Chlorine Pucks vs Bleach

[sunofthebeach]

here is my plan

I buy an $80 50 lb bucket of Chlorine pucks from BJ’s at the start of the season. The bucket will last all season. I shock my pool with bleach almost every Sunday with 2 jugs of bleach. (24,000 gal pool) Swimming season is May through September so bleach cost is about $40.

This method allows me to chlorinate my pool for $120 a season and I am only adding chemicals/pucks once a week. I do test the water 3 times a week though.

I don’t really care about CYA, because I open my pool to 0 CYA at the start of every season.

[CarlD]

Frank,
Sorry, B-B-B, is exactly that--Bleach, Borax and Baking Soda.

Sunofthebeach,
As I said, it's your pool, your are the lord of your domain. But you need to realize that CYA levels directly effect the level of chlorine you need to keep your pool sanitary. At 100ppm of CYA, you need to keep your Free Chlorine level at around 8ppm. But at 30ppm of CYA, a Free Chlorine level of 3ppm is more than sufficient.

As long as you KNOW how much CYA is in your pool and therefore how high your Free Chlorine level needs to be--and keep the Free Chlorine level there--you'll be fine, no matter what the CYA is. But if you do NOT know the CYA level, then you are probably underchlorinating or overchlorinating your pool and relying on luck to be at the correct level of chlorine and not get an algae bloom.

I not big on relying on luck myself--I just test my CYA level once a week.

[tphaggerty]

I voted for an SWG but follow the rest of the advice here as closely as possible. As has been said before, a SWG is not the cheapest way to go, but it excels in 2 areas:

1) Very convienent. Once you are dialed in for the season, there is very little to do except test and (normally) minor adjustments. A lot of folks wind up doing a weekly acid dose, I haven't had to yet.

2) "Other" benefits. There is no doubt that the water feels softer, warmer and you don't need to rinse when you get out. I think the water feels better because it is pretty much kept in constant balance, as opposed to the ups and downs of adding chemicals and then having them dissapate over time.

I used bleach when I opened (what I learned, don't start heating your pool until you have all of the chemistry balanced!!) to clear some cloudiness. I use borax to maintain the alk and will use muriatic acid to lower PH once I use up the dry acid I have. Ben's test kit is (hopefully) on the way.

I think many here would agree that BBB can also be SWG/BB and work just as well.

[CarlD]

I voted for an SWG but follow the rest of the advice here as closely as possible. As has been said before, a SWG is not the cheapest way to go, but it excels in 2 areas:

1) Very convienent. Once you are dialed in for the season, there is very little to do except test and (normally) minor adjustments. A lot of folks wind up doing a weekly acid dose, I haven't had to yet.

2) "Other" benefits. There is no doubt that the water feels softer, warmer and you don't need to rinse when you get out. I think the water feels better because it is pretty much kept in constant balance, as opposed to the ups and downs of adding chemicals and then having them dissapate over time.

I used bleach when I opened (what I learned, don't start heating your pool until you have all of the chemistry balanced!!) to clear some cloudiness. I use borax to maintain the alk and will use muriatic acid to lower PH once I use up the dry acid I have. Ben's test kit is (hopefully) on the way.

Minor correction: Borax is for raising pH (making the water more basic, or alkaline) but it is NOT for maintaining alkalinity.

Alkalinity or Total Alkalinity, is kind of a misnomer. It's really a pH buffer to prevent pH see-sawing. Use Baking Soda to raise it.

Nothing wrong with dry acid--I actually use it because it's a bit easier and safer to handle than muriatic acid. But M/A is fine, too. I just don't like dry acid when it's called "Low'n'Slo" and has a price of $Boo-Coo!

I think many here would agree that BBB can also be SWG/BB and work just as well.

Absolutely!

[tphaggerty]

Minor correction: Borax is for raising pH (making the water more basic, or alkaline) but it is NOT for maintaining alkalinity.

Oops! Fingers working faster than brain. Thanks for the correction.

[sunofthebeach]

Sunofthebeach,
As I said, it's your pool, your are the lord of your domain. But you need to realize that CYA levels directly effect the level of chlorine you need to keep your pool sanitary. At 100ppm of CYA, you need to keep your Free Chlorine level at around 8ppm. But at 30ppm of CYA, a Free Chlorine level of 3ppm is more than sufficient.

As long as you KNOW how much CYA is in your pool and therefore how high your Free Chlorine level needs to be--and keep the Free Chlorine level there--you'll be fine, no matter what the CYA is. But if you do NOT know the CYA level, then you are probably underchlorinating or overchlorinating your pool and relying on luck to be at the correct level of chlorine and not get an algae bloom.

I not big on relying on luck myself--I just test my CYA level once a week.

I was not as clear as I should have been. What I meant to say is I don’t really care about the added CYAfrom the pucks, because I open my pool to 0 CYA at the start of every season. I do put 35 ppm of CYA in my pool at the start of the season and it elevates a little from the pucks. The part I don't care about is that I am adding CYA, because by next season it will be gone.

[faithfulfrank]

I tend to think of it like this;

total alkalinity is to ph as cya is to free chlorine.

So alkalinity is kind of a stabilizer to ph......

Would you agree??

BTW, I was somewhat suprised to see my start of the season cya level was already at 60......I kept it at about 35-40 last season, using just bleach and an occasional pack of shock, neither had cya......
But for over the winter, I did add a floater with 5 pucks in it in the fall, and 5 more pucks as soon as the ice melted, so 10 pucks raised it about 20.....

After I add the needed 10 or more inches of water to get the pool level up to the normal level, the cya should be down a bit more. I'll use mostly bleach this year, but boy, that too jumped up a bit in price.....oh well, life is still good......!

Frank D.

[CarlD]

I was not as clear as I should have been. What I meant to say is I don’t really care about the added CYAfrom the pucks, because I open my pool to 0 CYA at the start of every season. I do put 35 ppm of CYA in my pool at the start of the season and it elevates a little from the pucks. The part I don't care about is that I am adding CYA, because by next season it will be gone.

As long as you are aware of what the CYA is throughout the season and adjust your FC accordingly, you are OK. See the post below yours for how much CYA pucks can add.

When we went on vacation a couple of years ago (for 2 weeks), I left 4 floaters wide open, each with 4 pucks in a 20,000 gal pool. I'd say about 10-12 of the pucks had dissolved, and my CYA shot from 30ppm to 65ppm. My pH was at 6.8 (which means less) and it took 4 boxes of Borax to get it back to normal. That means each puck was adding 2-3ppm of CYA to my 20,000 gallons.

Something to think about.

[faithfulfrank]

Carl,
Reading between the lines, I'm guessing that Tri-chlor has the side effect of lowering your ph.........
or does acid rain, normal life do this. I ask because i do not think i've ever had to lower my ph, but I do need to bring it up using 20 mule team borax every so often.
I just added some today because my ph was 7.2...although I won't even "open" my pool and hook up my filter for a few weeks.

Thanks,
Frank D.

[Watermom]

Yes - trichlor is very acidic and will lower your ph.