During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low
evaporation and enough rainfall to keep it topped up. I wasn't using
any chlorine in it (I'm in Melbourne, it's way too cold to swim in
winter), so the water was fine for the garden.

Now I'm cleaning it in preparation for a long hot summer. When I
rinse the filter out, I'm left with a bucketful of yellow brown water,
which I guess is dust and other junk that has fallen into the pool.

Could there be anything harmful in this? I'm leaving the bucket in
the sun so the chlorine evaporates, so I guess it would be fine for
the garden. If anyone knows of a reason why this might not be true,
I'd be grateful to find out.


Happy Gardening!

--
Tom Elliott
Remove `mapsitna` to email

Do a pH test on your pool water it may reveal some valuable information for
you. Heather.
"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low
evaporation and enough rainfall to keep it topped up. I wasn't using
any chlorine in it (I'm in Melbourne, it's way too cold to swim in
winter), so the water was fine for the garden.

Now I'm cleaning it in preparation for a long hot summer. When I
rinse the filter out, I'm left with a bucketful of yellow brown water,
which I guess is dust and other junk that has fallen into the pool.

Could there be anything harmful in this? I'm leaving the bucket in
the sun so the chlorine evaporates, so I guess it would be fine for
the garden. If anyone knows of a reason why this might not be true,
I'd be grateful to find out.


Happy Gardening!

--
Tom Elliott
Remove `mapsitna` to email

"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low
evaporation and enough rainfall to keep it topped up. I wasn't using
any chlorine in it (I'm in Melbourne, it's way too cold to swim in
winter), so the water was fine for the garden.

Now I'm cleaning it in preparation for a long hot summer. When I
rinse the filter out, I'm left with a bucketful of yellow brown water,
which I guess is dust and other junk that has fallen into the pool.

So now you are adding chlorine??

Could there be anything harmful in this? I'm leaving the bucket in
the sun so the chlorine evaporates, so I guess it would be fine for
the garden. If anyone knows of a reason why this might not be true,
I'd be grateful to find out.


Is this what you mean? Now you are cleaning it and you have to add chlorine?
I assume this, as you say you are leaving it in the sun for the chlorine to
evaporate?

Well going back to science, get a bucket of salt water, leave it in the sun,
and watch the salt crystals remain. Collect the water that evaporates and
it's drinkable. So in theory, by leaving a bucket of chlorinated water in
the sun, does something similar happen? If so, then all you are doing is
losing water, and if anything else, then you are actually increasing the
concentration of chlorine, as the less water yet same amount of chlorine.
Perhaps, by not letting it evaporate, but letting it sit, the chlorine will
sink, and you can pour the less chlorinated water off the top?

No doubt the pool water is much stronger chlorinated than tap water. I would
do some experimenting to see what effect it has. Also, in any case, keep it
off the foliage. I can't imagine that it is good for it.


--
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Happy Gardening!

--
Tom Elliott
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On Tue, 12 Nov 2002 18:40:39 +1100, "Andrew G"
wrote:

"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low

(snip)

Is this what you mean? Now you are cleaning it and you have to add chlorine?
I assume this, as you say you are leaving it in the sun for the chlorine to
evaporate?
Well going back to science, get a bucket of salt water, leave it in the sun,
and watch the salt crystals remain. Collect the water that evaporates and
it's drinkable. So in theory, by leaving a bucket of chlorinated water in
the sun, does something similar happen? If so, then all you are doing is
losing water, and if anything else, then you are actually increasing the
concentration of chlorine, as the less water yet same amount of chlorine.
Perhaps, by not letting it evaporate, but letting it sit, the chlorine will
sink, and you can pour the less chlorinated water off the top?

No doubt the pool water is much stronger chlorinated than tap water. I would
do some experimenting to see what effect it has. Also, in any case, keep it
off the foliage. I can't imagine that it is good for it.

The difference here is that salt and chlorine are different as I
understand it. Chlorine breaks down into other things when exposed to
UV light. A chlorinated swimming pool after a few sunny days has
little or no detectable chlorine, so I think it should be okay.
Perhaps I will spread it around, I don't think it could be much worse
than grey water from a washing machine.

Tom.



Tom Elliott
remove `mapsitna' from email address to reply by email.

You are correct, chlorine (CL2) is a lot less stable than salt (NaCl) Or
Sodium Chloride.

Chlorine will effectively evapourate from water within a couple of days.
Keep in mind that in tap water sometimes they use a substance called
CHLORAMINE which is more stable than chlorine and will remain in the water
for a longer period of time.

Chloramine is a combination of Chlorine and Ammonia and is designed to be
more stable so our tap water can stay bug free for longer periods. Look into
whether your water contains Chlorine, Chloramine or both, and I suggest you
look at this web site for dechlorination options.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_chlorine.htm

The web site is centred around keeping fish, but from what I can tell you
would like to remove the chlorine for much the same reasons, so that things
will live in, around, through and from the water. If so, the information is
still useful.

Cheers and thanks for listening,

Anthony


"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
news:3dd0d87f.76226390@news...
On Tue, 12 Nov 2002 18:40:39 +1100, "Andrew G"
wrote:

"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low

(snip)

Is this what you mean? Now you are cleaning it and you have to add
chlorine?
I assume this, as you say you are leaving it in the sun for the chlorine
to
evaporate?
Well going back to science, get a bucket of salt water, leave it in the
sun,
and watch the salt crystals remain. Collect the water that evaporates and
it's drinkable. So in theory, by leaving a bucket of chlorinated water in
the sun, does something similar happen? If so, then all you are doing is
losing water, and if anything else, then you are actually increasing the
concentration of chlorine, as the less water yet same amount of chlorine.
Perhaps, by not letting it evaporate, but letting it sit, the chlorine
will
sink, and you can pour the less chlorinated water off the top?

No doubt the pool water is much stronger chlorinated than tap water. I
would
do some experimenting to see what effect it has. Also, in any case, keep
it
off the foliage. I can't imagine that it is good for it.

The difference here is that salt and chlorine are different as I
understand it. Chlorine breaks down into other things when exposed to
UV light. A chlorinated swimming pool after a few sunny days has
little or no detectable chlorine, so I think it should be okay.
Perhaps I will spread it around, I don't think it could be much worse
than grey water from a washing machine.

Tom.



Tom Elliott
remove `mapsitna' from email address to reply by email.

Firstly, chlorine is not very stable in water at the levels recommended.
Apart from the volatility and UV induced breakdown it reacts rapidly with
many organic species (that's why it works!). It also reacts with some
nitrogenous species to form chloramines.

Secondly, if you get any book on tissue culture you will see that it is
regularly recommended to dip your cutting/bud material in chlorine solution
(much stronger than tap/pool levels). It kills surface pathogens before
culturing.

Thirdly, in times of high rain/organics load on the reticulated supply the
local authorities add more chlorine to cope with the loss due to reaction
with organic species. Watering your plants during normal or superchlorinated
periods appears to have no noticeable effect (or the whole gardening world
would be using rainwater (with all its pollutants!).

Lastly, the organic soup you mention will have such a high chlorine demand
that any residual traces of chlorine will be scrubbed in seconds.

The simple answer is that as long as you can swim in the pool without severe
irritation, your plants will "swim" happily also.

Go for it,
Jim.

"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low
evaporation and enough rainfall to keep it topped up. I wasn't using
any chlorine in it (I'm in Melbourne, it's way too cold to swim in
winter), so the water was fine for the garden.

Now I'm cleaning it in preparation for a long hot summer. When I
rinse the filter out, I'm left with a bucketful of yellow brown water,
which I guess is dust and other junk that has fallen into the pool.

Could there be anything harmful in this? I'm leaving the bucket in
the sun so the chlorine evaporates, so I guess it would be fine for
the garden. If anyone knows of a reason why this might not be true,
I'd be grateful to find out.


Happy Gardening!

--
Tom Elliott
Remove `mapsitna` to email

"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low
evaporation and enough rainfall to keep it topped up. I wasn't using
any chlorine in it (I'm in Melbourne, it's way too cold to swim in
winter), so the water was fine for the garden.

Now I'm cleaning it in preparation for a long hot summer. When I
rinse the filter out, I'm left with a bucketful of yellow brown water,
which I guess is dust and other junk that has fallen into the pool.

Could there be anything harmful in this? I'm leaving the bucket in
the sun so the chlorine evaporates, so I guess it would be fine for
the garden. If anyone knows of a reason why this might not be true,
I'd be grateful to find out.

Probably mostly algae; in other words liquid compost. I would imagine it would
be quite safe to use the backwash water from a powder chlorinated pool on the
garden, but not from a salt chlorinated pool.


Roger Riordan AM

But doesnt chlorine evaporate? We had a really high chlorine level in our
water due to a computer error at our water treatment plant... the water
authority said that the water was safe to drink but that if you left it open
to the air the chlorine would evaporate quickly.




"Andrew G" wrote in message
...
"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
During winter, I was using my swimming pool as a storage tank - low
evaporation and enough rainfall to keep it topped up. I wasn't using
any chlorine in it (I'm in Melbourne, it's way too cold to swim in
winter), so the water was fine for the garden.

Now I'm cleaning it in preparation for a long hot summer. When I
rinse the filter out, I'm left with a bucketful of yellow brown water,
which I guess is dust and other junk that has fallen into the pool.

So now you are adding chlorine??

Could there be anything harmful in this? I'm leaving the bucket in
the sun so the chlorine evaporates, so I guess it would be fine for
the garden. If anyone knows of a reason why this might not be true,
I'd be grateful to find out.


Is this what you mean? Now you are cleaning it and you have to add
chlorine?
I assume this, as you say you are leaving it in the sun for the chlorine
to
evaporate?

Well going back to science, get a bucket of salt water, leave it in the
sun,
and watch the salt crystals remain. Collect the water that evaporates and
it's drinkable. So in theory, by leaving a bucket of chlorinated water in
the sun, does something similar happen? If so, then all you are doing is
losing water, and if anything else, then you are actually increasing the
concentration of chlorine, as the less water yet same amount of chlorine.
Perhaps, by not letting it evaporate, but letting it sit, the chlorine
will
sink, and you can pour the less chlorinated water off the top?

No doubt the pool water is much stronger chlorinated than tap water. I
would
do some experimenting to see what effect it has. Also, in any case, keep
it
off the foliage. I can't imagine that it is good for it.


--
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Happy Gardening!

--
Tom Elliott
Remove `mapsitna` to email

"Leanne" magic_lea@"remove this part"yahoo.com wrote in message
...
But doesnt chlorine evaporate? We had a really high chlorine level in our
water due to a computer error at our water treatment plant... the water
authority said that the water was safe to drink but that if you left it
open
to the air the chlorine would evaporate quickly.

From memory the replies to my post indicated that it does evaporate or break
down.
I was incorrect in saying it will build up.


--
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