Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Hoping to get some advice on using bleach and borax for the first time this year. I have a 24x48 above ground pool w/ a 100 lb. sand filter. Getting ready to open pool, and not sure how much of these products to use for start-up, and then for maintaining. Tired of spending so much on pool chemicals at the store! Thank you for any help!!
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum. Your pool's volume would be around 12,000 gallons. Each quart of 6% bleach would add approximately 1.2ppm of chlorine to the pool. But, without knowing what your current water testing results are (taken with a drops-based kit -- no "guess strips"), we cannot advise you what chlorine levels you need to run.
If you don't have a good kit, you should get one. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C which you can get through the testkit link in my signature.
In the meantime, you should pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (red and yellow drops) at Walmart or someplace. If they have the HTH 6-Way kit, that is also a good starting kit to have before you get your good one.
In addition to chlorine and pH readings, the CYA reading is also important to know since your needed chlorine levels are based on the CYA. (See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature.)
Repost with some numbers and also tell us what size pump you have and if you have a kit of some sort. What condition is the water in?
We'll help you get going with this once we have more info. Hope this helps.
By the way, do a lot of reading here on the forum (especially the stickies at the top of each forum.) Also read on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com.
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Thank you Watermom! I do have an oto kit, and my pump is 3/4 horse. Don't have any numbers yet since haven't opened my pool. Will be doing so in a few days, and can tell you some numbers then. I will appreciate all your help!
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Hello, I just wanted to say that I have successfully had beautiful, sparkling clean water since opening our pool this year using borax, soda and bleach. However, I would encourage you to purchase stabilizer since there is not a substitute. And, the pool seems to need more bleach all the time, whereas, once acceptable pH and alkalinity levels were reached, it has been weeks since more of these have been needed.
One thing that I didn't realize was that even if the pool has not had lots of swimmers in it, the Hayward sand filter still has to be backwashed. That is the only time the water had any kind of slight cloudiness.
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
The usual rule is that you backwash a sand filter whenever the pressure rises 8-10 psi over clean filter pressure. (Hi, Jan, and welcome you also to the Pool Forum!)
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Hi Jan, glad to hear your having good luck with bbb. Just opened my pool today, so I'll see how it goes :)
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Ok, got pool opened today. Looked like a pond, lol. Chlorine was 0, and ph 6.8......so i put in 3 gallons bleach, and 1/3 box borax, plus 2 3inch chlorine pucks left-over from last year. After running pump for 3 hours i tested, and chlorine was at 1, and ph at 7.2. Very happy with those results already, coz last year it took me 6 bags of shock and 2-3 pucks o even start to get a reading on chlorine. Hopefully i can get it aall clear in a day or 2 and lots of backwashing!
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Just remember that your pool didn't get in that shape overnight, so don't be surprised if it takes longer than overnight to fix it--one of the most critical ingredients when cleaning up a mess is POPP ( pool owner patience and persistence!! :cool: ) Glad you're making progress though--stay with it and it'll be clear before you know it! :)
Janet
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
Oh how i know that Janet....been doing this for many years now :) And a question about comments on here: How do i find out if someone commented without having to hunt my original post?
Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time
thank you for the warm welcoming words, PF friends.
True confessions...I am using the test strips, but water is beautiful and clear for 2 months. So, we are good to go. What is the significance of the other more complicated kits?