Which is worse - TDS or CYA?

[Watermom]

Hi ritchieca and welcome to the forum. I think you're worrying about something that isn't going to be an issue for you. People go years and years using bleach without worrying about the salt and without doing a complete water change. My pool is in its 11th season with never draining. Poconos (fellow mod) is on his 14th year. There are many other who have been using bleach in their pools for many years longer than that with no worries about salt building up. In fact, some people (who don't even have a SWCG) deliberately add salt because they like the way the water feels.

Go with bleach. You won't regret it.

Again, welcome. Hope you enjoy being a part of our forum!

[ritchieca]

Thanks all for the advice!

Um... "FOR SALE: 40 LB BUCKET OF TRICHLOR, BARELY USED AND NOW APPARENTLY WON'T BE USED. CHEAP!!"

[Watermom]

Good decision to just go with bleach.

I know you are kidding about selling the trichlor but just in case somebody else is reading your post and doesn't know the rule ---- we don't allow selling of things on the forum. I know that wasn't your intent, but we have so many new members on the forum, I thought maybe this was a good opportunity to let people know our policy just in case they didn't already know.

Happy swimming!

[CarlD]

Don't sell your tri-chlor tabs! (yeah, I, too, know you were joking) With your new water and your acid-washed pool you may find your pH always rising. And you KNOW your CYA in new water is low. That's actually the one time when tri-chlor tabs work very, very well. They add lots of acid to counteract the rising pH and they add 6ppm of CYA for every 10ppm of chlorine they add.

But, with your new K-2006 kit, you'll be able to watch your CYA rise and when it hits 30 (or 50 if it's a really hot, sunny summer) you'll know to switch to bleach.

As for the salt in bleach. You have about as much worry from the salt in bleach raising your TDS levels to the "danger zone" as you have from the salt in tears!

I've used liquid chlorine for years. One season, in a mad moment, I tried weighing down my wedding-cake steps with 3 50# bags of solar salt, thinking that algae would be less likely to grow in them than in sand (the still water in wedding-cake steps is the hardest place to keep clear of algae). Well, in a couple of weeks the bags were empty! 150# of salt! So a few weeks later I tested my salt and it had shot up to...1600. just about HALF of what you need for a salt water chlorine generator!

TDS levels are just another nonsense scare tactic pool stores use to convince you to buy their most expensive stuff. I'm not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE to get your TDS levels too high using liquid chlorine (Bleach is LC). I'm saying it's so far outside the realm of experiences here that you might as well consider it impossible. I've not seen a case where TDS was problematically high due to bleach. I've hardly seen a case where TDS was problematically high, period. Just like I haven't seen a case of problem-algae created by phosphates and nitrates.

Carl