Using a Nature 2 system with the BBB method

[tdkorson]

I just found the report the pool place did A little over a week ago


0 s acid
40 alkalinity
7.1 ph
0 chloine
125 hardnesss


Since then I have added 4 lbs chlorine per evening
16lbs of baking soda to get started
And a cup of borax last night

I'll stop and get some stabalizer this evening

I'm not sure how a cup of Borax in a 20K gallon pool raised the pH up from 6.8 to 7.7??? Maybe you meant one box. Or tester error or something, but oh well.

--TESTER/cheap TEST KIT ERROR.

[tdkorson]

The pool is still cloudy. I can see the bottom of the shallow area, but not the deep end. I was not able to get stabilizer so my stabilizer is still 0, but I'm shocking at night.

1. How long should it take to clear up shocking nightly. It has been over a week already.
2. How much bleach should I add nightly?

[Watermom]

There is no way to know for sure how long it will take, but the more consistently you keep it at shock level, the faster it will go. How high are you taking the chlorine each evening? Test an hour after shocking tonight. Then, test again in the morning within 2 hours of sunup. See how much chlorine you lose. If it is more than 1ppm, then add enough bleach to get it back up to 15 or so. In a 20K gallon pool, each gallon (4 quarts) of 6% bleach will add about 3ppm of chlorine. Run your pump 24/7 and backwash when your filter pressure rises 5-10psi over clean filter pressure.

[rcy100]

I have a Duoclear system (one half of the unit is a SWCG, the other half is a Nature 2 cartridge). I was keeping the chlorine level around 1 per the instructions, but was suffering from brownish stains appearing on my pump and filter baskets and my return eyeballs. Last fall I yanked out the Nature 2 part, did an ascorbic acid treatment and removed the stains. So far (including the tail end of last season - maybe a couple of months) and almost three months this year, I have not had the stains return.

My suggestion - get rid of the Nature2 system (you don't have to do any plumbing, just pull the cartridge out and don't replace it) and run your chlorine at the recommended level relative to your CYA level.

[tdkorson]

This forum is sure right about the inability of pool places to test water. My kit doesn't get here till Monday. I was in town this morning and get the water tested at two different places. The first place used a strip and gave me readings of:
fc 10
ph 6.9
alkalinity 135
hardness 100
Stabilizer 35

On the same water the second place used another method and got:

fc 5
ph 7.4
alkalinity 130
hardness 30
Stabilizer 81

copper 1.0

The first place said I need to change my sand...

I can just barely see the deep end of the pool

I'll keep shocking every evening

[PoolDoc]

Nice set of comparisons - thanks!

[tdkorson]

What is the deal about changing sand? Does it ever need to be changed? If so, how often?

The local pool company offered the opinion that the algae is dead, just not filtered out.

[aylad]

The sand doesn't need to be changed, unless you were previously using Bacquacil or some other chem system that goops up the sand. But if it's a chlorine pool, and has always been, then no need to change it. One of our mods, Poconos is going on 14 years with his sand, and I think Watermom's at 11 years with hers.

If the pool is blue/cloudy, and you're not losing chlorine when testing at night and again before the sun hits the pool in the morning, then most likely the algae is dead and just needs to be filtered. Assuming your filter is working properly, you can also add a handfull of DE to the filter to help catch finer particles. If you're still losing chlorine overnight, however, then you're still fighting something in the water.

[PoolDoc]

If it's green, it's not dead.

If it's brown powder, it could be dead algae. Or, it could be something else.

[tdkorson]

Been brushing, filtering, brushing, for a few days now. Regardless of any other problems I might have, it seems that the filter is not working properly. When I vacuum the pool, the supposedly filtered jet of water back into the pool is very very dirty. It seems as though I'm just circulating the dirt and dead algae.

Also when I backwash, the water in the glass jar does not seem very dirty. Any ideas?