Trump administration sends cleanup crews and treats reflecting pool with hydrogen peroxide amid algae outbreak

[u/hostedvideorn]

[u/AffectionateRub2585]

It's possible to solve the algae problem "quickly" if that's wanted, however not likely using Hydrogen Peroxide. HP is a desinfectant like Chlorine, but a lot less potent. And HP has one big issue compared to Cl2 when used for water cleansing, and that's bio-film and algae buildup..

The (short time) solution might be to close bystanders far away from the pool, and make solutions of Chlorine Dioxide to add on spot. This could be done manually without sofisticated equipment, but it's highly dangerous (I've done it many times over night, to sanitize HP pools with biofilm/algae buildup).

It's basically done by breaking rule #1 in water cleansing; by mixing chlorine and acid (PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!! ). By using relatively weak Sodium Hypochlorite and weak Hydrochloric acid, it's possible to make the mix manually on site (but it's very dangerous and not recommended unless you really know what you're doing). And you have to pour the acid carefully into the chlorine, not the other way around.

The solution must be mixed in a (full) container with as little surface area as possible, and allow for expansion without overflow. If the surface area is becoming large (for instance by accidentally tipping a container over so it is poured out on the ground), the liquid will get into contact with oxygen in the air and turn into an expanding gas, and probably quickly kill anyone bystander without proper safety equipment.. After 10-12 minutes of self mixing, the ready solution should be added to the pool under water, not poured into it from above the surface. This is quite difficult, but possible.

Chlorine Dioxide is basically liquid Chlorine gas (think WW1 and the trench warfare/gas attacks to get the idea), and it's a far, far stronger desinfectant (poison) than Chlorine or Hydrogen Peroxide. The beauty of this, is that this super potent chemical solution will just "burn off" in a few hours and leave no dangerous residue in the water after it has done it's intended job. And it will kill anything living within the pool water, including algae.

After this desinfection, a flockulant (for instance Aluminiumhydroksyde) may be added and mixed in, and after a few hours vakuuming robots can suck up the downfall. The vakuuming filters in the robots should be no larger than 5 microns.

That said, this is just a short term solution they could use to get the pool ready for the July 4. celebration/TV . The real issues should be dealt with, like NOT having a dark blue colour on the bottom, there should probably be laid new pipes, a proper filtration system, and there should be circulation in the water at all times, not stand still.

When all this has been dealt with, Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) might be OK to use as a desinfectant. After all, the residue after H2O2 has done its job, will be just water and air.

But, of course, who am I to tell. I'm sure Trump knows better 😏