Need info on BBB

Hi;
I have had a 24' AG pool for 10 years now. Never had any trouble, just kept throwing Chlorine pucks in ith skimmer and occasionally shocking it. I never really tested the water much because it always looked and smelled clean. This year I noticed that after swimming my skin seemed slippery. I checked the chlorine level and found no chlorine. I keep eating right through the pucks, but the level does not even read. I had my water tested and they gave me a list of chemicals to get to ballance the water. Basically they told me to get 14# of alkalinity up and 10 pounds of Hard plus for Calcium hardness. I bought the calcium stuff and plan to use 13 pounds of baking sod. I am intrigued by the BBB method, I just need to be sure that bleach poses no problems to messing up the water. Also, can I switch around at will, sometimes using bleach and other times using chlorine pucks?

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

First of all, if you're trying to manage your water without good testing, it's a crapshoot--you need to invest in a good, drop-based kit. WalMart has a $15 5-way that will be a good one to start with.

Second, slippery skin often is a sign of either gunk in the pool that needs to be destroyed, or possibly an alkaline situation. Since you have no idea what your pH is, or your alk, it's going to be impossible to give you good advice. If you will please run a set of drop-based results for Cl, pH, TA, and CYA and post those numbers here, we'll be glad to get you up and running.

If you're having trouble holding a chlorine level in the pool, then something is burning it up--either the gunk that's making your skin feel slippery, or the sun, or a combination of the two. If it's gunk in the water, then what you need to do is shock the pool--but how high your Cl needs to go to reach shock level depends on your CYA level, so again you must know that first. If it's sun, then your CYA needs to come up. I have a feeling it's a matter of shocking the pool, but without good test numbers it's going to be hard to tell.

As far as your Alkalinity up and calcium, you've been what we call "pool stored"--alkalinity up is the same thing as Arm and Hammer baking soda, just at an inflated price. And in a vinyl pool, you don't need calcium. Calcium is for concrete pools to keep the water from leaching the calcium out of the concrete walls.

As far as chlorination goes, bleach does not mess up the water. In fact, it's the best form of chlorine you can use, generally, because it's the only form that doesn't add other stuff to the water that can mess up your water balance. You can switch around at will with different forms of chlorine, as long as you don't mix them--but once dissolved in the pool water, chlorine is chlorine.

Janet

Janet;
Thanks for your quick reply, you provided a wealth of information. As for my water readings, yesterday I got no reading at all for chlorine or PH. At the pool store they told me my PH was well below 7, Alkalinity was 0, and calcium hardness was 60. I added 12 pounds bakung soda and 10 pounds Hard-plus last night, then 2 three inch pucks in the skimmer today. I checked the Chlorine this afternoon and it was ideal. The PH looked good too, slightly low but I am sure another couple pounds of baking soda won't cure.
I thought I knew it all, but after searching this site I am embarrassed by how little I know. I read a lot about CYA, dont really understand it all but I know I don't want it in my pool. Lastly, I routinely shock my pool once a week or so just to give it an extra zap of chlorine because the pool sits in the sun all day and we have a pretty active swim load. From what I read on this site it sounds that true shocking actually entails some sort of chemical reaction with the water. I don't really understand all this, I guess I have just been lucky for 10 years that the pool has pretty much run itself.
Thanks very much Janet, I appreciate the help.

CYA is a stabilizer that helps the chlorine from being consumed by the sun. The higher the CYA level gets, the higher the chlorine level is needed to do its job. Most people here shoot for a CYA level of 30-50 ppm. If you look at the top of this thread, you will find Ben's best guess chart that shows you what chlorine levels you need for a given CYA level. Tri chlor pucks contain CYA so using them will cause your CYA level to increase and also make your pH decrease so you need to keep an eye on those things. A lot of people here use bleach because it adds chlorine without anything else.

By testing for combined chlorine (CC) or "used up" chlorine, you can tell when you need to shock your pool. CC can cause eye irritation and give off a strong chlorine smell. Raising the Cl to shock level gets rid of the CC.

By shocking once a week you might have been using more chemicals (costing more $$$) than was necessary.

Peter