Remember the science experiment in sixth grade? Pouring and stirring sugar or salt into a glass of water. Eventually the sugar or salt will stop dissolving. This happens when the water reaches it's saturation point, which is a high level of Total Dissolved Solids or (TDS.) This can happen with your swimming pool as well.
WHAT IS TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS?
Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS, is the measurement of all dissolved substances in your pool water. Common dissolved solids are magnesium, potassium, sulfates, carbonates, irons, other metals, minerals, carbonates/bicarbonates, anionic and cationic substances, as well as salts.
Everything you add to the water increases its TDS, including chlorine, shock, water balancers such as pH increaser or reducer, algaecide, clarifiers, etc. Even swimming in your pool adds to your TDS level, with sweat, hairspray, deodorant, perfumes and other substances coming off the bodies of the swimmers.
WHAT IS THE IDEAL TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS LEVEL?
Ideally, your TDS level should be under 2500 ppm. When it gets higher than this it can decrease the effectiveness of chlorine while also causing skin and eye irritation to swimmers and metal corrosion within your pool equipment. Cloudy water and calcium scale deposits occur more easily.
High TDS can over-saturate your pool water, causing water quality problems. Pool water with a high TDS reading can be aggressive and corrosive, and can be the cause of cloudy water, elevated hardness, scale, and an unwanted metallic taste. Dissolved solids can affect your pH and can reduce the efficiency of chlorine.
When your TDS level gets too high, you may notice an unpleasant salty taste to your pool water. This is because many of the chemicals that we use for pool maintenance contain sodium. Water balancers such as sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium bisulfate and liquid chlorine shock (sodium hypochlorite.)
SIGNS OF A HIGH TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS LEVEL IN POOLS
Frequent cloudy water problems
Scaling and stains on the tile and plaster
Trouble keeping a chlorine level
Salty or strange taste to the water
HOW TO TEST FOR HIGH TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS
To check if you have a problem with high TDS in your pool (2500 ppm or more), you can test the water with an TDS test meter (very accurate) or a TDS test strip (less accurate).
If your pool has frequent bouts of algae, cloudy water, or trouble keeping a chlorine level, you may have too many dissolved solids in the water. TDS can build up to an undesirable level within 3-5 years on pools that don't add much replacement water.
HOW TO FIX TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS PROBLEMS IN POOLS
When it comes to resolving high TDS levels, the solution is draining or dilution. There is no miracle product that will remove TDS from your pool water. The easiest way to lower your pools TDS level is to drain and refill it with fresh water, either partially or completely, depending on how high the level has become.
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