Hello everyone! This is my first time posting on this forum. I am excited to continue to read through all the old post and learn new things. I have a 16x32 vinyl liner cholorine pool that we put in about 3 years ago. Up until now I've just been bringing samples to the pool store and doing whatever they tell me to do (with all Biogaurd products).

I have read a lot on the BBB method but I am still confused on one part as I have read contradicting things. By using the bleach/borax/baking soda to control the different levels.....do I still use chlorine tablets in my automatic chorinator as well? I read one thing that said yes, you will still continue to buy the 50 lbs buckets of chlorine tablets and use those in addition to BBB. Then I read something else saying that using the gallon of bleach every other day replaces the cholorine tablets. Could someone please clarify that?

A few weeks ago I took a sample to the pool store and my Alkalinity was 0...of course PH was below 6.2, no telling how low since that is as low as it will read. So naturally they gave me the Biogaurd equivalent to increase Alkalinity first ( I really wanted to simply try baking soda or soda ash after reading these forums but I had already purchased the other stuff so I figured I may as well use it). I used that and as of today my Alkalinity is 130 (sheet says my pool should be between 125-150. The PH was up to 7.5. I have a 6 way test kit that I got from Walmart to determine this. I will get the Taylor kit when this one runs out but since I already have this one it seems to work fine.

My FC was at 2 and CC was at 2.2 today as well. CYA was 70.

So everything seems balanced just fine at this point. My water is crystal clear. So from here, I am going to attempt the BBB method. My plan was to keep the 3" cholorine tablets in the feeder (I run my pump about 8 hours a day in the summer). And then in addition to that I will add baking soda when Alkalinity test low and Borax if PH test off as well. But other than those things, why would I need bleach if I am using the chlorine tablets?

Hope this makes sense and I hope I didn't ramble too much! Just want to make sure I am doing this right as I am just starting out :-) I look forward to posting more on this forum!