New BBB user with FG pool

[Watermom]

Your CYA level is perfect where it is so don't use any more trichlor tabs. Just use bleach for your source of chlorine. Bleach doesn't do anything to the stabilizer. Test your pool every evening and then add enough bleach to get the chlorine level back up to 6. If by the next evening, you have less than 3ppm of chlorine, you should take it a little bit higher. The goal is to have enough in there so that you never drop below the minimum required by your CYA level. (See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart.) Also test your pH every day for awhile.

After a few weeks of daily testing, you'll soon learn how your pool behaves and you may be able to test and add bleach every other day. But, you do NOT want your chlorine to drop below 3ppm or you risk an algae bloom.

[gorji]

Thank you.
Soooooo how much bleach should I add to a 13,000 gallon pool with a pH of 7.6 and CYA of 40 and Free Cl of 2 and Total Ch of 2?
Is there a chart or table I can look this up please?

[Watermom]

If you take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart below, you can see that for a pool with a CYA of 40 needs to have chlorine levels between 3-6 all the time and if you are fighting algae or cloudy water, then your shock level would be 15.

In a 13,000 gallon pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add just a little over 1ppm of chlorine. So, each evening, test your chlorine level and add enough bleach to raise it back up to 6ppm. The next evening, if you find that you have dropped below 3pm, then you'll know you need to maybe take the chlorine to 7. You want to be able to make it through an entire day without it dropping below 3ppm.

Also, check your pH daily and keep it between 7.2-7.8.

You might find the bleach calculator helpful. Look in the Forum Q & A section near the top of the forum homepage. One of the first few threads is called "bleach calculator" which has the link you can download to your computer. It actually has more than just the bleach calculator. If you click in the upper left hand corner, it will drop down a list of other available calculators you can use.

[gorji]

Watermom: I really appreciate the insights here.
I have another point to inquire: When adding bleach to a pool like mine, will the chlorine be unstable or will it somehow combine with the stabilizer present and not be so volatile?
Thanks

[Watermom]

I'm not sure I know what you are asking. Bleach is not volatile in a pool. It does not combine with the stabilizer; they each do their own job. Bleach will do a great job in your pool. It is not a stabilized form of chlorine, but having chlorine be stabilized simply means that is has CYA (stabilizer) in it. Since you already have the stabilizer in your pool, all you need is the chlorine --- thus the bleach. Does that answer what you were asking?

[gorji]

Sorry about the confusion. I thought that the Cl is volatile and thus needs to be stabilized. Since bleach has chlorine in it, isn't it volatile too. Maybe volatile is not the right word; I guess I mean does't the bleach use go up if its not stabilized with some compound?
Thank you Watermom.

=====================

I read your answer again and now understand how this works. Sorry if I asked you the same question again.

[Watermom]

Not a problem.

[gorji]

Thank you;
This whole thing is a great experience for me. It does raise one question: Why not just use bleach from the beginning?

[gorji]

Thanks to all of you I'm doing well with the chemistry.

Do the fiberglass pool have different ph, Cl, alkalinity requirements than normal liner covered pools?

[PoolDoc]

Do the fiberglass pool have different ph, Cl, alkalinity requirements than normal liner covered pools?

No.


(I got the easy one, Watermom! )