Is IT safe? Swimming Pool without Backwash Tank

bazzagirl


Joined: 09/05/2010
Posts: 525

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 09:40

Is it safe to operate a communual swimming pool without a backwash tank. The pool has pumps and filters but NO backwash tank, which I have been told is an integral part of keeping a swimming pool clean and safe, could anyone advise?

Thankyou

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 09:49

is the pool a skimmer pool or does it overflow into grids all around the edge of the pool?

batgirl


Joined: 04/02/2009
Posts: 676

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 09:59

You do not need a backwash tank as this is an extra that some owners use to collect the wasted water when a filter is backwashed instead of going to waste

bazzagirl


Joined: 09/05/2010
Posts: 525

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 10:10

Hi

Its an infinity pool with an overflow trough.

yunus



Joined: 14/05/2009
Posts: 327

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 10:13

you do not have to have a back wash tank unless you wish to use the waste water to water your garden etc.

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 10:27

I think you may be confusing a backwash tank with a balance tank.

Overflow pools (including infinity pools) usually have balance tanks, skimmer pools usually don't.

Backwash tanks are optional and have nothing to do with keeping a pool "clean and safe". They are for recycling your backwash water, which you can put back into your pool or use on your garden, etc.

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 10:38

If you are useing chlorine in your pool,i feel there is no need to keep your backwash water,so there is no need for a backwash tank to collect the water,leave it run down some drain,its not advisable to use on your garden.

japeal



Joined: 12/09/2008
Posts: 1052

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 11:11

Back wash tanks are only needed if you do not have anywhere suitable to have the back wash water dumped. If you are happy having the water causing a large puddle in the garden and maybe encouraging more mossies or washing out onto the road fine, if not most people use a backwash tank for the water to used for irrigation in the garden.

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 11:21

msg 7,



I'm not sure why you think there is no need for a backwash tank with a chlorinated pool.

What about reusing the backwash water in your pool?

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 11:35

Vaughan.



Re-cycling chlorinated backwash water does not take out the toxins from the water,the chlorine may well have almost gone,but toxins will be still present.

Backwash water needs to be heavily treated before it is re used .

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 11:42

Backwash water may be heavily contaminated with pathogenic micro-organisms and harmful chemicals. Backwash water should never be reused or recycled without adequate treatment.



http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/factsheets/environmental/sp_backwash_water.html



Here are some backwash water recovery systems.



http://www.dioxide.com/Products/CircleClear/circleclear.html



Cheaper to just use zerochlor than to go to all the expense of 1 of them systems,But of course i know backwash water can be re-used in the pool if the water is treated proper before putting back into the pool,but at quite alot of expense.

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 11:42

What toxins would they be?

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 12:06

Vaughan.



Chlorine=toxin/s



You or i do not sell anything to treat chlorinated backwash water to make it compleatly safe to re-use

deputydawg


Joined: 30/03/2010
Posts: 1727

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 12:18

TRNCVaughan. Please do not also mention that nitrates and nitrites can be water borne or some b......r will soon be trying to sell us poolside nitrogen/hydrogen bomb shelters !

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 12:37

"Chlorine=toxin/s" ?

I'm not sure I understand that.



Chlorine is toxic but as a pool sterilizer it is so diluted (3-4ppm) that it is safe to swim in. Chlorine is deliberately introduced into pool water to disinfect it and to act as an oxidizer. Even drinking water can contain Chlorine at 1ppm.



Apart from which, in msg 10 you said:

"the chlorine may well have almost gone".

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 12:49

Vaughan.

David is busy and asked me to post this for you.



The byproducts of chlorine, trihalomethanes THMs, are formed when chlorine reacts with natural substances found in water. THMs are cancer causing compounds. THMs are also linked to kidney, liver, and nervous system damage as well as birth defects.

We need to be concerned not only about the amount of THMs we drink in our water, but also the amount we absorb and inhale while in the shower or swimming pool. We absorb more chlorine in a 10 minute shower then we do by having our 8 cups of water a day. In the short term, chlorinated shower water irritates your eyes, sinuses, throat, skin, and lungs. Long term risks include excessive free radical formation (which makes you age faster), higher vulnerability to cancer development, difficulty metabolizing cholesterol and hardened arteries. Now all people with chlorinated pools,look in the mirror,do you think you have aged more quickly,is it because of chlorine?? (FACTS)

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 13:01

" Now all people with chlorinated pools,look in the mirror,do you think you have aged more quickly,is it because of chlorine??..."



I actually think it's more to do with the amount they drink and/or smoke and spending too much time in the sun.



To get back on-thread, the benefit of the Aligator system is that copper and silver ions are trapped in the filter sand and come into contact with the pathogens, neutralizing them, as they pass through the filter.

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 13:41

Vaughan.

Are you saying that all these lovely people in cyprus all drink to much and smoke to much I personally think it could be constant swimming in poison if a person does think they have aged quicker since swimming more in a chlorinated pool.

Back to topic

Davids zerochlor works in the same way as your Aligator system,but without Electric.



Forensic scientist Randy Fornshell of the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center explains that copper-silver ionization is a modern implementation of the ancient Greek practice of reducing bacteria in wine vessels by lining them with silver, and controlling algae and fungi with copper. Fornshell notes that copper-silver ionization has been effective in swimming pools "Zerochlor" (it is an alternative to chlorine) and is becoming adopted by larger municipalities all over the world.

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 13:49

I have to say that, having fitted over 50 of them, the Aligator system has proved to be more than satisfactory. Only a few of them are maintained by us, the others are all installed in pools that are maintained by their owners, they are that simple to use.

BTW Aligator backwash water can be used on plants as well as being recycled back into the pool.



http://www.aligator.co.uk

0maintenance


Joined: 22/09/2010
Posts: 2179

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 13:53

Vaughan.



David asked me to ask you if you know of a plastic re-cycler,as he has almost 7000 empty Zerochlor used plastic bottles !

rowlo



Joined: 12/10/2008
Posts: 4796

Message Posted:
03/05/2011 15:09

make rafts with them ? lmao