Need help with algue in a oxygen pool

[PoolDoc]

Many experienced pool service guys have worked out bits and pieces of "the method" I've posted here and at PoolSolutions (and that Chem_Geek and others have extended). But I'm not aware of any active practicing pool service guys who admit using the "BBB Method". Even guys that I learned from, in generating this 'method', don't acknowledge significant elements of it.

For example -- and Chem_Geek may correct me -- there are STILL no pool books that acknowledge that the only EFFECTIVE way to lower carbonate alkalinity levels is via reduced pH *PLUS* aeration. And that is one of the bits of the BBB Method that's ironclad, with scads of anecdotal evidence, a comprehensive analytical explanation (thanks to Chem_Geek), and some clear experimental evidence. But, folks prefer being wrong, to admitting that they have been wrong.

Still, it's a hard thing for folks in the trade to accept. When I started PoolSolutions, I knew the methods I was using worked for me, and I had some pretty good ideas chemically about why. But I still wasn't sure I was right for a very simple reason: EVERY SINGLE pool book in existence at that time, and every pool publication, and every pool operations training program . . . said I was completely wrong.

It turns out I wasn't. But, that's very hard for people in the pool business to accept; that they should come to a website, written by a guy who never went to an NSPI meeting; who never worked for a big pool chemical company, and who was never very financially successful in the pool business . . . and believe what he says, over against what EVERYONE else in the pool business says. Oh, yeah, there are some smart-a$$ pool owners there too, but what do they know?

That's a pretty hard sell.

Some of the pool chemists know I'm right. The reasoning is not that hard to follow, and the evidence, once you consider it, is very, very strong.

But they have a simple problem: the BBB Method reduces pool chemical consumption by 50% or more, in almost every case. Most pool chemical companies today are struggling. Chemtura, which owns most of the US brands of chemicals, is in bankruptcy. Arch Chemical (or whatever holding company has that brand farm today) owns most of the rest. Neither company would survive a 25% reduction in US chemical sales; much less a 50% reduction. But, if they and the NSPF published the BBB Method (even if they didn't call it that, or acknowledge it), would see at least a 25% reduction in sales.

One of my long term moderators, CarlD, is fond of this quote from Upton Sinclair, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. " I'm quite sure those working for the big chemical companies, and for small pool chemical stores, perceive that the BBB Method is a threat to their businesses.

It scared me to death when I first realized that. For years, I was afraid that BioGuard / BioLab (now Chemtura) would file an expensive -- if bogus -- lawsuit against me, and shut me down, just because I couldn't afford to defend. I gather that it was considered -- I KNOW they were all over my site on a daily basis for at least two years. I'd found their network ip ranges, and they were constantly in my web server logs.

But, it's too late for them to do so, now. Even apart from the large body of BBB users, the rise of the SWCG systems is destroying the pool chemical market, and the chemical companies no longer have the money for bogus lawsuits.

Still, the success of the BBB Method has been built one desperate pool owner at a time. For most, once they try it, they never turn back. My guess is, with one major and several minor websites competing with mine to explain the BBB Method, in 30 years it will be the ONLY method of pool care. But, the demand for it will come from the pool owners rather than the pool builders or chemical companies.

But, while it's entirely true that the BBB Method is incompatible with the continued operations of the big pool chemical brands, and the pool stores that focus on selling chemicals, it is completely compatible with service companies like yours, that make money from results, not from how many pounds of chemicals they peddle.

Eventually, the pool trade media will acknowledge the BBB Method, and once it does, pool services guys will began switching over. Those that switch first will be the ones that gain a competitive advantage from it.