New Member Question

[BRush3054]

I have used this forum periodically for over 10 years and have always gotten great info. My pool is a vinyl 20x40 L-shape, approx 30,000 gallons with a DE filter. I run the pump 24x7, have a gas heat which I use sparingly, mostly in May and September.

In recent years, I have strayed more and more from a pure BBB approach, substituting Di-Chlor tablets in a floating basket for bleach, except to shock every 2 weeks or os. Since the tablets contain stabilizer, I don't ever add stabilizer separately. I also don't pay very much attention to alkalinity, but do add 5-10 pounds every year early in the season. I keep a close eye on PH, never letting it go below 7.2. It tends to hang around 7.5.

When we go away for a week in the summer, I shock it the day before we leave, fill the chlorine basket with 5 tablets, and put the solar cover over the 20x40 part (when the neighbors aren't in it).

I read a lot of conflicting data and am just wondering if any of the experts see any real risk with my modified approach.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

[aylad]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

I see no risk with your 'modified approach". BBB is actually just simplifying your pool chemistry routine by knowing what you need in the water, and knowing what to add to achieve that target. So...you basically are STILL following the BBB approach :)

The only caution I have for you is to watch your CYA levels, and be prepared to raise your chlorine levels accordingly (the best guess chart is linked in my sig in case you need a reminder! )

We're glad the forum has been beneficial to you, and hope to see you around more.

[PoolDoc]

The "BBB method" is just the name that took off -- it was NEVER my idea that people should always and only use bleach, borax and baking soda.

We home schooled both of my sons (the youngest is 17, and will finish next year), but we've NEVER told people it was the only way, or even the best way for everyone (it's NOT!). Ironically, my wife has been back teaching in public school for the last 7 years, because medical insurance costs were rapidly bankrupting us. And, she thinks highly of some of her colleagues. (Not so highly of the test-focused education the No Child, etc act has engendered!)

But, all that to say: if you are controlling your pH, monitoring your CYA, keeping your chlorine in appropriate Best Guess ranges, and staying algae free . . . it's all good!

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PS. Don't know if you follow such things, but my sons and I do, so here goes. I've known that the Higgs boson, which the geeks at the Large Hadron Collector think they've found, was called "the God particle", but I'd never bothered to find out why. It turns out Higgs is still alive and kicking, and never intended that name for his particle. Rather, he'd theorized that such a particle OUGHT to exist, but subsequently complained that no one could find the god-d### thing! News editors 'fixed up' his remarks, so that the "god-d### particle" that they couldn't find, became "the God particle"!

Names can get away from you!