Sparkling clean water is something which we have always been a bit obsessed with at Bach Canine Rehab. Our water quality is hugely important to us and something we think about constantly. Having dogs (often a bit grubby from having a good time in the park!) in the pool and treadmill all day long is challenging for our filters and water management systems and managing our water forms a huge part of our jobs. So, what goes in to keeping a canine hydrotherapy pool clean?
Our water is tested in-house 3 x daily. This is to ensure chemical levels are safe – high enough to do the job of killing any bugs, but low enough to be safe to swim in. We also don’t want the clinic (and ourselves and patients!) smelling of chlorine, which can be the case if the wrong water management protocols are used. As we test the pool 3 x a day, this allows us generally to micro-dose chlorine levels, to avoid having to put a lot of chemicals in in one go.
One of the tests we do daily is for water clarity – and we are proud to say our water is within the “ideal” range for drinking water. So even though we try to avoid our patients doing so as much as possible, our water really is clean enough to drink!
Once a month, we send a water sample off to an external lab for testing, to ensure we have no bacteria or other bugs growing. We are proud to say that we have never had a bad pool result.
The pool is hoovered twice a day, morning and night, and the treadmill is hoovered every evening, to get rid of as much hair and little bits of foliage the dogs bring in as possible and avoid them going into the filters.
On a Saturday evening, we conduct a more intensive cleaning protocol, taking the chlorine levels higher to ensure any bacteria is well and truly dealt with and running the chlorinated water through the whole system. We then rest the pool on a Sunday (hence why we close that day) to allow the chlorine to do its work and the levels to drop back to normal.
Our filters and heaters run 24/7 – they are never switched off, even if the clinic is closed. When the clinic is closed for any length of time (for example over the Christmas period) we still come in every other day to test the water levels and ensure all is as it should be.
We are proud to be geeks about our water management, and hopefully you will agree that the quality of our water demonstrates the hard work that goes into maintaining it!