New user who just got a clue about pool chemistry after too many years of being dumb

We are the proud owners of a 20X40 vinyl liner in-ground pool for about 14 years now. We opened it up earlier this year, and got it all nice and sparkling clear. It seemed to be doing just fine until about 2 weeks ago. I should have believed my eyes when I saw a bit of green tinge in the deep end. I waited too long to react and we had a bit of a nasty algae out break as a result. So now I understand those stupid sticks have been increasing my CYA which explains why we keep adding more and more trichlor and not seeing results. I also know there is no way of lowering the CYA without refreshing the water - I will do it in phases over the next several days by lowering it to just almost too low for the skimmers and filling it way too full, lather , rinse, repeat ....sigh. I also realize this same thing happened last year, but I never put the puzzle together. I've now seen the light and know the pool store just wants to keep me coming back and spending $$$ on chemicals that just keep me coming back to buy more - to think I could have probably bought that hot tub from them by now with all the $$ I could have saved using 'BBB' method instead - if I'd only done my homework before this. Oh yeah, and the brushing.....no way around the brushing.

So my question is - should I just continue to use liquid chlorine from now on and never ever use the pucks or the same chemical sold in powder form as 'shock'? If the CYA gets too low, what do you add instead? (hoping I get there some day).

Just use liquid chlorine. Walmart's generic bleach is what many of us use. It is the same stuff as liquid pool store chlorine --- sodium hypochlorite. If your CYA gets too low, you can use a stabilized form of chlorine like dichlor but it sounds like that is not something you are going to have to worry about ! ;)

With a high CYA, you are going to have to have a kit that can measure high chlorine levels. The only one that can is the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy). You won't be able to buy it locally but can get it though this link:> http://pool9.net/tk/

Another link that you should read explains the correlation between CYA levels and needed chlorine:> http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have more questions and order that test kit ASAP. We need to know your CYA reading!

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