Pool Water

Hi All:

I don't know if this is the proper forum for this discussion. Please let me know if I should post it elsewhere.

I have an above ground pool. During the summer months, I frequently backwash and rinse the pool filter. Usually this water is just flushed down the hill. It's seems to be such a waste.

Can I use this water in any of my beds? It does have chlorine in it. But not too much of anything else.

Any suggestions?

Brennan

I would guess that you're not backwashing with freshly chlorinated water, right? So since the chlorine degrades pretty quickly in sunlight and it's already degraded quite a bit in the period of time it's been in the pool, I'd guess it's no worse than using chlorinated city water to water your plants, which many people do with no problem. (But notice my frequent use of the word "guess," since I'm not speaking from experience.) And the remaining chlorine should degrade still more if you're applying it on a sunny day.

I agree with mickgene about this but I will ask my son anyway. He is a pool contractor and builds and services inground pools. I am sure he would know. One thing I would like to know though is whatr do you use to filter thru. My son tells me some of that stuff can do you a lot of harm.

Thanks to both of you.

Now we are not backwahing with freshly chlorinated water. I generally backwash and rinse before I perform the regular maintenance. We have a Baquapure sand filter which I treat every other week with a couple of bags a shock.

Maintaining a pool is something new to us. It just seems like such as waste to just flush the water down the hillside when it can be used for some other purpose.

Thanks

I seriously prefer a good natural pond full of bacteria, with a mud bottom... Rather than what truly seems to be a pioson-receptacle. (I can say this until my immune system wears down, of course...)

Hey James:

You would have loved it when we first moved in. Between the algae and the critters, it was quite a feat to get it usuable. LOL

The mystifing part too me was that there were frogs in it. No natural bodies of water neaby except a very small streat one the back acre. Above ground pool eith frogs it. I'm still mystified about that one.

if you have water, frogs will come. eventually you will wear a big ole rut down that hill too so here's hoping you can water the plants.

I wouldn't use the water for watering plants. That is just my personal opinion. The lawn won't mind it. But other plants are not as easy going.

My mother has a neighbor behind her with an above ground pool with the soft sides. Her son took a butcher knife to it one day and slashed a huge gash in the side facing my mothers fence. The pool side blew open and all that water flooded my mothers vegitable garden. The lawn nearby was flooded too. The next year, the strip of garden that was flooded, refused to grow a decent crop even though my mother tried liquid fertilizer and you could see were the garden hadn't been flooded. It was like a line, the crops immediatly looked normal and healthy in the unflooded areas. But like I said, the lawn never looked different.

It was two years of adding organic material before that soil woild yield up a normal looking plant again.

Thanks Renwings:

Ouch I'm sorry about your Mom's garden. I think I'll try test first before I decide what to do with it.

I live in Ft.Valley Ga and I too have a above ground pool I couldn't get any grass to grow where I backwash ,so I tried backwashing in the evening when it wasn't so hot and I have no problems with my grass or any of my other plants around the area where I backwash, if you backwash during the heat of the day the sun will burn your plants.

We recently moved into a house with an above-ground pool also (AND a separate pond full of microorganisms with a muddy bottom and frogs!). Ours backwashes into our garden and we've never had any problems with it, but we do try to keep the chemicals to a minimum. I've never caught the water and tried it on a variety of plants, though. I'd appreciate it if you would post results from your experimenting. :) Perhaps if I get the notion I'll give it a try also.