The BBB Method - What Schedule do you Follow?

Hello,

New pool owner here. I've been reading up and am taking back the chemicals I bought so that I can use the BBB method with our Intex. Getting the 6 way tester tomorrow. Just filled the pool today. So my question is, when do you "shock"? Once a week like they HTH guide says, or will it differ with the BBB method? And how do you "shock"? I have 15x42 metal frame. I found one thread that said I would need about 1/4 of a gallon of 6% bleach for daily care, but how much would I use for the shock treatment?

Also, when do I want to stay out of the pool? We're putting the bleach in at night and running the filter. Is it safe to use in the morning? When you shock, do you stay out for awhile? Is it ok to swim when you've got the sock with CYA in there?

Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum! Lots of good questions.

You only have to shock whenever you have a CC (combined chlorine) reading which typically only happens when you don't stay on top of your water chemistry. Sometimes, if you have an especially high bather load or a lot of storms that drop a lot of organic debris into the pool, you might shock, but other than that, you do not routinely need to do it. Pool chemical companies preach the 'once a week shock routine' but of course they make money off of people buying those products!

How much bleach you need for daily chlorination depends on your CYA level. (See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below.) We typically suggest a CYA reading of 40-50 for most pools. What is the volume of your pool?

You can swim soon after adding your daily dose of bleach. Giving it 15-30 minutes after doses is plenty. You just want to make sure there are no hot pockets of bleach for someone to swim into. Adding the bleach in the evening is the best time to do it. I usually add mine after we are finished swimming in the evenings and then I run my pump for an hour or so before turning it off for the night. It isn't necessary to run it 24/7 unless you are having water problems of some sort. I typically turn my pump on around noon or so and off around 8:00 in the evenings.

Is also perfectly fine to swim while your CYA is dissolving. Just make sure the kids don't play with the sock.

Have you ordered the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C kit? If not, do so. It is worth every penny!

It's much easier to answer your questions, when we know something about your pool. We often 'waste' the first few posts back and forth collecting information. So, please complete our new Pool Chart form -- it takes about 30 seconds, but will save much more than that.

Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

Hope this helps!

According to the box it is 3,861 gallons. I'm getting the 6-way tester today. I will post back with the results. Thanks for your help!

You are welcome, and thank you for filling out the requested info in our pool chart. That will help us better help you. In that chart, I noticed that you said that you would be using both city and well water. Do you know if your well has metals in it? Metal contaminated wells are a HUGE source of problems for many pool owners. Take a few minutes and read through some of the posts and stickies in the minerals section of the forum. Until your registration is complete, you'll need to log out to be able to do so. Any chance that you can just use your municipal water and not the well water?

It's already filled. Our neighbor offered to let us use his well water. We should've declined. Hind sight is 20/20.

Ok so I did the 6-way HTH test.

Cl and Br didn't register at all. (Water stayed clear, no yellow tint) We put about 1/4 gal of bleach in there last night, but it probably has disappeared already.

I did the CYA test, but probably should've skipped it. That water stayed clear, so no result on that one.

Ph was 7.2. Yay!

Hardness was 170 ppm, which it says is a bit low. Surprizing after using some well water, but I don't think this is a big concern because it is a vinyl pool, correct?

Alkalinity came out at 120-130. It was almost red at 120, but I put another drop in there to be certain. This is a little high. Do I need to be concerned about this?

SO I need to get more bleach in there and some CYA, right? How much CYA for a 3,800 gal pool? Is there a formula somewhere?

In 3800 gallons, 1 pound and 3 oz of CYA should get you to about 40 ppm. The best way to add it in your pool is probably just to put it in an old sock and hang it in front of where your water returns to the pool and let it dissolve there. You won't have any CYA in the water until you add it, so save your reagents until at least a day or two after you've seen all the CYA dissolve from the sock.

pH, hardness, and alk all look fine. You're right that the hardness doesn't need to come up in a vinyl pool. Alk is fine for now. If you see your pH fluctuating a lot, then you can worry about adjusting it, but I don't think that's going to be an issue for you.

This is a chlorine pool, so ignore the bromine reading. You want to test for chlorine 2-3 times a day until you have some stabilizer in there to help protect the chlorine from the sun.. You might need to add bleach a few times a day, but to keep the pool safe to swim in and algae gone, you'll need to keep at least 2-3 ppm of chlorine in there at all times.

Janet

Thank you! I am really feeling great about this pool now.

It's a lot of information to digest at first, but if you keep plugging along, it won't be long before you wonder why you thought it was so hard! :)

Once your CYA has dissolved and you have a reading on that test, you'll be able to go to just testing and dosing in the evenings only. But, since needed chlorine levels are based on CYA levels, at that point, you'll need to start keeping your chlorine between 3-6ppm instead of the 2-3ppm that are suggested for now.

Your dosing is going to be easy. In your pool, each cup of 6% bleach will add 1ppm of chlorine. Use that as a reference to help you figure out how much bleach to add each time you test.

As Janet said, your pH is fine at 7.2, but if it drops any lower you'll need to bump it up with a little 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart) So, you might want to go ahead and get a box to have on hand if you need it.

I've got the borax and baking soda at the ready if need be.

I tested the chlorine tonight and it looked to be in the 2-4 range. It's hard to see those yellows. I didn't add any more bleach at this point. I'll check the chlorine again in the morning and see where we are at.

Thank you all again for the help!

You are very welcome!

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