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Thread: Trying bleach and borax for the first time

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    Default Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time

    Quote Originally Posted by klyeany View Post
    How do i find out if someone commented without having to hunt my original post?
    You can go to 'settings' in the upper right hand corner and then 'general settings.' On that page there is a place to subscribe to a particular thread and you can set it to send you an email when a new post is made in the thread.

    Quote Originally Posted by JanMiddleton View Post
    True confessions...I am using the test strips, but water is beautiful and clear for 2 months. So, we are good to go. What is the significance of the other more complicated kits?
    With test strips you cannot get an accurate reading for most values. On chlorine, they can tell you if you do have chlorine or don't but not really what the level is. On CYA, they can't give you anywhere near the accurate reading and if you don't know your CYA, then you may not be chlorinating at the right level and you risk an algae bloom. If you have high CYA and need to run higher than usual chlorine readings, (see the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below), you can't test the chlorine with test strips because first of all they can't test that high and secondly they will bleach out. With the Taylor FAS-DPD test, you can test chlorine levels up to about 50. Test strips cannot test for CC which is an important thing to know when you are trying to determine what is going on in a pool that is having water issues of some sort.

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    Default Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time

    Where do you suggest buying CYA, i have been using the BBB approach but I think my CYA is probably Zero, because I add Chlorine all the time.
    24'x52" Centennial by Doughboy, 150 lbs. sand filter, location southwest missouri

    24' round 14K gal AG pool; Bleach; 18 inch sand filter; 1 1/2 hp pump; continoushrs; OTO DROPS; utility water; summer: ; winter: ; ; PF:8.6

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    Default Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time

    @ nottapooltech: The easiest way to add stabilizer is often to use dichlor for awhile:
    24 lbs PoolBrand bagged shock @ Sams Club
    Kem-Tek Dichlor 22 lbs @ Amazon
    On your pool, you'll after 12 bags (or pounds) of dichlor, you'll have 50 - 60 ppm of stabilizer. You can also add stabilizer directly, but it dissolves VERY slowly, so you have to either put it on the filter or put it in a sock in the skimmer. We had been telling people that they could get it anywhere, but this year, some of the chemical companies have begun blending IT with goop too (they've been doing so with dichlor trichlor and cal hypo for the last few years), so until you are an expert label inspector, it may be better to use this link:
    Kem-Tek Stabilizer 4lbs @ Amazon

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    Default Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time

    ohhh okay light bulb just came on i think, i can get stabilizer in my pool by adding shock (sams club stuff) which has chlorine in it, or by just adding stabilizer directly to it, which is the kem-tek stabilizer you speak of.
    24'x52" Centennial by Doughboy, 150 lbs. sand filter, location southwest missouri

    24' round 14K gal AG pool; Bleach; 18 inch sand filter; 1 1/2 hp pump; continoushrs; OTO DROPS; utility water; summer: ; winter: ; ; PF:8.6

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    Default Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time

    You got it!

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    Shifty is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst Shifty 0
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    Default Re: Trying bleach and borax for the first time

    nottapooltech,

    You could temporarily use Trichlor pucks as your chlorine source. Trichlor also contains cyanuric acid (CYA) so this is an easy way to add CYA to your water. Be careful with the Trichlor because it also is acidic and will lower your pH. You willl need to regularly test your pH and adjust with Borax as necessary. Also, you'll need to test your CYA levels after maybe a week of use to see how much CYA has been added. Remember too much CYA (I keep mine around 50-70ppm) means you need to maintain higher chlorine levels. At CYA around 50ppm, you would need to maintain FC at 3-6ppm at all times. If you should have too much CYA, the way to lower it is to remove some of the water and add fresh water to dilute.

    As others mentioned in the posts above, you could also just add CYA granules; however, for me the granules took a while to disolve and some even came out the returns. I found that temporarily using Trichlor to raise my CYA was easier as long as you test regularly and switch to an unstabilized form of chlorine (i.e. bleach) once you reach your desired CYA level.
    American Titan SS DE Filter; Multiport; 18'x36' grecian 24K gal IG krystalkrete (super blue) plaster; BBB and trichlor pucks for CYA; Hayward SP3400VSP Ecostar; Taylor K-2006; The Pool Cleaner Auto Vac (4 wheels)

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