A Thank You

[Marillionfan]

I would like to make my first post be a THANK YOU to all the mods on this forum, watermom, waterbear, aylad, poconos and also to mwsmith2 for his calc and also to pooldoc for the site to begin with.
Just reading thru all the threads listed with people dealing with there algea problems I was able to take that info and get my 17700 gal oval pool back sparkling clear water for less than the price of a box of HTH shock at
wal mart.
I am now looking into a better test kit all I have is a cl ph aqua chem cheapo kit.
I do have a couple of questions now that I am back to clear water my test is showing a cl level around 6 ppm, I didn't even know what cya was until reading this forum so I don't think I have any level at all in the water, should I let the cl come down to ideal levels naturally and the maintain with the correct amount of bleach or is there something I should do to bring it down chemically?
As I said my test is almost worthless and will be getting a better one soon so I don't have any real numbers to post but a educated guess works for me.
Also do we use Borax to increase ph or do we use Baking Soda mwsmiths calc says that Borax is used as an algeacide and not for increased ph but I had read that the Baking Soda is for alk increse.
Thanks one more time for all the effort put into this site by the owner, mods and participating members.

[Bleach=Chlorine?]

Let the chlorine come down all by itself, 6ppm is not that high. Also, borax can raise pH without adjusting Total Alk while baking soda will bring up both.

[JohnT]

I didn't even know what cya was until reading this forum so I don't think I have any level at all in the water

If you've ever used pucks, tablets or powdered shock, you probably have CYA. You need to know what it is.

[Marillionfan]

I have but my test isn't that good so I will be getting a knew kit this weekend

[mwsmith2]

Also do we use Borax to increase ph or do we use Baking Soda mwsmiths calc says that Borax is used as an algeacide and not for increased ph but I had read that the Baking Soda is for alk increse.

Might want to read that section there a bit closer.

First, yes, you can use borax to raise your pH, and it's the recommended way to do it around these parts. I don't have any fomulas to calculate how much pH increase you would get from using borax, that's why there's no pH calcs there. However, I did have calcs to figure out how much borax to use as a algaecide (ala pro team supreme) so that's why that section looks like that.

I don't suggest using baking soda for pH increase; you're confusing that (I think) with Soda Ash, which can be used for pH increase, but will also raise your pH quite a bit too.

Hope that clears it up a bit, if not, ask again, and i'll help nudge you on to the right track!

Michael

[waterbear]

I would like to make my first post be a THANK YOU to all the mods on this forum, watermom, waterbear, aylad, poconos and also to mwsmith2 for his calc and also to pooldoc for the site to begin with.

Just want to clear up a slight misunderstanding. I am not a mod, just a guy with a pool and a big mouth that learned a lot of stuff (actually most of what I know!) about pools right here in this forum and on the sister website www.poolsolutions.com. I take it as a great compliment that you would group me with the likes of Watermon, aylad, Poconos, and CarlD!

[Marillionfan]

yes waterbear I noticed that you are not a mod but from the threads that I have been scanning you are just as knowledgeable as they are and as with all the other mods nice enough to repeat the same steps over & over to each person who starts a thread.

and just a side note to put in the Cleaning a Pool for Dummies book when doing all the vacuuming and backwashing involed in clearing an algea problem remember to vacuum behind your steps when my water cleared up enough I got a look behind my steps and what a mess it was all dead but just laying there where I can't get my vacuum head took the time tonight to remove them from my deck and clean and got in to stir up the water a bit after didn't stay in too long though water temp is only 62 deg not bad once your in but a bear to get into