Nature 2?

[sasha]

If the N2 is an erosion feeder there is no way it could reach a level to be a effective bacteriostat.

I think that's beside the point. The product is to be used with at least 0.5 ppm free chlorine, and that's clearly stated on the label.

IMO, not mentioning the explicit requirement for having a concurrent free chlorine level of at least 0.5 ppm is misrepresenting the product.

[medvampire]

I guess I jumped into a hornets nest on this N2 subject. One last post and I bind and gag my fingers.
First of all let me say I am not worried about the copper due to the fact if you have an algae bloom I feel you have bigger problems with bacteria or viruses in your pool. Algae is a good sign you have problems.

Warning geek speak to follow.

Cl is a great sanitizer at levels given in Ben’s best guess chart but at levels of 0.5 it is quickly used up. It attacks by oxidizing the lipid molecules of the cell membrane as well as the membrane of bacteria, algae, parasites while denaturing the proteins in the coats of viruses.
Silver is a great sanitizer in conjunction with UV light and works buy preventing the unzipping of DNA. This prevents the replication of bacteria and viruses. In high concretions it also hinders the production of proteins but would be toxic to us at that level.
Now let’s put the two chem. together
Ag electrical state +1.93
Cl electrical state -3.16
Ag + Cl -à AgCl
In theory have just created a white insoluble granular material that is way to large to enter a cell to mess with the DNA and killed the oxidizing propties Cl but in a pool environment Ag in solution will be found in its bound and unbound state.
Ag + Cal ßà AgCl
Now mix the rest of the pool chem. Ca Na Mg Fe just to mention a few.
Ca electrical state 1
Fe electrical state -1.83
Na electrical state -0.93
Mg electrical state -1.31
You get the ideal. Ag is a very reactive with other elements causing a greater decrease of free silver in the system.
Now lets gander to silver kill times if we have enough free silver left in the system. Kill times are directionally proportionalto concretion of free silver and judging by the level of silver left in the system you are looking at well over ½ hour kill times. E.Cloi reproduces every 20 minutes so resistant strains become a good possibility. Resistant strains for silver that have been cultured include
Acinetobacter baumannii, E. coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Citrobacter freundii, and Salmonella typhimurium
Trust me you do not want to get any of these bacteria much less a resistant one.

End of geek speak.

I am out of this one and might get my hand slapped by the mods for this but the N2 is not only expensive but potently dangerous due to bacteria resistance and will be pulling my cartridge and use just the puck feeder on the vessel when on vacation.
I deal with enough resistant bacteria and have seen the effects of MRSA here at work in the staff as well as the patents.
Later
Steve

[sasha]

Odd that you say silver is a "great" sanitizer with UV light but discount its effectiveness with low levels of free chlorine. I think your only negative point is that such a low level of free chlorine would be rapidly depleted.

Silver, because of its lower reactivity, would not be depleted as free chlorine would. Silver would be persistently available unlike the free chlorine that is so reactive it gets used up. That might be just enough to get you through until more free chlorine comes on line providing those fast kill rates needed. In this sense, silver would be supplementing the disinfection properties of chlorine.

There's no measurement I'm aware of that would describe silver complexed in solution either as a AgCl precipitate, complex, or colloid that would totally discount its possible effectiveness. And of those other elements you list besides chloride, there's little reason to think those would be principle players in silver equilibria. I'd be more concerned about low levels of sulfide in the water reducing silver concentrations than a possible redox reaction between silver and some other trace metal ion. The solubility product constant of silver sulfide is several orders of magnitude lower than silver chloride.

Plus, who's to say the possible action of silver isn't simply suppression of formation of biofilms on surfaces that silver species have deposited on? Perhaps the formation and presence of these biofilms has more to do with the dynamics of bacterial counts in the water than has been traditionally assumed. There's a number of surface active silver products on the market.

I believe we tend to think in a simplistic model of disinfection where there needs to be a specific residual concentration of an agent to attain a specific kill rate for specific organisms. This is appropriate, but in the Nature 2 system, you should always have at least 0.5 ppm free chlorine anyways. This, for the most part, provides a sufficient kill rate and arguing about the slow kill rates of silver alone is a moot point. And when you point out that these other elemental species "decrease silver in the system", you're referring to a residual concentration that may be only part of silver's disinfection action.

I think silver is always in the system, in one form or another, whether in solution or on surfaces, and I would be hesitent to assume I understood the efficacy of all those forms without any data. I think there's some benefit, regardless of the mechanism, but at what cost?

The principle issue becomes one of cost and value to the customer, and as such, Nature 2 is a very poor choice for consumers. Of the active agents Nature 2 apparently provides (silver and copper sulfate), the amounts are worth a very small fraction of the product cost of almost $100. That's enough to convince me to never buy the product.

But whether it's Nature 2 or other products such as simplyblue etc., your gripe shouldn't be with the companies or salesmen trying to make a living. It should be with your Federal and state agencies who have a responsibility in protecting consumers from ineffective products related to public health. Writing a few letters to positioned people in those agencies would be a more valuable and effective exercise than banning people from forums such as this who promote those products.

[CarlD]

Steve:
Some comments---
First: Chorine levels of .5 can be effective at keeping a clean pool clean, but nobody will claim it will clean up a dirty pool. (except maybe N2)

Second: .5 is ONLY effective with no CYA in the water. The Best Guess table is an empirical table showing effective maintenance and shock levels of chlorine for various CYA levels. So it's really irrelevant in the real world to discuss .5 chlorine levels. Most people who follow pool store rules are d*** lucky not to get algae when using pucks and keeping FC that low. Actually, many of them get algae, and finally come here for help. I'm inferring that your point is that N2 is leading people down the garden path to serious water troubles. I agree with that.

Third: I know that silver can be an algaecide, but that doesn't make it a sanitizer. There's a difference. I'm guessing that at levels where it can actually sanitize (kill microbes) is definitely not safe for human swimming.

Fourth: I, too, argue that simple arithmetic tells you that the N2 isn't worth the money. Now the seasonal cartridge is over $100. That buys a HECKUVA lot of chlorine--and you need to buy chlorine with the N2 anyway. I'd bet $100 that 999 out of a 1000 pool owners don't save that $100 in reduced chlorine usage.

Fifth: N2 uses that bromine and bacquacil producers' myth that chlorine is irritating and lots of people are sensitive to it. We know that's not true--properly maintained water doesn't irritate most people, and the few it does have explicit medical issues.

[medvampire]

I have no gripe with any one, the orginal spirit of the thread was asking if it worked. We use silver on wound preps here at work and it works. I have do have references of the sources of bacterialcide of but none on alagecide. If I offeneded any one I give my most humble apologies but I was doing the research for my self due to I got "pool stored" and posted my results and conclusions. Waterbear had already proved from the copper side that the concretions were too low to be much use as a copper algaecide so I was looking at the silver. I feel kinda stupid after for letting my self get "pool stored" on this one. After 12 years in a medical lab I should have known better.
Sorry if I ticked any one off
Steve

[CarlD]

Well, you certainly didn't tick ME off!

I HATE when our members get "Pool-stored"...They feel foolish and they shouldn't (unless they were warned and didn't listen). They've been conned by a con that's SO well practiced that the pool store clerks don't even realize they are doing it. It's all voo-doo and it doesn't need to be.

[sasha]

Me neither. I think we're pretty much in agreement here, from various perspectives. My use of "your gripe" was directed towards anyone complaining about ineffective pool products being pushed on consumers.

[DavidD]

Let me start off by saying no one has ticked me off, except maybe the companies such as Nature's 2. I was once (and only once thanks to Ben) a Nature's 2 patron. Here is MY problem with everything that has been said here as well as in the Natures 2 product manuals and web advertising.
In my opinion, the .5 residual of chlorine that is recommended would be used up faster than it could be replenished in a residential pool full of kids, swimming lets say from morning to afternoon. Then the average consumer would be relying only on the chlorine in the plumbing and the Nature's 2 cartridge itself to "sanitize". Ever got a toy in the skimmer? Granted some also have a main drain however I would venture to say that most people only have one form of intake. As Steve mentioned, forget about the algae. What about the "stuff" that chewed off the .5 residual in the first place. The average consumer probably wouldn't even notice the chlorine had dissipated until later that evening and by then, it could be too late. Now, throw into my little scenario that this average consumer has a CYA level of 90+ppm.

Dave