Totally Frustrated!!!!!

[Sprocket]

Good stuff all said .

I might add this

cya 70 <-- bingo do a search on my name Sprocket and see my problems and how I solved them using this bb's board good advice .

Untill I got my CYA down it was very hard to keep the green away , now mine is 30 it's a breeze again . High CYA = having to have high FC readings in your pool to do the same cleaning action that lower FC does .

From what I have learned to high CYA just defeats the cleaning action of chlorine . While having no CYA lets your pool chlorine disapper in sunlight in just a few hours time .

The way I did my fix was to get the water lvl down and add new water without CYA in it ( well water ) and to use bleach to shock till CC went to 0 and for everyday use I keep FC to 3 - 6 .

I was using pucks and powder shock and both of those have CYA in them , causeing my CYA readings to go to high and then the green appeared .

Plus untill you fork over the coin to get you a really good test kit , your gonna be at the pool stores mercy IMO . That's a MUST as JohnT pointed out .

I am using about a quart a day of Ultra beach atm and it's so nice to jump in and not see GREEN on my sand dimples anymore .

Read , learn and follow advice , way cheaper to do it the right way then to "think" your saving money any other way IMO .

I "shocked" my pool just once this year when I opened it up ( 5-27-07 )after being covered for 9 months , using 6 3/4 gals of Ultra Beach from Save a Lot store at 1.18 USD a jug

I did spend 67 bucks on a Good Test Kit though .

I learned , and now I go to pool store and laugh when I leave cause they didn't sell me but what I wanted to buy Last trip they told me that the more CYA in my water the better , how nice of her to tell me wrong info just to sell more of their product .

enough said .

=====
gwrace1 , I want a Pool Rover next time I buy for my pool , I been reading nothing but good reports like yours on using them in AG pools

I read about that skimmer also , good item , but I have a light on my return and don't think that will attach , at least from the pics I have seen of it online .

[heymom1]

I have a mild case of mustard algae right now. I think I understand some of the chemistry behind the BBB method - the pucks have stabilizer which can get too high, but you need some stabilizer or you can't keep your chlorine level high enough to kill the bugs.

If you use household bleach instead of pucks, since it contains no stabilizer, how do you keep your chlorine levels steady? Do you add a gallon or two every single night? What happens if you leave town?

I don't have a reading on my pool levels yet - son is out doing a test now - but we've added some shock to start killing the algae.

Well, son just came in and said the CYA is 100. 29K pool. Is that high?

[mbar]

Yes, cya of 100 is high. It doesn't matter how many gallons the pool is. The level of cya acts the same in all pools. It is ok to have a cya of 100, but then you need to keep a minimum of 8ppms of chlorine, and your shock level would be 25ppms.

[heymom1]

Thank you for your answer. The algae is not visible this morning, so I guess the shock level is high enough. I will test all the levels myself today, and post the results. And keep adding bleach if I need more chl.

How do you deal with vacations if you are using just bleach added every night?

[aylad]

Thank you for your answer. The algae is not visible this morning, so I guess the shock level is high enough. I will test all the levels myself today, and post the results. And keep adding bleach if I need more chl.

How do you deal with vacations if you are using just bleach added every night?

If you have a neighbor or nearby teenager that you can trust to pour a gallon in every couple of days or so, that's really the best way to deal with vacations. My down the street neighbor comes to my house daily to deal with my animals, anyway, so it's not a problem for her.

In the absence of someone reliable to stop by to put bleach in, you could shock it really well before you leave (if you're only going to be gone for a week and have a CYA of 100, then it would probably take a week for your chlorine levels to come back down. Or you can buy a floater and put cal-hypo pucks in it for a slow constant chlorine feed.

Janet

[heymom1]

Janet, thanks for the response. We don't have any nearby teenagers, and we're taking our with us, so the option to pour bleach in is out. We'll be gone 10 days total. My FIL can come by and check on the pool, but he can't come every night. We have the inline feeder anyway, so I can just keep that going until we get back from our trip. Why can't they make the pucks with less stabilizer anyway? Well, maybe it just builds up no matter what...

I can leave the chlorine very high - the CYA level today is more like 90, so I don't think we will have a lack of chlorine. The chl level today was way over 5, but the kids went in for a while just now. My kit doesn't test free and combined, just total. I need to get one of Ben's kits - is he selling them now?

Thanks again for the help. This forum is invaluable.

[aylad]

Unfortunately, Ben doesn't seem to be in the kit business just now--it's been awhile since he's paid any attention to the forum and in fact has a very long list of people who have already bought kits and are waiting for them to be delivered. My suggestion is the Taylor K-2006, which is almost the same kit, and can be found at most pool stores or online.

In answer to your other question about vacation, if your FIL can come by and check on the pool say every 2-3 days, can he pour in a gallon of bleach? If you shock it before you leave with a CYA of 90 and he comes over, say, twice to add more bleach, then you should be fine. An alternative would be to get a new floater and cal-hypo tabs. THey don't add stabilizer. The newest ones really are not great because they dissolve too quickly and get kind of mushy, but they might do in a pinch.

I think personally I'd just shock it to the upper end of the recommended chlorine range, ask FIL to come by in about 4-5 days and pour in 2 gallons of bleach, and then take my chances. Beats worrying about it the whole time you're gone!

Janet