wrote:
Ft. Belvoir,On 9 Jan 2007 04:54:11 -0800, "basskisser"
wrote:


wrote:


10-4 on that Bass. Keep it simple and don't buy everything the kid at
the pool store sells.
I use enough tri-chlor to maintain a reasonable stabylizer level (that
10-20 you spealk of) and bleach to maintain the chlorine level. I end
up with a shot of acid now and then to hold the pH. That keeps my pool
sparkling.

I hear tell of people having to use acid to hold pH. Here in GA, my
water is just the opposite, you need to raise pH. Instead of using pH
Up, use 20 mule team borax, right out of the grocery store for about
10% of the price!. Raise alkalinity with baking soda, the same exact
thing the pool store sells you for three times as much. I use plain old
bleach to both keep my chlorine level up to the range specified by the
amount of stabilizer, and to shock. Here is a website that has that
information, you'll like it, this guy is a pool brain!

http://www.poolsolutions.com

and here is a forum of people who use his methods:
http://www.poolforum.com

If you go in the forums, someone has even written a small program
called bleach calc, you just plug in the capacity of your pool in
gallons, if you are using 5% or 6% (ultra) bleach, and it will tell you
the amount of bleach to add to get to x ppm. It also has calcs for
adjusting pH, Alk, and stabilizer. I only use pucks if I go on vacation
or something, so I have to add stabilizer once in awhile.
This guy also debunks a lot of pool store myths. I laugh at the
beginning of the season when I go to the pool store to watch those guys
load everybody up with a couple hundred bucks worth of pretty much
worthless crap, and I get to smallest package of pucks I can get!
Anyway, check these guys out!


Is that a liner pool?

Yes, and that's ANOTHER way the pool store people will hose you!
They'll INSIST that you need calcium in your pool. You only need
calcium if your pool is a cementitous pool, gunite, concrete, etc.
where calcium will leach from the concrete if the water doesn't have
any. A fiberglass or liner pool does NOT need calcium.


I used to put soda ash in my spa (glass) but my
gunite pool drifts to the high pH side. I am now swapping water
between them so it eliminated the high pH in the spa.
You are right on the baking soda. Sams/Costco will sell you a huge bag
for $8 or so. We can get 10% bleach at the pool store in bulk, bring
your own jug, for about a buck a gallon.

That's a good deal!

They will loan you a
chlorine jug for a $10 deposit but you can find them in garage sales
for a buck or less. It is just a swap out deal.
I would like to get an automatic bleach chlorinator but I am having
pretty good luck just dropping a couple pucks in a floater once a week
and shocking it every sunday.

But remember, those pucks have stabilizer in the form of cyuranic acid,
the higher the cya, the higher the chlorine levels need to be. I use
bleach only. I check it every other day when open, add bleach
accordingly.

That keeps my pool clear in Florida and
that isn't easy. I do have to whack it with another dose of bleach
when we get a lot of rain. Many years ago I ran a public pool in Md.
We had a bleach chlorinator and a truck came by about once a month and
filled up our tanks. That was a very easy pool to keep going.

Now the rage is salt water generators. Again, a lot of commercial pools
have gone the way of liquid chlorinators for just the reason I talked
about. If you use a chlorinating product that the pool store sells, and
it is solid, be it pucks or granuals, it will most likely have
stabilizer in it to prolong shelf life. The downside is that it then
raises the stabilizer level of your pool, thus needing more chlorine!
The only way to get rid of high CYA levels is to drain and refill.
I test with a very good commercial kit. I only shock when necessary,
when the chloramine level gets above 5 ppm. Then I shock with ordinary
bleach, too! Except when I happen to be at the store and I know I need
to shock soon, I'll go ahead and buy shock, but ONLY chlorine shock.

Don't even get me started on that Baquacil crap. Anybody who uses that
**** soon finds out that it's just awful, and then it's hard as hell to
change over to chlorine based!