Any water treatment program for swimming pools has one objective: to mitigate the growth of bacteria, algae, and waterborne viruses in the water. This has traditionally been accomplished through the regular addition of chlorine and other chemical agents that eliminate organics from the water. However, there has been rising demand from pool owners for a gentler, less toxic method to accomplish this.
The synthesis of known technologies that form the basis of oxygen based water treatment provides a relatively simple and easily understood process that is capable of maintaining clean, safe water in residential pools. The actual chemical demands of a residential pool are quite manageable since residential pools are generally not in use 95% of the time. The chemical needs are much higher for public pools where use is much heavier and where sanitation demands can spike erratically.
The drawback of both chlorine and non chlorine treatment systems has been the lack of a residual oxidizer in the water. Chlorine requires a stabilizer in the form of cyanuric acid (CYA) to retain a residual in the water. Without this stabilizer, chlorine dissipates out of water in a matter of minutes in direct sunlight. However, there have been questions concerning human exposure to CYA as well as the effectiveness of chlorine when stabilized. As a result, reducing CYA in swimming pools has become important for many in public safety agencies.
In an Oxygen Pool, no stabilizer is added since oxidizer levels are maintained by continuously injecting ozone into the water at high velocity. This dissolved ozone then creates a residual level of peroxide that is measurable with common test methods. The Oxygen Generator is run for 12 hours daily during daylight hours to maintain sufficient levels of oxidizer. Peroxide levels can be increased with the regular addition of liquid pool peroxide to maintain a proper residual in the water.
