Trying bleach and borax for the first time

[Watermom]

The usual rule is that you backwash a sand filter whenever the pressure rises 8-10 psi over clean filter pressure. (Hi, Jan, and welcome you also to the Pool Forum!)

[klyeany]

Ok, got pool opened today. Looked like a pond, lol. Chlorine was 0, and ph 6.8......so i put in 3 gallons bleach, and 1/3 box borax, plus 2 3inch chlorine pucks left-over from last year. After running pump for 3 hours i tested, and chlorine was at 1, and ph at 7.2. Very happy with those results already, coz last year it took me 6 bags of shock and 2-3 pucks o even start to get a reading on chlorine. Hopefully i can get it aall clear in a day or 2 and lots of backwashing!

[aylad]

Just remember that your pool didn't get in that shape overnight, so don't be surprised if it takes longer than overnight to fix it--one of the most critical ingredients when cleaning up a mess is POPP ( pool owner patience and persistence!! ) Glad you're making progress though--stay with it and it'll be clear before you know it!

Janet

[klyeany]

Oh how i know that Janet....been doing this for many years now And a question about comments on here: How do i find out if someone commented without having to hunt my original post?

[JanMiddleton]

thank you for the warm welcoming words, PF friends.

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?

[Watermom]

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.

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.

[nottapooltech]

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.

[PoolDoc]

@ 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