Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/398980
Step 2 Water Balance: You will probably not change the water in your pool for many years. Continuous filtration and disinfection/sanitisation remove contaminants which keep the water enjoyable but this is does not balance your water. A pool that is "balanced" has proper levels of pH, Total Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness and Total Dissolved Solids. Water Balance just means keeping the pH, Total Alkalinity, Water Hardness (Calcium Hardness) and Total Dissolved Solids at a level that will stop the water from being either too acidic or too alkaline. In other words, it's either corrosive or causing scaling. Corrosive (Acidic) means it can eat metal fixtures, and rust them out. Scaling (Alkaline) means it can build up scale on surfaces which are extremely difficult to eradicate. Water balance comes from the fact that water will dissolve and hold minerals until it becomes saturated and cannot hold any more in solution. As an example if you take a cup of water and attempt to dissolve spoonful after spoonful of sugar, eventually - the water becomes unable to dissolve any more sugar. The sugar just drops to the bottom of the cup. The water is saturated! When water is considerably less than saturated it is said to be in a corrosive or aggressive condition. When water is over saturated and can no longer hold the minerals in solution it is in a scaling condition. Therefore balanced water is that which is neither over nor under-saturated. 18