bbb advice

[WOODYRI]

Thinking of trying this method and here is my situation. Just had my liner replaced on my 16x32 inground. I have a hayward pro series high rate sand filter with a 1hp pump. Had a company put in 2 loads of water and filled the rest with the hose. What do i add first, second, etc to get where i need to be. Im guessing I need to test first and go from there. Thanks, Jerry

[Watermom]

Hi, Jerry, and welcome to the Pool Forum! You are correct in that you need to test first and report your readings and somebody here can help you go from there. Do you have a good test kit? If not, do yourself a favor and pick up a Taylor K-2006 or 2006C. You can get it from the testkit link in my signature below. (Can't buy it locally.)

Hope you enjoy being a part of our forum!

[WOODYRI]

I just grabbed myself a test kit from namco pool supplies. It has five solutions with the tubes and colors and is called swimline. Should do the job till I can get the taylor. My readings are as follows, chlorine-0, ph-8.2, alkalinity-30. Do I get the chlorine up first and go from there? Ive had my pool for 13 years and never really got the chemical thing down to a science. Only thing I've ever noticed is if I got the alkalinity up first, the pool seemed to clear up quickly after that. What do U advise for the BBB method. P.S. my wife is very concerned about her hair!!!!! Thanks again, Jerry

[AnnaK]

I would add a gallon of regular bleach just to keep any algae from starting up. If you don't have your own test kit you might want to have the water tested at a pool store. While there, pick up some plain stabilizer (cyanuric acid), either the flakes or the liquid. The container will have instructions for how much to add to your volume of water. Your pH is probably neutral right now, between 7.2 and 7.8 and alkalinity probably between 40 and 80. Total alk (TA) at around 80 is a good buffer that keeps your pH reasonably stable. I like mine at 7.5 and use 20 Mule Team Borax when I have to raise it. I'd get a box of that just to have it on hand. The only thing you need to buy at the pool store is the stabilizer. If they sell liquid chlorine in 5 gallon carboys give some thought to buying that instead of using regular bleach.

Once you have the test results we can give you more specific directions as to what to add when.

[PoolDoc]

my wife is very concerned about her hair!!!!!

If you mean green hair . . . it's caused by copper in the pool. Avoid copper floaters, skimmer pills, ionizers and algaecides, and you will have no green hair.

[AnnaK]

If you add granular (not liquid) stabilizer it will drop the pH some. Stabilizer can be slow to dissolve. We recommend putting it in an old sock and suspending it in front of a return. Don't backwash the sand filter for about a week after adding stabilizer. You're shooting for between 30 and 50 ppm.

Raise the alkalinity to 80 ppm. Since your pH is at the upper end, use baking soda, not borax.

Have some bleach on hand and add enough to maintain 5 ppm FC. You can let that drift down in time to 3 ppm depending on how much stabilizer will be in the water.

Without knowing the volume of your pool it's hard for me to give you specific amounts to add.

[WOODYRI]

Im guessing my pool is around 22-23000 gallons

[PoolDoc]

Unless your deep end is more than 9' deep, your volume is likely to be closer to 20,000 gallons. Builders and liner makers quote volumes at the 'running over the sides' level!

[AnnaK]

Okay, using 22,000 gallons:

To raise the free chlorine FC from 0 to 5 ppm add 27 oz by weight of dichlor. This will also add about 4 ppm of stabilizer (CYA) and drop your pH by about 0.2, meaning we'd get it down to ph=8 without having to do the muriatic acid thing.
To raise the alkalinity (TA) from 30 to 70 add 200 oz by weight of baking soda. Add 1/2 that amount, let it dissolve and circulate for an hour, test again, see where you're at. Add more as needed. This will affect the pH a very small amount upward.
To get 30 ppm of stabilizer you need to add 88 oz by weight. This takes a while to dissolve and about a week before you can test it. Put some in an old cotton tube sock and suspend it in front of a return. It'll be dissolved within a couple days, sometimes less, but will not show up on testing for a while. DO NOT backwash the filter for a week.
Have some bleach on hand. You can get regular unscented household bleach at 6% or you can see if your pool store sells the 5 gallon carboys of liquid chlorine which is about 12%.
If using 6%, 21 oz add 1 ppm FC to 10,000 gallons. Calculate that out for your volume. If using 12%, it comes to 11 oz for 10,000 gallons.

If you're going to follow the BBB method, which is easy and foolproof and inexpensive, di get your own test kit as recommended by Watermom. Then, daily test pH, FC, CC and adjust as needed. Weekly, test TA. Your target levels are pH 7.2 - 7.8, TA 60 - 80, FC 3-5 (see this link for chlorine: http://poolsolutions.com/gd/best-guess-swimming-pool-chlorine-chart.html#a, CYA 30 - 50.

[Watermom]

Put some (stabilizer) in an old cotton tube sock and suspend it in front of a return. It'll be dissolved within a couple days, sometimes less, but will not show up on testing for a while. DO NOT backwash the filter for a week.


Actually, Anna, if she puts the stabilizer in a stocking in front of the return jet, it doesn't matter if she backwashes. It is only necessary to avoid backwashing for a week or so if you add the stabilizer directly into the skimmer and let it dissolve in the filter. In that case, the reason you don't want to backwash is because you'll end up just throwing the undissolved CYA out.

[AnnaK]

You're probably right, Watermom. My understanding of cyanuric acid, an organic compound, is that it's not very soluble in water and while the granules or flakes do break down into something too small to be seen, they may still be of a size that gets trapped by the filter. The constant abrasion against the filter medium eventually does break those small particles down and pushes them back out into the pool, and that may take up to a week.

[WOODYRI]

ok, so I added stabilizer and bleach. my current readings r chlorine-2.0, ph-7.2, alkalinity-50. so regular baking soda will raise the alkalinity? guess i should do that next?

[AnnaK]

Yes. Arm&Hammer baking soda raises alkalinity. It'll also increase your pH just a very little bit and that's fine.

[WOODYRI]

Thanks for all the info. what i would like is measurements on raising ph, alkalinity, and chlorine by 1 for 20000 gallons.

[AnnaK]

www.poolcalculator.com is one source. There's also a bleach calculator in .exe format but I haven't used it since I don't run Windows. There are also a number of iPhone, iPad, and Android apps to help you calculate chemicals for your pool.

[aylad]

In 20K gallons, each 1/2 gallon of 6% bleach will raise chlorine by 1.5 ppm. In the same amount of water, each 4 oz of baking soda used should raise your TA by 1 ppm. Can't be that exact for pH though--the higher the alk level in the pool, the more borax or acid it will take to raise or lower the pH. The lower the alk level, the less of each chem it will take to move the pH.

Edit: Anna, your Post button is working faster than mine tonight! :)

[WOODYRI]

Thanks again, once i get used to this system, i think it will work out well. I have always just thrown stuff in but want to get it down right. just checked everything and my levels r perfect and the pool is crystal clear. Anna, I tried that pool calculator and didnt care for it. I think im on the right path now.

[Watermom]

Here is a different calculator. See what you think. (I like it better than the other one.)

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?11418-bleach-calc