When you have a swimming pool that uses chlorine to destroy bacteria and make the water ‘safe’ to swim in, there are ways to reduce the amount of chlorine used. After all, this chemical and its by-products are actually hazardous to human health and is known to be carcinogenic, among other things. One way to reduce the need for so much of it is to ensure the pool is cleaned regularly. An automatic cleaner can take care of this onerous chore, leaving you free to enjoy your leisure time.
While the automatic pool cleaner crawls around the pool gobbling up algae and debris, you may have time to read about other methods of reducing the toxic soup that you have to use in the pool. One way is to use a salt pool. This reduces the amount of chlorine only slightly and it can rust out any metal fittings. It can also have a detrimental effect on pool cleaners.
Then there is the moss-assisted cleaning filters that usually mean your pool is called a ‘moss pool’. Sounds like there is moss in the pool but there isn’t. Sphagnum moss is used in additional filters because it helps to prevent algae and bacteria growing in the water. The pool water goes through these filters before also going through the normal pool filters.
Because the growth of the nasties has been reduced, the need for chlorine is also reduced – but not eliminated altogether. Using moss reduces the use of chemicals by about 40%, but there is another way it is eco friendly. Because bacteria and algae growth is so much less, there is less need for backwashing. This is how most pumps clean the filters; the water from the backwashing is ‘wasted’ in that it does not go back into the pool, but goes down the drain.
So when there is less need to backwash, less water wastage is wasted. In fact, it has been found to cut water wastage by 75%, a good save if you are looking for environmentally friendly ways to reduce harm to the planet. So while this can be a good thing for the environment, there is still the matter of the remaining 60% of chemicals in your swimming pool. You could say moss is good, but not good enough.
In fact there is yet another way to make your pool the model of environmental friendliness. That is by installing the system that uses copper/silver diodes along with oxygenation to purify the water. You won’t need any chemicals at all; the water will be pure enough to drink. The water will not harm you or the environment at all – in fact, some people find their pets love to drink it.