Changing over to BBB and a little scared

[waste]

Gracy, welcome to the forum! With a little patience and reading of both the forum and poolsolutions, in a month you'll have a better handle on pool chemistry than your builder!
There is no 'transition time' to go with BBB (unless you've been sold Baquacil, in which case this one post won't be able to set you straight). BBB is not a 'system or set of chems to use together', like some of the kits sold by Bioguard etc, rather it is using chems that can be found in the grocery store that will do the same thing as the pool store chems but at a greatly reduced price (kind of like generic drugs). You don't have to add anything to the pool to 'make the change', just use them to adjust your chems when you need to adjust. Bleach (unscented) - 'ultra' usually gives you a little more bang for your buck, when you want to raise the chlorine in the pool or have to shock. Use baking soda to raise your total alkalinity - it's tha same chemical as 'buffer plus' or alkalinity increaser - only it costs a lot less and it's purer (you can use it to make cookies ) Use Borax when the pH is low, rather than soda ash or pH plus (this is the only one that isn't exactly the same chem as the pool stores sell, but it's a better way of doing the same thing, AND it's cheeper).
As for burning through a lot of chlorine, you need to have some cyanuric acid in the water to protect the chlorine from burning off, if your builder hasn't already added some you need to test for it and add accordingly (look around the forum and Poolsolutions for the levels you would like to keep and why). As for the unstable pH, it's normal for pH to be high when a gunite pool is curing, again - look around the forum, you'll see it's very common and learn what others here have done about it. As for order of treatment, chlorine must be the first thing to raise if it falls too low - it keeps the water sanitized. Many recomend that pH be your next priority (some of the equiptment can be damaged by improper pH).
This answer is woefully incomplete, but should get you started and alieviate your fears - your homework assignment is to find out why I think my response is inadiquate (answer on request )

[medvampire]

Gracy
Don be afraid of your pool. I came to this forum a few weeks ago after getting my pool installed. I got nailed on chems from the pool store and then found this forum. I have of the clearest pools around the block thanks to the pros here. Water bear, waste, Carld, and the rest of the great folks here wont stear you wrong. So read, listen, get your self a good test kit, list your results here (I am drooling over one of bens kits but have to wait untill next year), and enjoy your pool.
Later
Steve

[CarlD]

Gracy
..Water bear, waste, Carld, and the rest of the great folks here wont stear you wrong....

Quick! Run down to the pool store and buy every expensive chem they have! JUST KIDDING!!!!

That's exactly what we DON'T want you to do! Wisely, you've decided on discretion and skepticism.

Rather than retype EVERYTHING, I'll just hyperlink you to some stickies:

This is just basic definitions of B-B-B

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1652

This is a step by step procedure for beginners to help understand how to maintain their pool. The second half has a little discussion of concrete pool: When you get there, the recommended level of calcium is 200 to 400ppm (you'll see what that is all about)

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1113

Finally, here's a sticky to the Best Guess table we talk about. I printed it out (nicely formatted) and have it on the back of the door of my home office, at arm's length to this PC!

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

I hope all of this helps. We've all been there--that moment of panic, of "WOTTLE-EYE-DUE????" as a newbie. It will pass and things will get easier and you'll be able to balance it all like a kid on a bicycle--seems hard at first then you can't imagine not knowing how to do it.

These stickies are just the foundation...but they should help alot.

[Gracy101]

Thank you all for your support. Went to Walmart and got a test kit. All they had at the moment was an Aqua Chem $15 test kit which I got. I can test FC, Ph, Alk,Stab, Hardness. I know I can do better (more precise) but for the next few days it will do. I've been doing alot of reading as suggested and printing out relevant pages as reference. I've also created a "pool book" which is just a binder with 3 sections, pool forum notes / calendar pages to keep #stats on balance and chems added / blank pages for observations. I have a terrible memory and I figure this way I'll be able to refer back. I don't expect to do this forever, but I would guess at the beginning as you all say, you need to get to know your pool and this should help, right? DH says it's like I'm back in school!

Ok-pool guy should be here any minute so I will have him test and I'll run parallel test to compare. I will post in a separate thread the results.

Thank you all again.

Gracy

[medvampire]

Gracie
Good to see you are taking to this like a duck to water. The only thing is I belive the Walmart test for total chlorine. Check to see if it says OTO on the label. OTO turns yellow and test for total chlorine. You may want to invest in DPD test kit. I found one that did free chlorine and combined it with the walmart kit untill I ran out of tabs. I found a liquid DPD that gives both free and total chlorine pretty cheep at a pool store.I had them test my water and they tried to sell me more chemicals includeing a copper based wonder liquid.I kinda ticked them off when I passed. The nailed me for around $200 when I first bought the pool. I am drooling to get ones of Ben's kits but I am gonna wait untill next season.
Later
Steve

[waterbear]

Hi Gracy and welcome to the forum. You've gotten a lot of good advice so far. One thing I would like to add.....go to the sister website of this forum www.poolsolutions.com and read EVERYTHING (and I mean EVERYTHING) on it that you can. Some sections need a password but don't worry about what is in them...just read all the rest of it and then re read it. Once you have finished you wll have a very good idea on how to take care of your pool. If you don't understand something then start a thread in the proper section of the forum and the good folks on here will help you to understand. Then read all the 'stickies' in the forum and read as much of the forum posts as you can. You will become a 'pro' in no time at all!

[dm3216]

B-B-B sounds pretty good to me. However, last night I used my last 2 lbs of calcium hypoclorite (powder super shock) after battling algae for the last 3 weeks (pool was constantly green). I don't have a good test kit -- I use the dreaded 'strips' and probably will keep using them for the rest of the season (closing pool in Sept). I ended up emptying about 25% of my 16K IG pool. So last night I gave it the 'shock' and today the water finally appears to be under control -- I estimate the FC to be just below 15 ppm (but can't really verify this with the strips). Anyway, if I'm planning on using bleach from now on, can I start it tonight to keep the pool in 'shocked' state (and at normal level) for another day (I mean after using the calcium hypochlorite? Any good advice is greatly appreciated...