new poster, questions and comments

[dhanger]

Lemme eliminate the easy stuff, first. That is, the stuff I can't answer: bees. The only idea I could come up with is to see if they are using your pool as a water source. If they are, you might could put a bird bath between your pool, and their home, and see if they'd use that, instead. Just a W.A.G. though.

I had thought of that before, thanks for reminding me. Yes, they are after the water, I had heard (I think from a beekeeper I spoke to once) that they not only consume it but use it with their wings for an evaporative cooler at the hive. Interesting.

"Frog Bam" (where do they get these names??) => MSDS at ChemQuip (Adobe PDF file)
-- Copper algicide --

Never used it, maybe because the name conjured up images of cars and frogs mingling. Having copper, looks like I'll never use it.

Since the mineral reservoir costs just shy of 100 dollars every year (plus another 80-90 bucks for a 6-pak Bac-Pac), if it doesn't provide substantial benefit then I'll probably drop that as well.

The ozonator is an UltraPure UPPX5, I tried to locate the manual online but no luck, the manual I have states on the front 'valveless suction side installation', so I don't know how that description fits with yours.

I'll have to check on the water report, just last week we received our annual municipal water report, but they only include regulated substances, I didn't see any minerals listed.

Also I was mistaken about getting cal-hypo locally, guess I'm still indoctrinated and haven't learned to read labels for myself. This question has probably been answered many times before, so sorry for being repetitious; the bags come in different strengths of active ingredient, like 48 or 52% of cal-hypo, and the rest is 'remaining ingredients'. Should I be looking for 100% active (doesn't seem likely to me), or are they all that way and are the inactive ingredients unimportant to know?

Thanks,
Dan

[PoolDoc]

Yep. 100% cal hypo contains -- usually -- 67% available chlorine.

Avoid the cal hypo blends. And if you are wondering, yes, they are trying to trick you. The 'other ingredients' are considerably cheaper than cal hypo, by the pound.

The ozone system sounds like it's a suction side (in front of the pump) air inlet. Those type systems continuously aerate the pool, and make it impossible to maintain recommended levels of carbonate alkalinity. However, this is only a problem on concrete (plaster, etc.) pools.

PoolDoc

[dhanger]

The ozone system sounds like it's a suction side (in front of the pump) air inlet. Those type systems continuously aerate the pool, and make it impossible to maintain recommended levels of carbonate alkalinity. However, this is only a problem on concrete (plaster, etc.) pools.

That's what I have, concrete w/PebbleTec surface. So, if I read you right, I really should disable this thing to keep from eventually compromising the concrete, right? Or, at least monitor and correct the alkalinity often (which I have never done until this last week after I got my K2006), although when you say 'impossible' is that what you really mean?

On the flip side, if the time comes when I really do need to lower the alkalinity would this be a convenient way to aerate, or is there some other reason why I shouldn't use it? This is probably a silly question, but that's just the way I think sometimes.

I can't believe I haven't destroyed my pool in my ignorance, thankfully it's still fairly new and I can redeem myself (I hope).

Dan