New BBB user with FG pool

Watermom: I really appreciate the insights here.
I have another point to inquire: When adding bleach to a pool like mine, will the chlorine be unstable or will it somehow combine with the stabilizer present and not be so volatile?
Thanks

I'm not sure I know what you are asking. Bleach is not volatile in a pool. It does not combine with the stabilizer; they each do their own job. Bleach will do a great job in your pool. It is not a stabilized form of chlorine, but having chlorine be stabilized simply means that is has CYA (stabilizer) in it. Since you already have the stabilizer in your pool, all you need is the chlorine --- thus the bleach. Does that answer what you were asking?

Sorry about the confusion. I thought that the Cl is volatile and thus needs to be stabilized. Since bleach has chlorine in it, isn't it volatile too. Maybe volatile is not the right word; I guess I mean does't the bleach use go up if its not stabilized with some compound?
Thank you Watermom.

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I read your answer again and now understand how this works. Sorry if I asked you the same question again.

Not a problem.

Thank you;
This whole thing is a great experience for me. It does raise one question: Why not just use bleach from the beginning?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gorji

Why not just use bleach from the beginning?

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You can! Many of us do. But, if you use only bleach from the beginning, you will have to add your CYA separately. People who use stabilized forms of chlorine (trichlor and dichlor) that have the CYA in them have to monitor their CYA levels periodically throughout the summer to make sure they don't get too high. The people who just use bleach from the get go and thus have to add the CYA separately, pretty much can forget about CYA testing for the summer after that first week.

To answer a couple of things more specifically:

1. Chlorine, cyanuric acid and around 12 species of chlorinated cyanurates remain in equilibria with each other. For most interactions, the reaction kinetics are VERY fast.

2. Chlorine is not volatile in a chemical or physical sense; only figuratively. Rather chlorine undergoes rapid hydrolysis in water, forming HOCl <=> -OCl, with both species subject to rapid photolysis when exposed to solar UV. Chlorinated cyanurate species are NOT subject to this photolysis, but remain in equilibria with those species. HOCl is the primary actor in most sanitation and oxidation; -OCl is not as active. But even though the presence of CYA greatly lowers the HOCl present, the chlorinated cyanurates form a LARGE reservoir of instantly available HOCl, so that stabilized chlorine appears more active in practice than the absolute level of HOCl present would suggest.

-- membership upgraded.

I appreciate your comment and those above.
I turned off my Chlorinator yesterday and added the appropriate amount of Clorox I got from BJs. BBB method. I find this forum great and I am also reading the Taylor Guide that came with my kit which IMO is also feature and fact rich.

We don't really care for that book in the Taylor kit. Don't go by their tables and chemistry guides.

Thanks to all of you I'm doing well with the chemistry.

Do the fiberglass pool have different ph, Cl, alkalinity requirements than normal liner covered pools?