What is the point of cleansing the body, living clean, getting clean, with fasting and juices and raw foods only to dump chemicals into your cells through your skin while enjoying an innocent swim????
Well, we have been so eager to get the swimming pool open for the season. Still too cold for anyone to use it, but it looks so pretty. We opted for a salt water pool when we put it in last summer just after moving in here to our Jamesport location, our house that is named “hohm.” We opted for salt water because we wanted a chemical free swim for ourselves and our guests. We enjoyed that sweet soft and pretty and clean water all summer of 2007. Then came the “Closing of the Pool”. We learned about algae, and pool closings and that salt water actually turns into chlorine when the pool is up and running. what a shocker! A greatly reduced amount of chlorine, true but it does create chlorine, which of course is then absorbed into the body during an innocent swim! WELL, hours and hours of researching on the internet, we learned about COPPER IONIZATION. Apparently the only way to have a truly chlorine and chemical free pool. In order to make the switch, we had to have the chemicals dumped into our sacred pool ( so sad), minimally, and use not salt water but plain water plus a whole lot of baking soda and …we are not sure what we will use in the end when the ionization supplies get here but it seems we will use hydrogen peroxide. Charles is determined to test the water daily, or twice daily and adjust it by hand carefully to get the right balance so the pool can be changed over from salt, to chlorine then over to the copper ionization. We are now waiting for the arrival of our new copper ionization system and when it gets here and the pool is swim ready we will let you all know how it goes and share with you our rescources in case you are wanting to change over your pool too. It is a really important thing to do, not only for the environment ( that chemical water is deadly to the ground water and plants surrounding your home) but of course, for yourselves and your families. Especially if you have little children swimming around!
Make the dragon flies happy and get the chlorine OUT of your pool! Stay tuned!
4 Comments
September 14, 2008 at 12:48 am
So, how is the copper ionization system working? I am looking into getting one and know no one that actually has one.
Thanks.
Patrick
ptmcneill@gmail.com
September 14, 2008 at 6:25 am
Hi Patrick
It has been realy interesting. Not easy as pool company’s generally refuse to maintain this sort of pool because they just are not at all familiar. It’s different than a simple chemical solution.
Here is what Charles says:
Here is the latest on Copper Ionization….
Ionization is the best current means of replacing chlorination in
pools. There are copper ionizers and there are salt ionizers. Since
the salt ionizer we had was so difficult to understand and having to
dump bags of salt frequently became a real chore since they are very
heavy to haul. There are several models but I decided to go with the
copper ionizer by its very simplicity and low voltage requirement.
What I found was that the pH monitoring of pool water is required of
all pools no matter what method of bacteria free water approach. This
means weekly water tests for pH (acidity and alkalinity), for calcium
(to protect pool surfaces from deterioration, as well as for copper
results.
There was one problem that I encountered every so often, the clouding
effect from dead organisms (from the treatments) which did not get
filtered out. I learned that this loss of clarity is what every pool
owner encounters even with or without chemicals. I was able to
purchase it from an American rep online. It can be found on Google.
During previous years we had pool guys taking care of the pool and
what they did not want us to know was that they were putting chlorine
tablets into our skimmer baskets without our consent til we found out
later. Since there were only few resources that provided such
alternatives to chlorination, very little was known about maintaining
pool clarity.
I found on the market an eco friendly product to remedy this: OXY
POOL. OXY POOL is a new product, I believe made in Canada. This
safely shocks any algae while coagulates all the resultant decaying
microparticles, thus aiding their entrapment within the filter and
keeping them from returning into the pool. Directions for OXY POOL
are simple and require pH check and a following filterflush to clean
out the equipment and pipes from the pool into the ground away from
the pool. No garden life is harmed or anything, and the result is a
clear pool. Such clarity results may take overnight or so as it is
alot of water to filter out. This is every pool owner’s weekly task.
It is all about balance as water is a living entity. Copper is safe
for the human body. Water seems soft but different from the salt
water type. The one advantage over salt water is minimum corrosion
of any metal parts around or within the pool. OXY POOL is also
excellent for winterization of the pool. There are videos on youtube
with instructions how to close or open a pool and simply replace
chlorine shock with OXY POOL. Of course, pool levels have to be
lowered, all pipes flushed out with a mini pump, sealed and covered
for the winter.
Once you get the hang of this eco-safe pool care, good confidence
builds up and routine brings about ease of procedure. For the
following year, if you keep track of your purchases, you would be
able to buy these products in adequate stock quantities for the
entire season to save on all those trips to the store. To neglect any
of the above steps would otherwise be a sure guarantee of messy
disaster that would be progressively and exponentially difficult to
clean up since that algae can run out of control. Once these aquatic
organisms are killed, however advanced in growth, cloudiness returns
and you are back to cleaning the filter and all the pool water all
over again.
Weekly maintenance with this understanding of what constitutes
environmentally friendly balanced water is the real key. You’d be a
step ahead applying wise prevention measures and the pool would
remain sparkly clean all season.
September 18, 2008 at 2:27 am
I have 14 years of experience using electronic oxidation and ionization to sanitize swimming pools without chlorine, salt or any toxic chemical or oxy shock. No chemicals. Using non chlorine based shock in your in pool will cause a the water to have a drying effect on your skin. With my system you wlil be swimming vitually in bottled water.
http://www.ecosmartusawest.com/
January 21, 2009 at 3:23 am
Non-chlorinated pool with either ozonation, copper ionization do help to sanitize the pool water.. but again..how about the control of nitrogeneous wastes that turn the pool water green?
check my blog at http://ayermatahari.wordpress.com.
i am water filtration specialist working on a natural pool system ..