Quote Originally Posted by shutitdown
I am a new user to this forum. I have been reading all of the posts about the BBB methods and it is intriguing to me. I have a 27000gallon pool that I use 1" chlorine tabs on. I keep everything in line and do not really have any issues though the year with maintaining my ph and alkalinity.
How high are your CYA (stabilizer) levels? The biggest problem with using trichlor is that it adds stabilzer as it adds chlorine and eventually the levels get so high that the chlorine is not effective at the current level.
I had maintenance dose of phos-free weekly to maintain
Have you had algae outbreaks that did not respond to chlorine and polyquat? Are your phosphate levels very high and you know that phosphates are the limiting factor in these outbreaks. Are you chlorinating at a proper FC level for your CYA level (see this thread)
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

If you ansered no to ANY of the above questions then why are you wasting money on a phosphate remover? If you answered yes to the first two then the phosphate remover might be a good idea to continue. If you ansered no to the third try that before wasting money on more phosphate remover.
I like the idea of spending a lot mess money with the BBB methods but I am leary of trying something new when what I am doing now works great and I don't have any issues. Has anyone else had these questions before and made the switch and not had any issues. Any advice is appreciated. If someone could point to a link or a specific post that gives all the details of the BBB methods I would appreciate

Thanks
The methods you will learn in this forum are just good basic pool care with basic pool chemicals (the same chemicals you can buy at a pool store for more money). Unless you have some special problems with your pool they will work and save you some money! If you have special problems the good folks on here have most llikely seen them before and can help.

Bleach is sodium hypochlorite, pool store liquid chorine is sodium hypochlorite. Bleach is either 5.25% or 6%, pool store cholrine is usually 6%, 10%, or 12.5% so the only difference might be in how much you need to use. Sodium hypochlorite is unstabilized chlorine and it's main advantage is that your CYA levels do not keep climbing over time. Once the level of CYA gets too high you need to drain and refill or run your pool at higher clorine levels to maintain adequite sanitation! This is the biggest drawback to using trichlor tabs and dichlor granules for chlorinating. They will work fine for a while then one day you have a greeen pool and nothing seems to help.
Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate (also called sodiium hydrogen carbonate, different names for the same chemical). Alkalinity increaser is EXACTLY the same thing.
Borax is sodium tetraborate, basically the same as Bioguard Supreme and Proteam Optimizer but not used for exactly the same reason.

All you are really doing by switching is using less expensive sources for many of the same chemicals you already use and using non stabilized chlorine and adjusting the stabilizer level yourself (which many people that use pool store chemicals do anyway)