Can I Use Salt As Sanitizer Instead of Chlorine?

[BigTallGuy]

Catfish,

I have never personally swum in the Dead Sea, nor in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. However, I have spoken to people that have. The resounding complaint from those people is that just about any tiny cut will sting and burn. The men I spoke with tell me that even shaving facial hair (assuming no cuts or nicks) with a standard blade type razor prior to swimming in the Dead Sea is irritating and uncomfortable to the face once you get in the water.

You already have stated that you do not open your eyes under water while in the ocean, as it stings your eyes. My question to you is this, why would you ever want to build a pool that would do the same thing only worse?

If you visit this website, you will learn that plants, animals and microbes live and survive in the Great Salt Lake, which is reported to be 3.5 – 8 times saltier than the ocean.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/conte...physical_char/

Having had a traditional pool that irritated my children and grandchildren’s eyes, as well as my own, and my own grandchildren tell me that they don’t want to swim in my pool anymore because it burns their eyes, I felt pretty ridiculous. I realize that this is just a dream for you at this point, but my experience says you’re going to be pretty lonely in your pool.

But, in the spirit of education and sharing knowledge, here is a bit of information you may find useful.

1 tablespoon of Salt in a gallon of water is approximately 3600 PPM.

9-10 tablespoons in that same gallon of water will get you somewhere close the salinity level of the Ocean (35,000 PPM).

85 tablespoons will get you to the approximately the salinity level of the Dead Sea (300,000 PPM).

Perhaps you might want to mix up a small sample to test your theory before taking the big plunge and filling a pool.

[AnnaK]

Ugh! Whoever would want to swim in such a concentrated salt solution? That would suck the water out of your skin in no time. I used to live near the Great Salt Lake. Nobody swims in it because it's scummy from algae which do very much survive and love highly salty water. I'm having a great time picturing 32,000 pounds of water in a 13,000 gallon round pool, imagining the salt sliding out of the dump truck, making a tall mound of salt in the middle. Catfish on top of it with a big rake pushing the salt into the water which, of course, is overflowing the sides. What stays in is getting very cold due to the exothermic reaction. Catfish is now up to his ankles in a supersaturated, very cold salt solution and we see the flesh dissolving off his feet . . . okay, I'll stop.

BTG has a good idea: try it in your bathtub, first. Sit in it for an hour or so, see what it does to your bottom. Ouch!

[PoolDoc]

BTG has a good idea: try it in your bathtub, first. Sit in it for an hour or so, see what it does to your bottom.

To say nothing of other parts -- it might put an end to all thoughts of 'kittenfish'.

Still, it would give him a chance to actually put some facts in his fantasy, and be a REAL investigator and pioneer. Maybe even, the last of his breed.

[AnnaK]

LOL!

You know, this thread started out fairly interesting on kind of a "what if" level, but a 10 second search on Google produces an immediate Aha! response. The Salton Sea, the Great Salt Lake, the Aral Sea, the Dead Sea, California's Pink Lakes – none are used for recreational purposes. The caption to one of the photos of the Pink Lakes says "The red coloration is caused by astronomical numbers of microscopic, unicellular organisms living in the water and salt crust. How they survive the blistering summer heat and concentrated brine is truly remarkable."

I'm sticking with chlorine.