Need help with AquaSilk (PHMB)

[JacksHomeOwner]

Hello all,

I just signed up because I have found this forum really helpful and informative. My wife and I just bought a house in Florida and we have a screened in pool that uses AquaSilk instead of chlorine. The first week or so was great and we were testing the water with the test strips for alkalinity, pH, and biguinide. Then we had an algae explosion and very cloudy water. We had our water tested at two different pool stores because nobody is familiar with Aquasilk. The readings came back low for alkalinity (40ppm) and high for pH (8.0). Our acid demand was a 3. Our calcium hardness was also low. I also just replaced the filter because we were cleaning the old 1 every 3 hours.

We added 6lbs of baking soda to increase the alkalinity, 12 pounds of calcium to up the hardness. I also added 1/2 gallon of pool acid to bring down the pH. The levels were fine the next day so I added our sanitizer and set the vacuum up. We still have extremely cloudy water and an algae problem. I plan on investing in a testing kit today, but was hoping people had some input with this type of chemical.

Our pool is a 21,000 gallon setup with gunnite.

Appreciate any help at all!!

[PoolDoc]

We don't support Aquasilk -- PHMB or polyhexamethylene biguanide -- aka "Baquacil", except to help people remove it. It's possible to use PHMB successfully in areas like New England, with a short swim season. But it's a total mess in year round pool markets.

I've moved your post in the PHMB section (http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/forumdisplay.php?137 ). Read through the stickies and some of the posts, and then decide what you want to do.

In cases like yours, if you REALLY are determined to continue to use that stuff, you'll get your best results if you drain and refill your pool, and replace your filter media. To continue to be successful, you'll need to drain and replace annually . . . and the cost of the chemicals will STILL be really high.

Regardless - order a Taylor K2006 from Amazon. You can NOT get these locally. If you decide you want to continue with PHMB, a K2005 will suffice, and those may be available locally. Links to the kit info page, in my signature.

Good luck!