Switching from Frog to Trichlor then to BBB

[corymunson]

My 24’ AG pool has been up and running for 3 weeks now with a Waterco T600 sand filter, 2hp 2 speed Speck pump and Pool Frog system. I've been doing research on chemical prices when I ran across this Forum. I have found references on Google searches that say I can put 3" Trichlor Tablets inside the Frog unit and that the flow controller can be used to set the chlorine. Is this true? So I should pull out the mineral pac and run it with the Bac Pacs till they are used up? I have a Taylor test kit on order and use a cheap OTO test kit and test strips for now. I also see that the Trichlor Tablets will raise my CYA level too high after a while. I hope before that happens I will have switched over to the BBB method. I also have to convince my wife that this will work. She is used to having a pool but not doing it the BBB way. She also thinks the frog supplies are way overpriced and has already yelled at our salesman after his offer of 3% discount on all supplies. She bought a floater and Wal-Mart 3” Trichlor tablets instead.

[CarlD]

I like your wife's thinking! Mineral erosion systems are generally very expensive, costing far more than they save in chlorine. All they do is kill algae, so that the chlorine isn't used up killing algae and can fight the bio-hazards instead. But then you have copper and silver in your water, plus the expense.

Tri-chlor is chlorine and B-B-B uses chlorine. IF your pH is high and your CYA (stabilizer) is low, Tri-Chlor tabs can be very useful as they address all 3 at once. But once your pH is where you want it, you'll now have to add Borax to keep it from going too low, and once CYA hits the max level you want, you'll have to stop using the tabs altogether.

Like everything else, used correctly, tri-chlor tabs can be a boon. Used incorrectly, they can make things worse. "Converting" from tri-chlor to B-B-B isn't a conversion at all. You merely keep adding chlorine (bleach) without mucking around with pH and CYA anymore.