in the US really that terrible that all City water is treated with chlorine by Standard? (If yes, how do People water their plants?) *
In Addition, under sunlight chlorine quickly breaks down (UV again), which is why public pools take regular measurements, and Keep replacing it. So starting with water that contains enough chlorine to make it “safe” for drinking doesn’t mean the Levels will still be high enough to stop bacteria growing.
Of course cases like flint have made Headlines - but in cases of lead in the water, chlorine doesn’t do anything useful except further corrosion. It does not stop lead, or pesticides, or high nitrate Levels, or anythig besides kill a few bacteria. So if water is unsafe, it’s better to chagne the pipes and get a different source of water. That, in turn, of course requires good regulations and a well-funded EPA to control.
Nice that you didn’t read the link or full post at all, about how for over one year more than normal measurements were taken to ensure that the strict hygenic laws were met? But yeah, properly maintained natural pools are gross, unlike US drinking water treated with chlorine and still full of lead or pesticides …
While I am not a chemist, I think I can set you straight on a few things:
You are correct about UV doing damage to the liner, and that’s about all that is doing damage. I have had pieces of vinyl liner sitting in full strength bleach for months, with no apparent degradation. Chlorine oxidizes organic matter, vinyl is not organic.
I will make a blanket statement that almost all public water in the US is chlorinated. That’s what makes it safe. Water travels far from public well to tap, and the few bacteria you determine to be benign, has been deemed unsafe by scientists and the EPA. The small amount of chlorine in drinking water is enough to kill bacteria and prevent mold and algae growth, and is harmless to plants and animals. You will typically find less than .5 ppm UNSTABILIZED FC in drinking water.
I can promise you I know more than you do about pool water chemistry so I know full well why chlorine breaks down and is replaced. Chlorine in pools is protected from UV by adding Cyuranic Acid (CYA). CYA acts as a buffer and generally speaking, your free chlorine (FC) levels should be around 7.5% of your CYA. This will kill algae and most bacteria/viruses, and prevent their growth. Algae is far more resistant to chlorine, so you can get away with far less FC and still have acceptable kill rates for bacteria and viruses. Your tap water will contain NO stabilizer, so it is far more harsh than a properly maintained pool, but the FC will also break down very quickly.
And yes, natural looks are gross and unsafe. With. I bulk sanitizer, fecal matter will travel from other swimmers to your mouth with no bulk sanitizer acting on it. Natural pools may work when the water is cold, low bather load, and large pool size, but who wants to swim by themselves in a large cold pool?
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We used to do what bob++ mentioned, minus the borax. Even still, we emptied the pool about every monday and refilled it on friday. And threw it away at the end of the summer.
I don’t determine how many bacteria are benign. I live in a Country with laws about what pollutants are not allowed in our drinking water. That goes beyond bacteria for things like pesticides, nitrates or lead.
So instead of taking water and just Dumping chlorine into it, looking at the bacteria and ignoring the rest, the cities look for the safest, cleanest water available, filter and treat it, and then distribute it.
In case of my City, not only did the famous Max von Pettenkofer himself Lobby the City council to pay for a delivery System for clean water from the mountains (they finally listened after the Cholera epidemic in 1854), they have spent Money on keeping the water clean since then.
We are lucky in geography, having enough rainfall (average 900 mm/cm2 year) and a decline (so no pumps). I have toured the collecters were the water is constantly in Motion, which prevents growth (along with clean tunnels).
I have seen the labs where the water is regularly tested, and even the Aquariums (specific fish used as canarys against poision).
Maybe once or twice a year a strong rainfall overwhelms the natural filtering capacity of the stony ground, and too much organic matter could be a Problem, so chlorine is used in prevention. The rest of the time, our water is - as proscribed by law - odourless, tasteless, clear.
That’s a Grand promise given that you have neither asked my knowledge nor given any Statement as to your own qualifications.
Yes, I don’t know about small pools or their regulations in the US. I do know something about how public Swimming pools in my City are controlled, both from what regulations required and how it’s technically done.
Obviously, both regulations and technical applications differ between countries, and between big public pools and small backyard pools.
I don’t know what exactly you mean with “Bulk sanitizer” but in chlorinated pools, there’s still fecal matter - it’s just bound with chlorine, it doesn’t immediately disappear into thin air.
If the swimmers are so undisciplined to shit into the water, the attendant fishes the turd out, regardless how much chlorine there is (or isn’t). If you jus mean normal organic matter like Skin flakes or a bit of pee - well the kiddies pool is seperate and very very shallow so it can be easily flushed.
Maria Einsiedl has IIRC a “bather load” or paying customers of 600 People a day, though that can double on the Weekend or Holidays. since it’s not a spring or river that fills the pools, the water can get rather warm during the summer.
And as I already said, there was concern about the large number of visitors, hence the double than normal number of tests during the first two years.
But you have a right to your own opinion and can Keep disregarding the Facts from my city’s Hygiene Office and public Swimming pool Management.
Well, what about fish tank filters? I just searched for “200 gallon fish tank” and they’re fairly common, so I would head into a fish/aquarium store and see if you can find ways to filter the water and treat it chemically much like you do to make the water safe for fish.
Instead of thinking “swimming pool” think “big fish tank”.
I thought of that too. They are not meant to be outside, though, and they hang on the side of a rigid tank, so they could fall in. I would look for a filter for an outdoor fish pond. They make them for artificial ponds that don’t have a source of water flowing in and out. They are submersible, and safe to plug into an outdoor socket, or an outdoor extension cord.
You will probably have to go to an aquarium store to get one, and they are not cheap ($65 - $150), but they exist, and are going to be much safer than a filter meant for an indoor tank. Oh, apparently they also have them at places like Home Depot. Did some Googling.
You will still have to change some water, but you may be able to treat it like a fish tank: a fish tank requires changing about 20% a week. You don’t have live fish waste, so you can probably get away with 10% every two weeks, and use a net to skim out debris. You can get that at the fish store too. You can also get a hose with a siphon bulb that will make changing the water so much easier.
I would take the filter out before you let the kids play in it, and put in my tablespoon of bleach then, stir, and give it five minutes.
The bleach I use is packaged in high density polyethylene.
