Waterbear,

Like you, I have a fiberglass pool and the manufacturer (local company that has been around 40+years) recommends hardness between 200 & 400. They also recommend FC between .5 and no greater than 2! If you read on, you'll see that they (both yours and mine) say things like "Do not use chlorine on indoor pools. The gases from chlorine in water are carcinogenic” or “Bromine is less caustic and aggressive than chlorine resulting in reduced eye and skin irritation. Bromine will not fade bathing suits or yellow blonde hair. Bromine’s gentle action will prolong the gel-coat pool finish and equipment. The primary advantage of chlorine is lower product cost” which leads me to believe they feel Bromine is the way to go and chlorine must yellow hair and irritate the eyes! The pamphlet my pool manufacturer furnished me with is almost identical to the one on San Juan’s website, typed and all! This leads me to believe that these companies get their recommendations from “generalized” published swimming pool data which we all know leaves a lot to be desired. There may or may not be truth in the hardness information, I’m not qualified enough to say. I am thinking that I will invest in some cal-hypo this year and get my CH up. After all, it won't hurt anything right? It does not however, change my skepticism of their recommendations since I know that much of the other info is misleading. I’m extremely interested to hear Ben’s take on Water Tech’s information.

Dave