HTH Algae Guard- Anybody use it?

[True Blue]

Ok attempting to reask my question better since I didn't really get my question answered...

Is there anybody using HTH Algae Guard (3x conc.) in their pool and what has been your experience with it when using it?

Yes, I used it when I opened up my pool this year. Bad idea. My pool foamed like crazy. It wasn't until I got the chlorine levels up high enough (using bleach) that my algae problem was solved...(thanks to advice I received in this forum, btw!)

[madwil]

I've heard of it, seen it, never used it personally...
It's ammonia based, which means it "eats" chlorine, increasing chlorine demand with no sanitizing/oxidation effects since all the chlorine is used to breakdown the ammonia, then the chloramines...
In practice, all ammonia based algaecides do this, as well as increasing the opportunity for foaming, greasy films, and follow on algae blooms as people who don't understand what happens to the chlorine fail to get the chlorine levels back to an acceptable level. They add 1lb, or 1 gal, or 3 pucks, because that's what it always takes, and fail to realize how fast that chlorine is absorbed in the ammonia battle without helping the pool- then they think the chlorine is at fault!
I think chem-geek had a post about the amount of chlorine needed to get rid of ammonia- and it is large amounts!
Meaning you have to add that much chlorine, plus enough extra to sanitize/oxidize the algae in the pool!

[waterbear]

Unless Arch Chemical changed their products after buying Applied Biochemists (who did sell Polyquat under several of their brands) they currently only sell copper and linear quat based algaecides in both their HTH and PoolLIfe brands. (I guess they did not want to pay royalties to Buckman Labs since they stopped selling polqyat around 2006.) A few years ago when I was still selling HTH the 60% algaecide was a linear quat and therefore not recommended. Linear quats foam like crazy, sting the eyes, and break down quickly in the presence of chlorine. I assume it is still the same formulation but I have not seen a bottle of it to read the ingredients to see if they have changed but they were (are) :
Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride, 30%
Alkyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chloride, 30%
The remaining parts are inert ingredients, 40%
It seems that Arch Chemical is now following Chemtura's lead in making their MSDS unavailable online.

Hope this answers your question.