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Thread: Adding bleach to fight algae without knowing the exact chlorine and stabilizer levels

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  1. #1
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    Default Re: Adding bleach to fight algae without knowing the exact chlorine and stabilizer le

    Thank you for your advice. I have another question though. According to the article in your link:

    "If bromine has NEVER been added to an outdoor pools in the form of tabs, shocking the pool (5+ppm of chlorine in a single dose), added on sunny days, will tend to remove the bromine/bromide. However, repeated doses may be needed."

    Since "Yellow Treat" or "No-Mor Problems" are not bromine tablets, does it mean that I don't have to drain the pool later to get rid of the bromide?

    Thanks again!

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    Default Re: Adding bleach to fight algae without knowing the exact chlorine and stabilizer le

    The important difference between bromine tabs and bromide products is not the bromine vs bromide factor, but the presence of hydantoin in the tabs, which combines with bromine to allow solid bromine tabs, in a manner similar to the way that cyanuric acid allows solid chlorine tabs.

    For reasons I don't understand, hydantoin apparently prevents the conversion of bromide to bromate, a process which is the 'exit door' for the endless "bromide + chlorine => bromine => bromine + dirt => bromide => restart" process.

    However, your final statement that you may not have to drain the pool, if you use bromide products instead of bromine tabs is correct, I believe.

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    Default Re: Adding bleach to fight algae without knowing the exact chlorine and stabilizer le

    I decided to completely drain and refill my pool this past weekend to get rid off the algae bloom and the super high CYA level altogether. My pool is being refilled at the moment. I added 1 lb of di-chlor granules after I got about 100 gallons of water in the pool to ensure that algae would not start to grow again. Is there any potential problem with what I did?

    You also mentioned that pool water pH tend to be high if the alkalinity of the fill water is high. The TA of my tap water is 220. Is that why my pool water pH tend to drift upward (>8.2)? Should I try to add muriatic every week to bring it down to the 7.4-7.8 range, or should I not fight it and just operate my pool at its "natural" pH as advised in one of your guides?

    Thank you!

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    Default Re: Adding bleach to fight algae without knowing the exact chlorine and stabilizer le

    220 PPM is probably going to drift too high. You really don't want to have your pool go above 7.8 because won't be able to tell the difference between 8 -- which would probably be OK -- and 9 -- which would NOT be OK. So your upper limit on pH is partly based on testing capability rather than pool chemistry.

    If you add acid WHILE you fill, and let the hose splatter into the water, instead of having the hose end IN the water, you'll aerate quite a bit of the TA away. Just make sure you DO mix the acid in the pool carefully, with the hose, and do NOT get the pH much below 7.0.

    1# of dichlor is too much for 100 gallons of water (about 700 ppm of chlorine). That won't hurt a concrete pool, but if you've got vinyl pool, you may get some bleaching of the color. However, if the sunlight doesn't remove the chlorine immediately, you can be pretty sure anything that water touched is algae free.

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