It’s easy to understand visitors to your aquatics facilities expect safe, sparkling clear water. Incorporating a few common sense practices into your aquatics water management routine will make is easy to keep water safe and sparkling clear.
Make Aquatics Water Management Maintenance a Habit
Common elements that apply to all facilities will include a daily visual inspection of the water, all pool components and safety equipment. Manually check sanitizer residuals and pH. Inspect chemical feed systems daily and incorporate necessary maintenance and repairs frequently to prevent unplanned failures. The current environment would call for incorporating additional cleaning activities to pool deck areas and locker rooms. Each facility should customize a plan due to their specific environment or equipment, but put a schedule together and stick to it.
Be Critical of the Water Clarity
Subtle changes in water clarity will tell you a lot about what is going on and alert you to potential problems. Act quickly when small changes are noticed by lifeguards and maintenance staff. Reduced clarity problems might have a chemical related cause so check your chlorine or bromine residuals along with pH. Physical components are also critical to maintaining clear water. Check for reduced flow rates or increased filter pressures that may indicate pump and filter problems or require maintenance. Water rarely goes extremely cloudy overnight. Water typically starts by appearing a little dull or hazy and then gets progressively worse over time.
Train Your Staff in Aquatics Water Management
Not everyone who is around the pool on a daily basis is going to be responsible for daily pool maintenance. That does not mean they should not have a basic level of education on how a pool works and what it takes to operate and maintain one. That extra education will make them more effective in communicating with maintenance personnel, make them more effective in educating your guests about the pool operation, and you’ll benefit by preparing the next generation of aquatics managers to take on additional responsibilities.
Educate Your Guests
Create an environment where guests shower and use the bathroom before getting into the water. If you prevent the natural organics and swimmer wastes from getting into the water, then you will reduce the workload of sanitizers like chlorine and bromine, and also reduce the workload of the filtration system. This simple activity will have a direct impact to improve water clarity while reducing undesirable odors, required pool maintenance and chemical costs.
Brian Bokowy is the vice president and general manager at AllChem Performance Products. He has 30 years of experience in commercial pool chemicals, chemical feed systems and pool operation. For more information, email brian.bokowy@allchem.com or call 352.378.9696.
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