Routine chlorination kills harmful microorganisms that can cause health-related problems, such as gastroenteritis, Legionnaires disease, ear infections and athlete's foot. Learning how to properly test your water will allow you to identify the chlorine residual and demand in pool water. More frequent testing is needed if there is heavy bather use. Listed below are some helpful definitions that will assist you in understanding the terms and tasks of applying chlorine-based sanitizers. The portion of chlorine in the water that has reacted and combined with ammonia, nitrogen-containing contaminants and other organics such as perspiration, urine and other swimmer waste.
Some chloramines can cause eye irritation and chlorine odors.
The sum of both the free available and combined chlorines. Forms of chlorine commonly used in commercial pools. Chlorinated isocyanurates, a family of chemical compounds such as sodium dichloroisocyanurate and trichloroisocyanurate, also add cyanuric acid or stabilizer. A stabilizer, which can also be added separately, helps reduce excess loss of chlorine in water due to the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Measurement that indicates the parts of a substance, such as chlorine, by weight in relation to one million parts by volume of pool water.