Reviews of Bioguard swimming pool chemicals?

[chem geek]

And if that doesn't work, the ALEX program will sell you chemicals to CREATE problems, where none existed before. The most common case, are print-outs telling pool owners to add large quantities of BOTH baking soda and calcium chloride. Doing so will turn your pool into a milk-looking mess almost instantly! We've had new forum users desperate to understand what was wrong with their pool, when the only problem was that they'd followed the ALEX printout to the letter! (And then the dealer sold them "clarifier" to help them clean up the mess ALEX had created!)

This post is an example of this where adding Balance Pak 100 and Balance Pak 200 together increased pH and TA to make the pool cloudy. Then Smart Shock was added which had copper in it that turned the cloud green.

[CarlD]

Balance Pak 100 = Sodium Bicarbonate==>Baking soda
Balance Pak 200 = Sodium Carbonante ==>Washing soda
Balance Pak 300 = Calcium Carbonate (basically, what's in Tums.)

[chem geek]

Balance Pak 300 = Calcium Carbonate (basically, what's in Tums.)

Actually, according to this MSDS, Balance Pak 300 is calcium chloride, not calcium carbonate (which does not dissolve very quickly except in acid). It's the same as Peladow (90% calcium chloride) and similar to Dowflake (68% calcium chloride).

[CarlD]

Actually, according to this MSDS, Balance Pak 300 is calcium chloride, not calcium carbonate (which does not dissolve very quickly except in acid). It's the same as Peladow (90% calcium chloride) and similar to Dowflake (68% calcium chloride).

Thanks for the correction, Richard.

Of course, the point is they are selling very ordinary chemicals at 3x or 4x what you can buy them at when you go to the supermarket or CostCo. Even the fanciest market in my town sells both borax and washing soda for about $1/lb.

[Bardo213]

My patio was just finished around the pool yesterday, and the pool company came back to get rid of any wrinkles in the liner. Apparently they shocked and put algecide in the pool as well. I took my readings today and this is what I have:

pH around 7 so I added 4 doses of borax according to the SS recipe
FC of 6.4
CC of 0 (?)
TA 50
CH 80 (but could be lower since I'm color blind and this one was hard for me to tell, no one was around at the time to ask)
CYA was less than 30

I have the Pool Brand dichlor from Sams that I have been adding nightly since the pool was completely filled for about 3 or 4 days now. I have only been adding one bag, should I increase it to two? Also, the guys who did the patio knocked a lot of dirt and some rocks into the pool. I tried vacuuming most of it out, but need to dive in and get some of the pebbles out as the vacuum didn't have enough suction.

Do I hold off on adding bleach for now until the CYA is up?

Any other advice is appreciated. Thanks

[Watermom]

Yes, keep using dichlor until your CYA level is around 50ppm or so and then switch to bleach.

Your CH is fine and since it is a liner pool, this is not a test that you need to worry about. In a vinyl pool, CH is only a problem if it is high.

The TA is ok at 50 but it may help your pH to be more stable if you increase it a little with some baking soda. Aim for 80-100ppm. Add a couple of pounds, and then wait several hours before you retest and add more if needed.

[PoolDoc]

And . . . you do NOT need 2 bags of dichlor. With FC=6 and CYA<30, you are fine.

Chlorine levels need to be 10% or more of the CYA level -- you are at 20% or more.